Shopping experiences are brought to life through Arien Group, which offers an all-round retail experience for business owners and consumers alike.

The Australian-owned joinery company offers an array of innovative and comprehensive merchandise point-of-sale display solutions for shopping centres and exhibitions, including kiosks, counters, stands and signage.

Headed by founder and managing director Noel Wellauer, Arien Group was founded in 1988 and has a strong reputation for its impeccable workmanship and exception customer service, working with clients including Commonwealth Bank and Westinghouse.

Other big projects include Vodafone’s 3G launch and the roll-out of kiosks for Gold Buyers Australia.

“Working with Vodafone was a massive project because they wanted to launch their new product on the same day Australia-wide,” Noel said.

“It took a lot of coordination but went off without a hitch. With Gold Buys Australia, we did about 120 kiosks over an eight-month period for all of New South Wales and Queensland, plus internationally in Germany, Puerto Rico and Spain.”

Arien Group’s team of 15 staff members mainly work on shopping centre equipment, supplying kiosks, experiential and point-of-sale displays. They also supply displays for exhibitions and provide a joinery service as well.

Diversity is the key to fighting the recent recession, according to Noel.

“You have to be diverse these days – so many companies end up going down if they just specialise in just one thing,” he said.

“We’re a joinery company but discovered that we have to expand our knowledge to all aspects in displays and retail – our specialist knowledge in joinery is required in order to successfully carry out all the services we offer.

“At Arien, we like to have a big spectrum of work, which keeps us going. When one side’s down, the other side goes up.”

Quality control is also a large aspect of Arien Group’s key to success. Noel said he would much rather maintain the high quality of the group’s products and services than slash his prices in order to match those of his competitors.

He also places a heavy emphasis on trust and honesty with his clients.

“We’ve been through recessions and seen other businesses start cutting prices – in our industry, the undercutting market dies,” he said. “This is how Arien survived: we supply clients with quality products by never reducing our prices to match cheap offshore competitors. Today, our business is largely repeat and through referrals because of our calibre, which people are willing to pay for.

“When someone comes in, I give them the first price first-up. If a potential client says: ‘But so-and-so can do it cheaper,’ I just tell them to go with so-and-so instead.

“We have great expertise, impeccable after-sale service, full warranty on everything and have no problems with clients.

“People who buy kiosks from China have problems in the end because you get what you pay for and there are no guarantees, whereas we build, install, look after and warrant our products and also offer after-sales service.”

Arien Group has also been lauded for its impeccable service, with each product checked and double-checked before going out to a client.

According to Noel, his team’s job is to take the stress away from the client.

“Our key to success is customer service while working with our clients – we don’t send things out before they’re checked and look at all the nitty gritty things.

“We also work out what can go wrong and fix things before they actually do go wrong.

“Gold Buyers Australia founder Tim Oldfield actually said to me: ‘I’d pay you even more for the service you’re giving us’ – we were rapt with that feedback.”

www.arien.com.au