Recognition
Allandale Paint & Design Center
Austin, TX
Yes, another Texan becomes a finalist... and for the second time! Herb Armstrong, owner of Allandale Paint & Design, is a veteran of this award, having been a finalist in our 2007 Dealer of the Year Award. He’s continued on his successful track, and has even moved into a new, much larger store.
There are many things we like about Herb’s operation. If you’ve read about him before in TPD, you know Herb likes to mix live music with his paint sales. This fits in well with Austin, which is a well-known live music city. Why not offer some live music to get customers to come in and peruse the product?
What struck us this year about old Herb is that he recently moved from a store that was small. He was forced out when he was notified that his lease was being broken, but he managed to find a building with five times the space. Despite this, and despite the current rough economic times, Herb’s move has proven to be wildly successful.
“I think that what sets our store apart from others is the fact that we work hard at the store, but we also work hard for the community,” Herb says. (Note the continuing message about the importance of this). “We’ve grown from a very small store to a very large store in only four years. And our sales were up 25% in January 2009, when most stores were way down.”
Herb is an old hand at community involvement. With his live music stage and the charitable causes he participates in, Allandale’s has firmly established itself as a contributing corporate citizen. And that’s not all. Herb knows how to get the word out about his store.
As we said, in 2007, Allandale was a finalist in our Dealer of the Year Award. Now, we provide a nice certificate, suitable for framing, but Herb really wanted people to know. So, he had a large banner created and hung it outside announcing his status as a finalist.
“It’s a huge credibility,” he says. “When you’re published in a magazine that is the industry leader, that gives you credibility as well. It helps me tremendously.”
Well, Herb, break that banner out, add another year and hang it up again. Your people need to know you’re a finalist again. You must be doing something right.
