Jack Evans Workwear
The Evans family have been doing business in the district since before Orange was Orange. But this past week saw a new chapter for the long-running local family business, with Jack Evans Workwear rebranding under the Worklocker banner.
“It was a big decision,” said Jack Evans, the namesake and great grandson of the business’s founder who runs the store with his parents Murray and Robyn.
“But a name change for our kind of business has not been overly uncommon over the last 72 years, depending on what the market was doing and we reckon to stay relevant to this new market it was time to change it.”
The business has certainly evolved over the past seven decades, from a post war army disposals store to modern quality workwear retailer, and the Evans believe the new name better reflects the business today.
“We've refined our product offering,” said Murray Evans. “We’ve dropped camping gear, since the start of the years to solely focus on workwear, which is our strongest expertise.”
“So this rebranding focuses on the specialisation of what we are now,” said Jack. “Instead of stocking a big broad range of things it is now strictly workwear. But the direction we are moving to also has a bit of family history behind it, as my grandfather started the buying group that became Worklocker.”
Since dropping camping lines from the store at the start of the year, the Evans have also been busy renovating their large Peisley Street premises from top to bottom.
“We’ve certainly updated it. It’s probably the biggest change we've done in ten to 15 years, it’s essentially four separate buildings’ worth of renovations.”
The new look and new name appears to be working, said Murray, who has had great customers feedback and noticed more new and returning customers frequenting the store.
“We have certainly increased our range of product and brought in a few new brands and increased products from our existing brands as well,” he said
“But our focus has always been on quality brands and we have a lot of people comment that they buy stuff from us that just lasts.”
The past few months have been a difficult time for businesses all over Australia, but Murray said their nimbleness as a small, independent business has proved to be an advantage while larger franchise stores have struggled.
“For us, as independents, we are able to adjust quicker and adapt to the market. So we all adapted and changed the way we did things and everyone was ok. We’ve kind of thrived in that environment, whereas others have been missing out for months.”
“I think it was an awakening for a lot of people that shopped with franchises and bigger stores,” said Robyn. “They closed and then people were discovering that, hey, there are local independents and people saying, I'll shop there. So, it has been a broadening some people’s horizons.”