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The success of Malvern Star as a bicycle brand was as much due to salsemanship of Bruce Small as it was to the quality of the bikes and the exploits of "Oppy". Allied Bruce Small Pty Ltd was a major retail organisation as well as a manufacturer. Vincent Freeth explains the growth of the retailing organisation his book "Silver Anniversary: Allied Bruce Small Ltd., 1920-45 (Bruce Small Story)" :
Having consolidated its finances the Bruce Small organisation faced its problem, of distribution, sales and service. By 1938 it had administrative offices and assembly depots in each State capital, 24 retail branches and 450 agencies. These provided for the sales and service needs of hundreds of thousand of cyclists and purchasers of an ever-widening range of goods, such radio refrigerators and electric home cleaners.
But the company still felt that its representation in some areas was inadequate. Australia is a country of vast distances, and each State must be treated almost as a country in itself. So, having carefully studied the market potential, every district was zoned on a population basis. State administrative offices were used as headquarters and a goal of 100 retail branches and 1,000 agencies was set to he reached by 1945. The drive produced spectacular results. The cover of the greater centers of population with retail branches broadened month by month, from these the agencies; representing the four proprietary brands, Malvern Star, Austral, Pacemaker and Preston Star, radiated and increased by leaps and bounds.
Varying the Bowling. The company is versatile in its selling technique, and varies its strategy in accordance with the product and the market. For instance, when leading radio manufacturers were induced to experiment with the huge chain of retail branches and agencies as an additional sales outlet, the result was placed beyond all doubt. Within two years, specialty sales teams, working house to house, took the Bruce Small organisation up among the leaders in radio retailing. Thus the company demonstrated that, apart from its unchallenged supremacy in the cycle field, A could he just as virile and successful when it came to selling a completely new range of merchandise. The decision to enter the world of electronic appliances was to have significant consequences for the future management and ownership of the firm. Ó Rolf Lunsmann, 2000 How you can help Feedback
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