Hervey Bay Gossip

It’s been something of a tough year for business in Hervey Bay and over the last couple of months we’ve seen quite close down … but at the same time there have been some who are willing to take a chance and build a business in this great town.

So let’s have a look at some that have left Hervey Bay and some that have arrived or are in the process of arriving.

If you’re a foodie then you may already know that Dom’s Cantina on the Esplanade has closed as has his other restaurant … the Wheelhouse … down at the marina. It was definitely sad to see Dom go and we wish him well with his new venture in Melbourne.

While Dom’s departure was fairly public with garage sales at both venues the closing of another restaurant here in Hervey Bay happened much more quietly. We lost one of the best chef’s in town when the owner of Smoked Pepper decided to close and move to Qatar.

While we have lost a few cafes/restaurants we have also gained one or two. Hog’s Breath has opened behind Pizza Hut/KFC and down at the Wetside end of the Esplanade at Scarness … next to the Indian restaurant we now have Cobbers Cove Café.

We also have a new café down at Wetside … Whale Tale opened a month or two ago and we would certainly recommend it for breakfast. Sadly early mornings are about the only time you can get parking anywhere near the café.

Other businesses to have moved on include Metaland … on Boat Harbour Drive … and Scrappers Haven in Liuzzi Street.

Danny the hairdresser on the Esplanade at Scarness has also moved on. He decided that it was time to retire and he’s now living the life of a Gray Nomad while a new owner continues to operate from Danny’s old shop.

And coming to Hervey Bay soon is a new Woolworths/Caltex service station down on Boat Harbour Drive between Pialba and Eli Waters.

The servo is currently in the early stages of construction but it shouldn’t be long before we have another servo in town that offers fuel discounts to people that shop at Woolworths.

Everyone knows that right now retail businesses are struggling and you don’t have look far in Hervey Bay to see vacant shops that were once thriving retail outlets.

As conditions have steadily got worse it’s often been the lease conditions that have meant the difference between closing the doors or battling on and that difficult situation that many small retailers find themselves in.

As sales drop it becomes harder and harder to pay the rent and at a time when landlords … especially those in major shopping centres … should be more understanding many have refused to consider reducing rents and have even gone so far as to increase rents when it came time to renegotiate a lease.

Now the state government is reviewing the retail leasing legislation … the Retail Shop Leases Act 1994 … that was initially introduced to address a power imbalance between shopping centre landlords and small retail tenants.

The Attorney General is urging Queensland retail tenants, landlords and other stakeholders to have some input into the review and anyone who does want to have their say should start by downloading the discussion paper that’s available at www.justice.qld.gov.au.

Comments will be received until 30 January 2012.

Yesterday we had an interesting chat with one of the owners of a rather successful small business here in Hervey Bay.

He and his wife came to Hervey Bay and started their business from scratch and after a lot of hard work it has grown to the point where they are looking for new premises so that they can grow even more.

To their horror they have found that the cheapest industrial premises they can rent in Hervey Bay that will suit their business will cost them $1200 a week … and that’s just for the empty building.

So they’ve been looking outside of the region and they’ve found another suitable building on the Gold Coast for $400.00 a week … and that includes most of the fittings they will need for their business.

It seems that they won’t be in Hervey Bay much longer and it makes you wonder just how many other small businesses Hervey Bay is missing out on because of the high rents that landlords and agents seem to think that businesses can afford to pay here in town.

Scrappers Haven is closing their retail outlet and focusing on their online shop so they’re having a garage sale.

Scrappers Haven Garage Sale

Saturday July 9 from 7am to 12pm

At Shop 2, 17 Liuzzi Street Pialba

You get scrapbooking and card craft supplies at heavily discounted prices!

The royal wedding is now passed into history but we keep on seeing images of THAT hat … in fact if you saw the royal wedding you would have seen lots of images of some unusual head pieces.

Not many people know but Hervey Bay has it’s very own milliner … Sheneek … and while none of her creations made it to the royal wedding they are beginning to appear all over Australia thanks to their online store.

The price tags that went with some of the hats you would have seen at the royal wedding might make you feel a little faint Sheneek’s prices are much more reasonable.

With around 2,000 homes for sale, many new business premises remaining empty in Hervey Bay and the continuing closure of many small businesses on the Fraser Coast it’s not hard to be pessemistic about the future of this great town but perhaps it’s time for some optimism.

Hervey Bay has always had a two-stage economy … there’s the retirees and others moving in because of the lifestyle and then there’s the tourists. Both stages of the economy have been in the doldrums for quite some time but the Easter weekend … and April as a whole … saw an increase in tourism numbers.

We certainly aren’t back to the levels that experienced a few years ago but there are positive signs that the industry is recovering and that’s great news for Hervey Bay. Some local business groups have given up waiting for the Council to do anything and are now following the lead set by Holiday Hervey Bay and doing what they can to promote this town themselves.

So perhaps it’s time to stop being so negative about our future and start thinking that there may be a positive outcome for this town after all. At least one small business is already thinking that Hervey Bay is a great place to do business:

It looks as though Hervey Bay will have a new restaurant opening in the near future. Several people have tried running a cafe/restaurant next to Wetside but for various reasons have not succeeded. Perhaps this time we’ll see a positive result.

There’s no doubt that times are tough for small businesses in Hervey Bay and we’re more likely to see closures than openings. So it’s pleasing to be able to report that a new business is opening in Hervey Bay today.

SalonShop is a wholesale and retail hair and beauty supplier and they’re opening their doors at Unit 8 17 Liuzzi Street in Pialba. The business already has outlets in Maroochydore and Bundaberg and sees Hervey Bay as a market that’s definitely worth tapping into.

The new business will be open 9 to 5 Monday to Friday and 9 to 12 on Saturday.

These days if a business doesn’t have it’s own website then it is almost certainly losing customers for so many people in Hervey Bay search online for the businesses in town that can provide the services they need.

But now it’s quite possible to go beyond just having a website that provides basic information about your business and two businesses here in Hervey Bay have used the website technology to make it easier for their clients to make an appointment.

If you’re looking for a dentist in Hervey Bay then click the link and you’ll find yourself on the Primere Dental Studio’s website where you can book an appointment for whatever dental service you need.

For car repairs in Hervey Bay click the link and you’ll find yourself on the Total Auto Care website where you can book your car in for a service or repairs using the booking form on the website.

Before long you’ll be seeing other businesses using the Internet to interact with their clients here in Hervey Bay.

More and more people in Hervey Bay are turning to the Internet to find the information that they require. Turning to the Yellow Pages when you want to find some local information is becoming a thing of the past and Google is where people are heading these days.

Clive and Kerry Scotney from the Beachside Pharmacy have been watching that trend grow and recently decided to take their business to where people were searching. But rather than just pushing their marketing message at people they decided that they wanted to bring important health information down to a local level and so they’ve become the first pharmacy in Hervey Bay to have their own website.

The website includes a growing database of important health information that can be accessed at any time of the day or night.

Toni Livesey from Total Website Management – the team that developed the site – thinks that it could be the first pharmacy website of its kind in Australia.

“We searched to see what other pharmacies were doing around Australia before we began work on this site and found some that were interested in pushing their marketing message but none that were interested in sharing important health information as Clive and Kerry do on their site.”

A combination of a less than stellar whale season followed by bad weather over the Christmas holidays has certainly placed quite a bit of pressure on some tourist related businesses in Hervey Bay and in the past month  we’ve seen two more local businesses shut up shop. The well-known Bayview Motel has closed and the Fighting Whiting is no longer available for fishing charters.

The Fighting Whiting is for sale but in these tough times it’s unlikely to attract much interest.