Torpedo7 hits its target
Online entrepreneur Luke Howard-Willis is going from strength to strength
Thursday, July 22 2010 || News || BY Fiona Rotherham - Businessday.co.nz
Torpedo7's name represents the online store being open 24/7. It started out selling bikes and has grown to include snow and adventure sports gear. Three years ago the family-owned company set up another e-commerce brand, 1-day.co.nz, offering bargains on a wide range of products at noon each day.
It's proving more successful than the original idea - and 1-day.com.au followed last year for the Australian market. Turnover is around $65 million, staff numbers up to 130, and growth was 270% in last year's Deloitte Fast50.
Why did you become an entrepreneur?
I've grown up with my father being in business and I've always enjoyed business. I always wanted to go into business. I started with no experience but have learnt from my father who has always helped us financially and then when the company became larger, took on a director role.
What have been the biggest obstacles in running your own company?
Dealing with growth and trying to have enough funding, staff and space - all those growing pains. We're running out of space again and are working out whether to build our own building or not.
Name one thing you have learnt in business.
One thing I've learnt is when you're in a difficult position just keep going and you'll always find a solution. Often that problem is when the best ideas come up – necessity is the mother of invention. The more difficult it is, often you create something that is very successful.
What are your business and personal goals?
The goals are the same. I want to really grow the e-commerce business in New Zealand and Australia beyond what we're doing now to all segments of retailing and dominate that. We have a good stronghold now and a large database and I want to use that to create other product categories such as clothing and food.
We have quite a few ideas and are launching one new idea in the next couple of months which is quite a different model and another one later in the year. We've got a few on the horizon in the next 12 months. They'll all be different brands under the Torpedo7 umbrella.
Do you have any tips for budding entrepreneurs?
When you're going into business you can have a lot of fun but it's also a lot of work and you have to treat it as a bit of a lifestyle. You have to go into it for the right reasons and understand what you're getting into as it's no walk in the park. I work an 80-hour week on average. But it's definitely fun and exciting.
(Photo: supplied)
