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Today, Cyril and Yvonne Ellis are enjoying their retirement in Toowoomba. Cyril relishes afternoons on the lawn bowls green and Yvonne has time to pursue her painting passion.
“The best thing about retirement is that we get to do the things we like doing, at our own pace,” said Yvonne.
Yvonne and Cyril became Ulton's clients back in the mid-90s.
Back then, they were running Isa City Pawnbrokers and Secondhand.
Cyril had started the business in 1973 in partnership with his father. When the business was first established, Cyril was just 21 years old and was dating Yvonne, whom he now calls his wife of almost 50 years.
"I saw her when she was only young and knew then that I wanted her to be my wife,” said Cyril.
"We were real childhood sweethearts," he continued.
After many years working with Cyril’s father and eagerly learning everything they could about business, the time came for them to take on the responsibility of wholly running it themselves — which they did with flying colours.
“Living in a small town, our customers would often come in and ask for things,” said Yvonne.
“I’ll try to get it for you,” Cyril would always say.
“Before we knew it, we had a business that was growing,” said Yvonne.
The Ellis’ introduced firearm dealing into their offering. And later, fishing tackle.
“It became somewhat of a little local department store,” Yvonne said.
What brought the Ellis’ to Ulton was an unfortunate experience with a previous accountant and an insightful conversation with Bill Nioa, founder of the now-global munitions company, NIOA Group.
“Bill and Cyril were great friends. And at that time, Bill was one of our firearm wholesalers,” said Yvonne.
“We told Bill that we needed a new accountant, and he passed on Ulton’s phone number. He said ‘Ring these guys and do what they say, because it really worked for us,” Yvonne recalled.
“We are so glad we made that call,” she added.
In the years that followed, Ulton would provide the Ellis family with services and advice regarding accounting, bookkeeping, wealth management, and their SMSF.
The initial phone call was with Ulton Partner Mark McLean, but it was a close working relationship with Bernard Whebell that naturally developed — and Bernard has served as their trusted advisor for the better part of 28 years.
“I’m sure that as pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers we were a little bit different to Bernard’s typical clients, but he made a real point of learning about us and what we were doing,” Yvonne said
Reflecting on his own early impressions of Yvonne and Cyril, Bernard said, “Within that first year of being our clients, they packed up the car and made the 17-hour drive to Bundaberg just to see what our team looked like. They got their car serviced and headed home.”
“And that’s the type of people they are — really genuine,” he continued.
In the late 90s, following the Ellises’ successful foray into firearm and fishing tackle sales, they set their sights on furniture sales.
“We discovered that secondhand furniture was difficult because everything was chipboard and had a very short life, so we began offering new affordable furniture too,” said Yvonne.
In response to the local demand, Yvonne and Cyril, along with their daughter Louise and her husband Nathan, established Brogden’s Furniture and Electrical and later, Brogden’s Furniture and Bedding.
“Under Ulton’s tutelage and with Bernard's help, we grew the small furniture shop,” Yvonne said.
“We ended up buying a whole new premise, a building with 1000 square metres and extra storage. That small furniture shop turned into a much larger thing,” she said.
Yvonne and Cyril ran Isa City Pawnbrokers and Secondhand until their retirement in 2012, when they passed it on to a new broker. The family also passed their furniture business onto an enthusiastic buyer in 2016.
Click here to read the North West Star article on Cyril and Yvonne's retirement.
“Overall, our family was in business for 45 years in Mount Isa,” said Yvonne.
“Over the years, we have developed quite a rapport with Bernard, and so have Louise and Nathan. He is like one of the family now,” said Yvonne.
“It’s the honesty with Ulton and Bernard that I’ve valued the most — but there’s also the friendship that’s developed too,” she said.
Bernard agrees that a key ingredient to the decades-long relationship has been the honest approach from both sides.
“Mistakes are always going to happen, but the important thing is being upfront about it and working together on the solution,” said Bernard.
Reflecting on his journey with the Ellis’, the main word that comes to mind is gratitude.
“From my side, it’s been a privilege to walk almost 30 years with them. Over the years, we've seen grandkids; we’ve seen their children get married; we’ve seen the issues and the successes,” said Bernard.
“We've seen them sell the business, retire, move out of Mount Isa — the whole lifecycle. It's been a privilege to sit on the side of that and walk with them through it,” he continued.
“It’s been very rewarding to see them enjoy their retirement. It’s great to see Cyril rekindle his love for lawn bowls again after taking a 20-year hiatus due to running the business. He’s gotten out of Mount Isa, he’s doing new things and having new experiences, and he’s just enjoying life,” said Bernard.
Yvonne and Cyril Ellis
