By Aimee Chanthadavong

Running with the belief that good customer service and products sell over discounting has helped Noni B achieve a 2 per cent increase in sales revenue of $119.7 million for the full-year of 2012.

The company also reported an after-tax profit of $2.7 million compared to statutory after-tax profit of $0.2 million last year. This was at the top end of the company’s earnings guidance.

David Kindl, joint managing director, told RetailBiz, that sticking to simple strategies and elements that make retail, such as offering a personal service is what has helped the company avoid heavy discounting.

“Our customer service is second to none and that’s our philosophy to others. We make our products to a standard and not a price and these are the things that will protect your brand and keep your customers loyal,” he said.

“Because we have great service we discount a lot less than a lot of our competitors.

“Great product and great service beats discounting.”

Kindl also highlights the company has able to increase its margin by increasing its product range.

“We have been able to increase margin and offer good clothes by listening to our staff and what our customers want to purchase. We have introduced a new range to meet the changing lifestyles of our customers,” he said.

“We have also been able to maintain discounting at a minimum while control our marketing plan and our direct communication using electronic and social media.”

During the year, the company also closed six stores that were under-performing but replaced them with six new stores keeping the company footprint at 215 shops across Australia.

September last year saw the launch of the Noni B website which has been “growing strongly”. The company plans to increase its product offering and hopes to make it the biggest Noni B store.

However, Kindl confirms a bulk of transactions is still being completed at its bricks and mortar store.

Looking forward Kindl does not expect anything to change in the short term.

“We don't expect change to happen in the challenging economic environment. We will continue to manage and working on improving our margins by being conservative. But we're confident that as we continue to put emphasis on persoanl service we'll be able to see that benefit when ever that comes," he said.