About Us
On this page find out the service level and product quality you can expect from Tropical Coolers, and our full contact details. You can also learn about the owner’s business, pricing and environmental ethics, the types of charities I support, the people behind the business and our history.
For more information about our business flow, i.e. questions about how to order, when and how do I pay, when do I receive my goods, and who’s delivering them, please visit the ordering page. For a price request, visit the quote page.
The environment is very important to us, please read about our ethics.
The Owner
My name is Gavin Reid, proprietor of Tropical Coolers since September 1994. Like many of us, I’ve swapped and changed my working life, as well as location, finally discovering that running my own business is where I want to be. Before starting Tropical Coolers, my working background has included:
- Plant propagation and sales in a native plant nursery (Poonindie, in South Australia)
- Retail section manager in Mitre 10 hardware stores (Port Lincoln and Cleve, South Australia)
- Retail section manager in several supermarkets: Port Lincoln, South Australia, Yulara Resort at Ayers Rock/Uluru, Northern Territory and Port Douglas, Queensland.
- Professional fire fighter: Yulara Resort at Ayers Rock/Uluru, Northern Territory and Port Douglas, Queensland.
- Limousine chauffeur: Port Douglas, Queensland.
- Property developer: current — Tasmania. See www.bichenorealestate.com for my latest renovation project.
Contact Me
All administration of the business is handled from my Hobart premises. The production facilities have remained in Queensland, with all products dispatched directly to you.
- Residential/Administration/
Postal Address: - 36 Liverpool Crescent
West Hobart, Tasmania 7000 Australia
- Telephone (Phone/Ph./Tel.):
- (03) 6231 5188 (within Australia)
+61 3 6231 5188 (International) - Mobile Telephone (Mob./Cell.):
- 0418 772 789 (within Australia)
+61 418 772 789 (International)
Please phone ahead for an appointment, if you’d like to meet in person.
I’m often on the phone so your call may be diverted to a message service. Please leave a message and your telephone number, and that way I can spend my money speaking to you, rather than the other way around.
If you’re calling from overseas, please check the time differences between your country and Australia. We’re on A.E.S.T. (Australian Eastern Standard Time), and I’m usually in the office between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday to Friday.
- Facsimile (Fax.):
- (03) 6231 5288 (within Australia)
+61 3 6231 5288 (international) - Email:
- sales@tropicalcoolers.com.au
- Tasmanian Business Number:
- BN 01504721
- Queensland Business Number:
- BN 5437428
- Australian Business Number:
- ABN 30 369 421 077
Business Ethics
Should you decide that you’d like to buy your neoprene products from us, the following lists our product, service quality and high standard that we strive for.
- Expect to be supplied low cost, long lasting, high quality Australian made neoprene products that are delivered on or before time, excel at their required function and are also moderately re-useable (visit the recycling page to learn more)
- The 3 printing methods we offer will show your message or logo effectively and will last as long as the product itself (to find out more, please visit the printing techniques page)
- I have an extensive knowledge of the neoprene products we sell, and I endeavour to deliver this knowledge to you in a manner and language you can understand fully
- I’m friendly and helpful, but I am not a ‘pushy’ sales person
- I’m easily contactable and have the ability and experience to handle everything from the first enquiry, quote, art set-up and proofing, right through to delivery, re-orders and after sales service
- I will never share your contact details with any other person or organization
- If there’s a problem that was caused by anyone within the organisation you can expect a quick response, satisfactory resolution and an apology
We’ve carefully selected freight companies to ensure that your order arrives intact and on time (see our delivery page). We use Bendigo Bank’s online MOTO service to process credit cards (if you choose this payment method). Their site is fully encrypted for your protection — see our payment information page.
If you’d like to start dealing with us, please select any of the products on the home page, and click through to the quote page. Please also read the ordering page. If you like, just give me a ring on (03) 6231 5188 (within Australia) or +61 3 6231 5188 (International). I’m a good communicator, and I love to talk — as my friends and business associates will agree!
Trademark Disclaimer
All of the printed neoprene products featured on this site are print over-runs of orders that were sold by me, either directly to a client, or via one of my many re-sellers worldwide. They are displayed to show the product range, printing techniques and colours available.
The other branded products on this site are shown to indicate their effective product fitment. None of the brands, logos or messages on this site constitutes my endorsement of a particular brand, business, or product, or their endorsement of our business or products.
The exceptions are Coopers and Cascade beers, Sabella and Doc Adam’s wines — I love them all!
Pricing Ethics
I am a wholesaler, but don’t expect to pay too much. My aim is to be the lowest cost wholesaler of top quality, Australian made neoprene goods within Australia.
I always endeavour to offer my lowest price first — if you’d like a cost, request a quote on the Quoting and Pricing page.
If you’re shopping around, and feel you’d like to get the best value for money, I’d need to know that a competitor was offering an equivalent product before reviewing our price.
There are many businesses and individuals importing finished neoprene products, and I’ve often seen their items being immorally and illegally touted as ‘Made in Australia’. (See Imported Products versus Australian Made). Please give me the opportunity to fully inform you of the likely country of origin and the quality you can expect from these imported products before you proceed with another supplier.
