Choices Flooring Warrnambool to relocate to the Homemaker Centre

The long-standing Timor Street business has outgrown its current 500-square-metre site, with the move to expand its showroom and warehouse to 1100-square-metres.

Owners Billy and Amy Edis bought the business in October 2019 and set about expanding its operations.

The new lease will boost the Homemaker Centre's occupancy levels to 100 per cent for the first time since it opened in 2005.

"We've outgrown the building here and the yard," Mr Edis said. "For the business to grow further we really need more space."

He said the flooring store, which also sells window furnishings, would complement existing Homemaker Centre retailers.

"We'll get a lot better street frontage out there. It just ticks every box for us in terms of growth, car parking and access for our tradesmen and trucks."

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Mr Edis said they'd doubled their employees and subcontractors to 15 since purchasing the business.

"We'll be looking to hire more staff when we make the move to the new store because we're putting new products into the store as well," he said.

Mr Edis said they would add ceramic tiles and foam and rubber products to their offering at the new store. "There's a big hole in the market since Clark Rubber wound up," he said. "There's a bit of a niche market there so we'll be supplying foam and rubber."

Mr Edis said they hoped to have the warehouse operational by Christmas and the store showroom would open at the end of January.

He said the businesses figures had tripled in the past two years which he attributed to hard work, a strong customer service focus, new store structures which led to improved efficiencies, as well as the pandemic.

"We got really quiet in February and March when the pandemic first hit and then it just exploded."

Mr Edis said people who'd set aside money to travel weren't able to and opted to spend the funds on home improvements instead.

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