Henriettas rises from ashes
We”re back: Meg and Alan Steenholdt have now reopened Henriettas. They have been overwhelmed by the community”s support.
A BELOVED Leongatha business has reopened, four months after fire destroyed its previous home.
Henriettas homewares and coffee store now operates on the opposite side of Bair Street, overlooking its former location in the famous Knight’s Garage.
Proprietor Meg Steendholdt sees the old site daily. While memories of the larger shop come flooding back, she uses those visions to inspire her to return there by June next year.
“If we are meant to be doing this, then it will be but if not, then it won’t,” she said.
Mrs Steenholdt and her husband Alan spent a month renovating the former fruit and vegetable shop, and sourced goods from a trader fair in early August, ahead of opening recently.
They hope to return to their former site after by the middle of 2011 when rebuilding is finished, but to raise the necessary funds, the smaller operation must be successful.
“We can’t afford to do what you usually have to do for a small business, which is lose money for the first 12 months,” Mrs Steenholdt said.
Mr Steenholdt was pleased the business had a new presence in town.
“There has been so much support from people who understand that Henriettas can no longer be what it was because the building is gone, but people appreciate that we are back in some way,” he said.
“The new store is like our ‘best of’ CD. We have got all of our number one hits here and we have got them all in the one place.”
Operating from smaller premises, Henriettas now stocks a limited range of goods that sold well previously.
Pandora jewellery, Kitchen Aid mixmasters, Maxwell Williams crockery and cookware are amongst the items.
“But there are a lot of things that we had at the old store that we can access but can’t fit in the current store,” Mrs Steenholdt said.
Some staff from the former shop are now working at the new site.
Mr Steenholdt was the driver of the café side of the business and although now a real estate agent with Alex Scott and Staff several doors up, he still takes an interest in the venture.
“Henriettas was renowned for its coffee. In the old shop, we sold the most coffees of anyone in town, so we decided to put it back in so at least people can get their favourite cup,” he said.
“There are other people doing coffee in town but ours just had a different flavour to it.”
In the meantime, Mrs Steenholdt has been undertaking emergency teaching and also training with Integrity Business College.
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