If you have a quote from another business offering genuine Australian made, high quality neoprene products, and a high level of service, I’d appreciate the opportunity to try to retain your business. In the unlikely event that their quote beats mine, all I ask is that you forward a copy.
You can of course, for moral and ethical purposes, delete my competitor’s contact details, but this will mean I’ll be unable to identify if the company you’re considering dealing with is likely to supply you with an inferior, imported product and pretend they’ve been made in Australia.
You are NOT paying for any of the following things normally associated with a promotional products business.
- Shop Lease or Purchase: I operate from a home office, so you’re not paying for a shop front in your unit costs.
- ‘Free’ Art Set-Up and ‘Free’ Freight: Many businesses offer these two things, as a carrot to deal with them. Neither of these things are free in the real world. You simply pay a higher unit cost to absorb these costs.
- Advertising: My advertising budget is very limited. You’re not paying for me to place huge full colour advertisements in the Yellow Pages, or other publications, so that I can attract your business. My main points of contact are our own products printed with our contact details sold to other clients, this web site and ‘word of mouth’ whereby clients who are delighted with our products and service have referred you to me.
- Fancy, Full Colour Sales Brochures: You’re looking at the only one we produce and update regularly (this web site).
- Sales Staff: I am the sales staff. There’s no one else, so you don’t have to indirectly pay wages for anyone to visit you, or bang on your door with an unsolicited offer to buy from us.
- Motor Vehicles: I drive a Holden Ute, but this is not used for sales trips, and not part of my business expenses. Ever had an expensive vehicle turn up to a sales meeting? The cost of buying, running, maintaining and replacing that vehicle would be added into your unit costs.
- Suits: If you ever meet me, expect blue jeans, a bright shirt, and sand shoes (runners). If you’ve ever had a sales meeting where the sales person turned up in designer label suit and Italian leather shoes — you’re paying for these in your unit costs. My one and only (Australian made) suit only does weddings and funerals.
- Business Lunches and Dinners: I entertain my friends and relatives at home, but I don’t ‘do’ business lunches and dinners. As someone once famously said “there’s no such thing as a free lunch!”
- Memberships to Promotional Product and Other Organizations: These all cost money, and you’d be paying for me to be a member, with higher unit costs.
- High End Accounting Programs: my accountant already has these installed in his computer, and I let him spread the costs of constant upgrades amongst his clients. Having the same program on my computer is simply a duplication, which you’d have to pay for. Receipts are hand written, on ordinary carbon copy invoice books.
- A ‘High Flyer’ Lifestyle: I live a modest lifestyle. I do not expect, or attain remuneration beyond an ‘average’ Australian.
How I Started The Business
I first arrived in tropical North Queensland (Port Douglas) in 1992. Somewhere in the move, my much-loved stubby cooler was lost. I was amazed that in such a hot climate, a replacement was hard to find. I was sure there was a market for them and decided to act!
There was no Internet in ‘92, but my relentless search yielded a manufacturer in Queensland, and as luck would have it, the owners — Jim and Eva — were holidaying just down the road in Cairns.
After sharing a beer or two with them, I soon discovered they were very passionate about their business, and had some great products in addition to the standard can and stubbie cooler I was after.
They’d just converted their factory from making custom fitted wet suits to neoprene promotional products, and I was one of their first clients.
I began trading as Tropical Coolers in September 1994 (Queensland BN5437428). Initially my main market was wholesaling pre-printed, generic coolers to souvenir stores in Port Douglas and Cairns. Tropical Coolers soon began supplying pubs, restaurants and tour companies with custom printed products.
Once the Internet arrived, I was excited by the potential to reach clients all over Australia, and the world. I had many, many people tell me, “They’d never buy anything on the Internet — you’re wasting your time”. How wrong they were. I met Greg from Port Douglas Internet Services, and together we launched what I believe was the first website in Australia dedicated to wholesaling neoprene promotional products.
The Business Now
Much has changed since those early days in Port Douglas. In mid 2007,
I sold my one-millionth item!
I’ve now moved to Hobart in Tasmania, after getting sick of the tropical heat! Tropical Coolers has grown along with Jim and Eva’s factory, which is now principally managed by their sons, extended family and factory floor staff.
I have sold more products from their factory than any other wholesaler in Australia, and have exported to 40 odd countries.
So that you’re not confused, the references to ‘we/us/our’ on this website refer to the two businesses, working and growing with each other. The factory owner’s family and their staff print, manufacture, and lodge your order with the appropriate freight service, after I’ve handled the marketing, art preparation, art proof and approval, sales and after sales service.
You cannot buy directly from the factory — you would simply be directed back to me.
To find out, how fiercely I protect these working Australian’s jobs please visit the Imported Products Versus Australian Made page.
Charitable Donations
There are over 20,000 registered charitable organisations in Australia, and I imagine, many millions worldwide. I have carefully selected the charitable organisations that Tropical Coolers contributes to — those that distribute funds to the causes I believe should benefit.
If you are not one of the charities I already support, then please don’t contact me with requests for free products or financial donations.
I’ll certainly consider supplying you our products at a reduced rate to normal to assist with your fundraising efforts. But, please understand that a reasonable proportion of my existing clients use our products for fundraising, and if I gave you all free products, I’d soon be broke!