One of Australia’s supermarket giants has lent a helping hand to the Tennant Creek’s sole grocery outlet.
Coles delivered 13 fridge and freezer units worth more than $35,000 to Tennant Creek IGA’s Relief Supermarket, situated at the BP Complex, on Tuesday.
The delivery of 13 fridges and freezers was a coordinated effort by Coles and City Holdings which managed fridge repairs and maintenance, and Dutts Transport which coordinated pick-up and delivery.
Coles Alice Springs Store Manager Ray Viney said Coles was proud to provide the much-needed relief and support for the community of Tennant Creek after learning the fire had caused $1.6 million in damage.
“As the only grocery store in the area, helping IGA at this critical time was a no-brainer,” he said.
“Working collaboratively, we were able to refurbish and relocate 13 refrigeration units from Melbourne to Tennant Creek, to ensure food security at a time of critical need.”
In addition to the units, Coles also opened a new, direct remote Coles Online service to Tennant Creek via Alice Springs which now services the town once a week.
Chair of the ‘Julalikari and IBA Partnership’ Board Craig Wallace and IBA Retail Assessment Management (IRAM) CEO John Kop and said the fire in July destroyed $866,000 worth of stock and $764,000 worth of plant and equipment, including the store’s server and IT system, chillers, refrigeration, butcher, weighing equipment, price tags, shelving and registers.
“This was a devastating blow to the staff, owners and board of the store,” Mr Wallace said.
“The fire was also a serious threat to food security for the people of Tennant Creek and nearby bush communities, who rely heavily on us as the only supermarket in the Barkly region — the closest alternative is 500 kilometres away in Alice Springs.”
IRAM CEO John Kop said building the temporary store from scratch had been challenging, particularly given logistics and travel constraints imposed by COVID-19.
“We were able to establish a temporary store at the rear of the town’s local service station within 10 days of the fire,” Mr Kop said.
“Two months on, we have full shelves offering nearly half the lines available in our original store including the full range of fresh food and vegetables so important to our community. We have even resumed our bush orders and supplies to the Departments of Health and Education.
“We could not have done this without the amazing support of industry partners such as Coles. Sourcing adequate refrigeration has proved particularly costly and challenging, restricting the dairy and frozen goods we can hold in storage,” he said.
“Today’s donation provides us with an enormous boost to our capacity. Just as important, it is a great morale boost for our hard-working staff during this challenging time.”
