The man who made millions selling Christmas
If you walk through a CBD high street or shopping centre at this time of year, you’ve likely seen the dazzling Christmas decorations on display. Whether it’s storeys-tall trees, huge swaths of fir garlands or Santa workshop extravaganzas, 130-year-old family business Chas Clarkson is almost certainly the mastermind behind it.
At its head is Tim Clarkson, the great-grandson of founder Chas Clarkson, who transitioned the family business from selling retail display materials to creating Christmas decorations for commercial environments during the early 1990s.
“If we take it back to the start, it was pretty much just myself starting the Christmas division while the company still focused on visual merchandising and point of sale materials,” Clarkson said. “We then got one account and were fortunate to keep growing by providing something different in creating ambiences and experiences.”
It’s been a hugely successful pivot. Chas Clarkson makes Christmas decorations and experiences for about 70 per cent of Australia’s top 100 shopping centres in what has become a $50 million-plus market, Clarkson said.
It also works with the majority of the capital city councils and select regional councils as well as airports, casinos, commercial office lobbies and hotels. In total, Chas Clarkson installed approximately 300 projects this year, a 20 per cent increase from five years ago.
Those who have worked with the family business describe its decorations as the visual representation of the most wonderful time of the year.
“Chas Clarkson outdoes itself bringing the festive spirit to life, with its enchanted forest Santa sets proving particularly popular,” said QIC’s Bronwyn Cooper, who operates shopping centres like the 110,000-square-metre Castle Towers in Sydney’s north-west.
While Chas Clarkson, a private company, doesn’t disclose its earnings, it won a five-year $11.5 million deal with City of Sydney this year, according to the council’s annual report.
This year’s City of Sydney decorations included a 24-metre Christmas tree sprinkled with 15,000 native flowers and 110,000 lights in Martin Place, and a huge Christmas-themed screen made of fairy lights covering the facade of the Woolworths building on George Street. Both bespoke creations took over eight months to create.
Westfield owner Scentre Group also pays millions per year to have Christmas trees, decorations and Santa workshops inside its shopping centres.
Other shopping centre operators likely spent “millions and millions” too due to the strong foot traffic potential of the holiday season, Knight & Frank retail investments head Chris Maher said.
“Shopping centres take this stuff very seriously. It’s about creating a really nice environment that draws people in at a time when there is a significant bump in foot traffic,” Maher said.
Paul Zahra, Australian Retailers Association chief executive, said Christmas decorations were essential to the retail market, as discretionary retailers generally made up to two-thirds of their yearly profit through the holiday trading period.
The Australian Retailers Association forecast that retailers were set to pull in $67.4 billion in sales during the November to December 24 holiday trading period this year – which is around $8.4 billion a week. In the final week before Christmas, sales were expected to rise to $9 billion.
“People love going to retailers when there’s a sense of Christmas, but that sense is built by the retail community. Because where else do you see Christmas visually? Outside of your own home, it’s actually in a retail environment,” Zahra said.
“Those decorations are really vital to bringing that sense of Christmas home and retailers set up as early as November because they need a clear runway to maximise every effort of Christmas trade.”
How Chas Clarkson got its big break
While Chas Clarkson is now best known as Australia’s Christmas decorator, it took many years to build that reputation. It was only in 2000 when the business got its big break by securing its first Westfield contract to build a Santa experience.
“I remember we hauled samples [from Camperdown] into the old Westfield Sydney building on William Street. Hauling decorations up onto their 25th floor and showing them what we could do differently – I think that struck a chord with them,” Clarkson said.
After securing the Westfield contract, other major shopping centre operators took notice too. Chas Clarkson has since won contracts with QIC, Lendlease and Mirvac, among others.
Twenty-three years on, shopping centre operators such as Scentre Group continue to be loyal Chas Clarkson customers. What has changed, however, is that Scentre and others visit Chas Clarkson’s studio instead to see evolving prototypes of its Christmas experiences throughout the year.
“It’s a bit easier now. We don’t have to drag things up the lift upstairs to Westfield any more,” Clarkson laughed.
As to whether the business would be passed down another generation, Mr Clarkson said it was still too early to have those discussions.
Among the Clarksons currently running the business – Tim and his siblings Mike and Sally – they all have three children each of varying ages. The oldest of their children have started working in casual roles within the family business while studying at university.
“There’s a nice pool to choose from if some are passionate but we try not to put pressure on the next generation. They’ve got to want it as once you start in the business, you’re going to be in the business for what we’d hope would be a decent chunk of time,” he said.
“There is definitely a hope that there will be a fifth generation. We see ourselves as custodians of the business and our goal is to carry it for our generation and pass it on to the next generation. That is certainly our wish.”
