John is the Chief Executive Officer of the Winning Group and his mission, above all else, is to provide the best shopping experience in the world.
Entrepreneur and ‘new’ retail veteran, John Winning founded Appliances Online in 2005 at just 21 years of age with a laptop, rented truck, and a 1300 number diverted to a mobile phone. Determined to shake up the existing market, John set out to offer Australians an efficient, streamlined and convenient shopping experience in an online format. Although John found his success through Appliances Online – the online business now employs upwards of 250 people and was awarded with Best Customer Experience at the World Retail Awards in Paris in 2014 – he's also passionate about traditional in-store retailing.
Since taking over the reigns of Winning Appliances in 2011, John has opened six additional stores and expanded the brand into Queensland, Western Australia and the ACT. On top of expansion, he has also focused on the company’s existing stores. Most notably, John set a new standard for appliance retailing globally by re-launching a new destination style showroom in Redfern where his family first opened doors in 1906. Impressively, the store has been recognised among the best retail store designs the world.
Today, John leads four separate business entities and employs around 700 staff across Australia as CEO of Winning Group.