Industry Retail Services rav Headquarters Bella Vista Number of employees 850 | Area served Australia Number of locations 140 Founded 1977 Type of business Private | |
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Founder Aart van Roest and Amy van Roest Key people Amy van Roest (Director) Products Homewares, Manchester, Giftware, Small Electrical, Furniture, Kitchenware | ||
Homeart was a kitsch national chain of retail stores with outlets in every state in Australia selling mostly homewares, giftware and electrical products.
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History
The origins of the company can be traced back to the eastern Suburbs of Melbourne and the iconic Croydon Stock yards (flea market) in 1970. On 1 August 1979, Mr and Mrs Aart and Amy van Roest's first store to carry the name of Copperart was located in Canterbury Road, Blackburn, Victoria. followed shortly by its 6 other stores that were also in operation at that time.
Initially the business sold copper and brass wares from around the world, Grandfather clocks and wall clocks. There is an interesting story of how the company gained its name Copperart (and Its later name of Homeart) Basically it is the material the products were made from (Copper) and the name of the original founder Aart Hence the coming together of the words Copper and Aart (Copperart). Copperart sold mostly copper and brass products, but the company expanded in the 1980s to include a broader range of homewares.
2001: rebranding
By the year 2000 the product range in the Copperart stores had changed dramatically and bore little resemblance to original concept and the once famous copper and brass had virtually disappeared. In late 2001, Copperart changed its trading name to Homeart. It was believed that the "Copperart" name implied only a small range of copper and copper related products (which may have stigmatised the store), when in fact the stores sold a wide range of products such as manchester, clocks (including grandfather clocks), electrical, homewares, dolls, furniture, sports & leisure and outdoor.
2010: logo update and changes
In mid-2010, Homeart updated its logo replacing the large roof with a smaller, more subtle one, giving it a more modern look. The font and colour were also changed to a more modern style and distinctive "Homeart" orange.
Advertising
Through its heavy use of television advertising, Copperart became a very well known Australian company. Copperart used the well-known Pete Smith in television commercials during the 1990s. Pete Smith is probably best remembered for his voiceovers on Sale of the Century. The Don Lane Show and Graham Kennedy's In Melbourne Tonight. However, into the 2000s (decade) these mediums were not utilized, and large catalogue distributions were the companies choiceT In 2009, Homeart returned to television with the use of an advertisement toward the end of the year to promote its goods for the Christmas season.
Pop culture
Copperart was featured several times in the early 1990s on the sketch comedy show Fast Forward. The sketches were send ups of Copperart's television commercials with comedian Steve Vizard acting as Pete Smith, the television announcer Copperart used for its commercials.