Humble Beginnings
At 5.45 am on a cold Sunday morning in the winter of 1981, F.C. stood in a queue outside the casual stalls allocations office at the Queen Victoria Market. In the boot of his '72 Falcon he had three boxes containing a total of about $800 worth of stock, and two collapsible card tables. His idea was to sell enough of the stock to pay the rental on the stall, as well as to have enough money left over to subsidize his inadequate income generated from a different venture.

He was successful in obtaining a stall for the day, and on that, his first trading day at the "Vic" he took around $260, $130 of which was gross profit. After the $18 rent, the $26 (10% of turnover) he paid himself, and $130 to replace the stock sold, it left $86 to reinvest and buy new lines... and he did. At the time he had no idea that this, his first day "at the market" would be the turning point in his life and that it marked the beginning of what we now know as “Off Ya Tree”.

Initially, trading without a business name, the stall at Vic Market was easy to find. It was marked by a home made sign made of dark blue cotton and painted with the word “BONGS” in large fluoro-pink lettering and included an arrow pointing to the stall. It was suspended daily from the rafters and ended up being one of the most photographed items at the Queen Victoria Market.
(Having said this, we don’t have a photo of it so if you happen to come across one, please send us a copy)

About a year later, F.C. found himself still doing OK at the Vic, but thought he could do much better still if he rid himself of his other income venture to pursue this line of trade alone. At the time, he was buying most of his stock from an Adelaide based company who was represented very poorly in Victoria. He approached them and offered his services to represent them on a wholesale basis for commission on sales alone. They quickly agreed to this seeing that it was a sure way to expand their sales penetration into another state. F.C. immediately ceased all of his other ventures and continued only with Vic Market and wholesale sales for the Adelaide mob.

Within another year, F.C. had built a whole network of wholesale clients that were buying from the Adelaide supplier. One of these clients, was struggling to pay his bill. He had set up shop in Northcote in a very amateurish way and had little idea of what he was doing. F.C. offered to take over the business from his client, paying him out for his costs and also paying his delinquent bills.

What’s in a Name
This first shop needed a name. The sign at the Vic Market seemed to work quite well, so as an easy fix, the name “Just BONGS” was registered. The “Just BONGS” name was applied to several of the outlets in those early years, although it was always thought that one day we’d take the time to come up with a better name.

The opportunity (or more to the point the urgency) to change our name didn’t really present itself for some time after that. It wasn’t till the early Nineteen Nineties that we opened our first Melbourne City Store. It was a condition of our lease that we not use the word “Bongs” in our trading name.

A couple of years earlier (in the late nineteen eighties) we had purchased a subsidiary manufacturing business that made Bamboo & Coconut and Jar Bongs as well as Bamboo bongs and pipes. It was called “Off Ya Tree”, a very apt name for the products. Because we were trading under another Wholesale Trading name at the time, the name “Off Ya Tree” was merely shelved and nothing further was done with it until the need arose for an alternative name in our new Melbourne CBD store.

It was decided to resurrect the name “Off Ya Tree” and to Trade Mark it and use it as our retail brand from that day forward.

It was also a more appropriate name as our range of merchandise had started to diversify quite severely. We were now also quite heavily involved in T. Shirts, Alternative Clothing and several other ‘off beat’ gift lines. The name “Off Ya Tree” has and always will better describe us.

Furthermore, the word “Bongs” in our name ensured that we would NEVER get fair treatment when it came to doing business. As a result of our name, we have been discriminated against by Banks, Real Estate Agents, Shopping Centres, Suppliers, Advertising Agencies, etc.

These days we are toying with the idea of promoting an alternative to our branding, namely “OYT”. We have used this abbreviation often in the past, but have not really advertised this as our brand. The jury is still out on this one. If you have an opinion, let us know.

F.C. was married to a woman who had come from the medical profession. She took an interest in the piercing and became involved from the start. She insisted that if we were to go down this path at all, we would do it properly, professionally, with well trained staff who knew what they were doing, and in studios that resemble medical clinics. She set up our initial guidelines and procedures and has ensured that these are maintained to this day.

From the beginning we have insisted on piercing clinics that cut no corners. We maintain:

• Well trained and experienced piercing practitioners who have met our rigorous expectations.
• Up to date instruments and equipment to ensure all procedures are carried out correctly and with the most recent innovations and standards.
• Constant revision and further education by our practitioners to ensure we are up to date with the latest techniques and practical data.
• Advanced first aid training for all of our practitioners to ensure they know what to do if something goes wrong.
• Compliance with the relevant health laws to ensure a sterile environment that would rival any Australian medical surgery.

Indeed, we have been recognised by the various Health Departments that we deal with as being one of the best in our field. As a result we have often been asked for and given advice to various Health Agencies in relation to how and why certain procedures should be conducted.

Even so, we will never rest on our laurels. There is always room for further improvement and innovation.

From that time on, and into the present, staff who have been outstanding and have achieved the highest rank within the company have then been offered shares in the business as well as a place on the board of directors. Many have grasped the opportunity and at present we have a board that consists of F.C. (the founding member of Off Ya Tree) and also 5 other shareholder/board members who have bought into the business.

The taking on of partners has allowed us to expand even further a field, with stores now in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth as well as the several Melbourne based sites. It has also allowed us to diversify our range of products to include many lines that were beyond our reach in the past.

Into the future, we have plans to invite further people to join us as shareholders/board members and also to offer opportunities for some of our staff to become franchisees of Off Ya Tree stores. Again, this honour will be reserved for the most diligent and productive members of our team.

There are also plans on the drawing board to open stores internationally. The first site is planned for London by mid 2010. This will hopefully be followed by stores in Amsterdam and Hamburg within the next two years after that. If these are successful, who knows where we might end up opening sites.

At present, all of the stores are owned by the company, however we are currently putting together a Franchise model. This should be ready to launch by early 2009 and will be kicked off by one of our existing staff members as the first Off Ya Tree Franchisee. Once up and running, franchises will be made available to other staff members as well as members of the general public in a position to become involved.

Other exciting projects on the horizon include production of our own brand of Street Wear which we plan to launch late in 2008. We have put a fair effort into determining what our customers like to wear and intend to produce comfortable high quality fashionable items that meet their needs.

It has been an exciting ride to this point with never a dull moment on our rollercoaster of advancement. If the past is anything to go by, the future will surely be the thrill ride of a lifetime… and we embrace every twist and turn with increasing fervour. We will continue to EXPAND OUR MINDS...