Businesses for Sale

The Opportunity

Specialist Art Gallery in Melbourne
• High Profile Location
• Revenues $1.2million + Excellent profits
• Superb facility / display
• Guaranteed supply of quality art
• Exceptional management system
• Established customer base


Business Description:

Exceptional and unique ‘once in a lifetime’ retail Aboriginal Art Gallery.
This highly profitable business is continuing to grow despite the recent economic downturn and is attracting greater client investment in high quality aboriginal fine art. High profitability gives excellent investment returns.
Impeccable records are kept on a computerized data base:
• the artist
• date of purchase
• price paid
• pictures of all artwork in the business
• current market value.

The owners have built remarkable brand recognition throughout Australia plus exceptional goodwill with many loyal customers. The owners have exclusive rights with leading Aboriginal artists and have built up one of Australia’s finest Aboriginal Art collections, including old and deceased artist works.
This Art Gallery is set aside from similar businesses, because of its impressive collection and its meticulous focus on authenticity and provenance of all artwork, including photographic and video documentation.
The owners have built up a large and valuable collection of Aboriginal art. They will retain a large portion of this as a private investment, but will sign any restraint of trade requested by the purchaser. They will undertake to make the paintings retained by themselves available to the new owners at an original cost price plus handling fee.

Operations:
The business is simple to run. The main requirement is good sales staff who must learn the history of Aboriginal art, and each artist displayed. The current owners provide this training to their staff and will be able to provide the same training to the new owners and their staff.
The vendors will remain available after the sale as a resource, should the new owners require any help at any time after purchasing the business. They will train a new manager, should this be required.
The buying side of the business should be the easiest part for the new owners to cope with, because of the large stockholding which will be made available to them from the vendors’ private collection. The gallery has contracts with three artists who paint exclusively for the gallery, and this avenue provides about 40% of the sales.
Extensive records of sales are maintained, so that the new owners will have no difficulty acquiring new and saleable stock. The database containing all of this information has been custom built for the gallery at a cost of approximately $30,000 and is included in the sale.
Potential investors will be impressed with the huge margins being achieved on sales. This is achieved and maintained through the astute purchasing of the artwork, the meticulous recording of its authenticity and the exclusive use of artists, whose work is shown in the gallery.
Operating hours are 10.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. daily

Market / Customer:

The market for the artwork sold by the gallery can be divided into four groups:

• Tourist type customers
• Collectors and investors
• The corporate market
• High end collectors

There are approximately 300 clients who are repetitive buyers, and all are detailed in the database. The clientele is about 60% Australian based, and 40% are international buyers. All clientele are treated personally and with respect and the gallery does not resort to mass mailings. The name of every client is included in the database, which has recently been edited so that it only includes reasonably active clientele.
All sales require a deposit of 10% to conclude the sale, with the balance payable before delivery. Many clients, however, pay in full at time of purchase.

Premises:

High profile Melbourne CBD location with favorable long term lease options.
The gallery operates out of a leased, high profile Melbourne CBD location, where it was established in 1998. The premises are 140 square meters in extent. The gallery was fitted out at an original cost of $100,000, specifically as an art gallery. The lease expires in October 2018 and the relationship with the landlords is excellent, as the gallery is regarded as a highly desirable tenant.
All lighting, tracks, computers and a closed circuit security system are included in the sale.

Management / Staff:

One of the owners works in the business on a reasonably full time basis, and the other attends irregularly for specific requirements when required, but the business runs primarily under management. There is one other member of staff.

To receive additional information on this business, please contact Steve Lentin:
Telephone (03) 9569 2883
Fax (03) 8677 0868
Mobile 0419 910 099
Email stevel@accordbrokers.com.au.