STORE REVIEW
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CUSTOMER Patrick Pethick, the owner and operator of Puma Coolalinga in the Northern Territory, says the key to running a successful site all comes down to a high level of customer service.
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uma Coolalinga is about half an hour outside of Darwin in the Northern Territory, positioned straight down the Stuart Highway towards Katherine, and servicing quite a large rural area.
We always try to go over and above the level of service that they would be expecting.” – Patrick Pethick
For the last three years it has been owned and operated by Patrick Pethick, who has been in and around the convenience industry since leaving school at the age of 17 and taking on a traineeship through Darwin University.
“I’ve been able to build a wealth of knowledge in terms of running a successful retail platform as well as knowledge from the sales side of the business. It’s been a huge benefit having that sales background when it comes to talking terms with the reps, I can definitely see it from both sides, and I understand what it is they’re looking for.”
“I completed a certificate three in retail operations and then continued working for a local company and worked my way up to a position as Site Manager at the age of just 21,” says Pethick.
During the height of the pandemic, supply issues were a concern for Pethick and the team, with lead times for supplies coming out of the south, including some general merchandise and car parts, blowing out to up to three weeks, rather than one week, which is the norm.
“From there, I decided that I wanted to get into sales, so I worked for some big companies like Parmalat and Coca-Cola as a sales rep and ultimately up to an account management role. Through that account management position, I was managing a large group of service stations.
“We were lucky to be able to call on some local suppliers and do what we could to plug those gaps and keep the shop nice and full, so it wasn’t too bad really,” he says.
“An opportunity ultimately arose for me to buy in, and I thought it would be great to have my own business, so I settled on three sites and ran those as a franchise for Puma Energy. About a year later, they offered me a further four stores, so I ended up running seven stores for about six years. “After that time, Puma Energy decided to take some of the stores back, which presented me with an opportunity to look at getting 10
into a leasehold, so we bought in at Puma Coolalinga, and this is where I’ve been for the last three years.
June/July 2022 | C&I | www.c-store.com.au
Nearby to Puma Coolalinga are four other service stations within about a 500m radius, so Pethick says that there is a fair bit of local competition and that they are all nationals. When the pandemic hit, Pethick took a step back to think about how his site could remain competitive against these big company-run national stores surrounding him. He decided to take to social media and have a big community push, encouraging people to support and buy local.
