Client Profile
The Van Eeghen Family, Airport Home Appliance
 Don and Tomi van Eeghen opened Airport Home Appliance in 1981, and today it remains a family owned and operated business. Daughter Kate presides as President and General Manager. Her sister Kris handles PR, even appearing in Airport’s commercials, and she adds, shares “a title with my dad as Kate’s assistant.” Tomi used to work with the payroll and inventory “once upon a time,” but now a staff of eight handles her old job.
The name “Airport Home Appliance” stems from the original location, situated across the street from the small Hayward airport. The family changed the name to “Airport Home Appliance” to increase consumer awareness “that the one thing we don’t sell is coffee makers for Cessna airplanes.”
Airport handles over eighty brands of major appliances, and plans on expanding its experiment in mattress sales into a new product category. “We have a variety of ventures going on at once,” Kris says, including enjoying the success of the Redwood City location that “came on line in December of 2008, and sales are literally off the charts.”
To meet the challenges of the current economy, Airport tightly controls all of their costs, and has taken an aggressive approach as the best way to attack a soft market. “Most of our competition has cut back on their advertising, giving us the opportunity to increase our market share – a bigger piece of a smaller pie, so to speak,” Kris comments.
“Our goal is to open a third showroom by the end of the year and to keep growing the company.”
Airport has been contracting with DSI since October of 2009, and runs from five to seven trucks six days a week, with several more running Sunday. “DSI began delivering for us on the first day of a huge promotion. They completed ninety-two stops on day one with almost no hitches. We knew then that this arrangement was going to work well.”
“Partnering with DSI has been cost effective, something that is very helpful in this difficult economy,” Kris says. “Furthermore, with DSI managing delivery and installation, we can focus on marketing and sales, the aspects of the business that we do best. Equally important, the professional DSI staff is highly organized, forcing us to do our job better,” Kris notes. Additionally, Airport can concentrate on growth without having to create a larger delivery department. DSI does that for them.
Now married with children of their own, the two sisters began their involvement in the family business at the tender ages of six and seven, answering the service line at Miller’s Home Appliance, their store in San Jose at that time. Kris sold her first washer, a Maytag she remembers, when she was a mere eight years old. “You name it; we’ve done it,” she says, “selling, buying, even delivering items we had sold earlier in the day.”
Don and Tomi help with their grandchildren’s sports schedules and school events, and the tight knit group makes family gatherings and holiday get-togethers a priority. “My sister Kate and I are fortunate that our parents allow us take the helm at our business, but are always there when we need them.” |
