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Downs Mower Centre in Dent Street, Toowoomba was the Karcher warranty agent for many years. Initially this allowed a range of products that was able to be offered during the winter months when the mowing products were in their seasonal quiet period. In March, 2000 Carol Thompson (sister-in-law of the founder of Downs Mower Centre, Ron Bonell) together with her son Wayne and son-in-law Stuart, purchased Downs Mower Centre. It was at this time that the potential of the Karcher line of products was realised.
Until now, the majority of work done on the Karcher products was warranty repairs, with few new products sold by Downs Mower Centre. This gradually changed with the increase of demonstrations of the benefits of using High Pressure Cleaners flowing onto the increase in sales of pressure cleaners and the increase of service, repairs and warranty repairs. In June 2003, the business next door to the mower shop closed down and we realised that we could move the Karcher line of products into this premises and promote this division as a separate entity.
Initially we ran the Karcher shop with the same computer system as the Mower shop, until 01 October 2003 when we separated the businesses and created Cleanequip.
Stuart, together with his wife Debbie, moved from the Mower shop into Cleanequip to set up the new business. Stuart looked after sales, Debbie looked after the office and Bill Bonell came across from the Mower shop as our mechanic.
Bill (whose father Ray is the twin brother of the founder of Downs Mower Centre, Ron Bonell) worked at Toowoomba Honda for many years prior to coming to work for us in the Mower shop and was only too happy to accept the challenge of assisting the new business venture.
Over the next year, Cleanequip went from strength to strength. We employed another mechanic and Bill took over the role of manager and looked after the business while Wayne and Stuart purchased the Karcher agency at Coopers Plains in Brisbane.
With Bill's help, Cleanequip outgrew the premises in Dent Street and we moved to the site in Wylie Street in 2005.
Cleanequip has grown to become the largest privately owned Karcher dealer in Queensland. We now offer support to all Karcher customers in Queensland and Northern NSW, with many customers from outside our travel area being referred to phone us to help with their needs.
This has seen Karcher recognise our store as a "Karcher Center" which is the highest level of dealer in the Karcher network. As such, 2021 saw us update our shopfront signage.
This means we can now show our customers even more advantages of purchasing a Karcher product.
Although we may be a small team, as you can see, even though we have differing main responsibilities, we are all involved in multiple areas of the business so as to be able to provide the best possible service to all our customers. Our aim is (and will always be) to provide the best customer experience.
Operations Manager, Spare Parts Manager, Mechanic, Sales
Administration Manager, Financial Controller, Sales, Spare Parts, Mechanic
Mechanic, Spare Parts, Sales.