What Next???

What next???

Sometimes you just feel as though the whole world is against you. Small business is hard at the best of times and when some challenges are thrown at you it just makes it even harder.

Nearly five years ago we relocated to Moorabool Street to larger premises and it has been the best move we could have made. We have an amazing business and we are so thrilled with the way it has grown over the last 4 years. When we moved we only had 2,000 bolts of fabric and it was a difficult move. Now we have over 5,000 bolts, we only had a handful of sewing machines in the old shop and now we have almost the full range of Brother products, so the growth in that time has been incredible. Both John and Zoe have worked extremely hard to give the best possible service we can. We are very proud of our achievements.

However there is always a ‘but’…. next door to us (where Kaisercraft used to be) is a huge shop that is now going to be used as a pilates studio – a very BIG one. This means that there is going to be a substantial amount of cars needing carparking. As many of you know we have very little carparking in our area at the best of times.

But it looks like the witches of Ballarat knew more than us because we have some more bad news…The TAC have given The City of Greater Geelong 4.7 million dollars to create a bike lane down Moorabool Street. Yes we know that there is already a single bike lane there but apparantly this means nothing as we have to have a ‘dual’ lane for the 3 bikes that go up and down Moorabool Street every day. This means that all parking outside the football stadium will be removed. Once again the council have not given any consideration to small businesses and have only focused on a minor group. We have spent over a year fighting this decision but sadly the final word has just been had by the council and works will be starting soon.

Obviously with no parking, more parking being needed by surrounding businesses and not being in a foot traffic area it will be very damaging for our business once this parking is removed.

As our lease is due for renewal soon, we believe it would not be sensible to remain in this location. We therefore have been left with no option but to seek new premises to relocate to. As you all know the centre of town is now a mess with the new parking meters and so finding an alternative premises is somewhat harder than you think.

So, like we said when we moved here we only had 2,000 bolts of fabric and it was hard work. There is no way we are going to relocate 5,000 bolts, so sadly what we need to do is to start to reduce the stock that we have on the floor to get ready to move and to make a move easier. This is where we need your help.

We are starting a stock clearance sale and over the coming months we will have special offers on a variety of products.

Starting Wednesday 2nd October we are offering…

25% OFF all FULL priced fabric (minimium cut 50cm) – this offer excludes all new ranges such as Grunge, French General, Liberty etc (we will advise in store). This offer does not apply to already reduced fabric and wadding.

25% OFF all pre-cut 30cm strips (excluding new range fabrics)

All 30cm strips in the classroom are now reduced to $3 each

Classroom fabrics are now $10 per metre – minimum cut 50cm.

25% off all books, patterns, templates, paper shapes

50% off DMC Threads

We have some floor stock cabinets and sewing machines also that we will be needing to re-house. Details will follow in the coming weeks.

This is such a sad time as we love our business and the location we are in but a decision had to be made to ensure we actually have a future for our business otherwise Geelong will not have a patchwork shop, so the sooner we get it all sorted the better.

Trying to find a positive at the moment is a little hard but we greatly appreciate your help and support in reducing our stock level and we will of course let you know as soon as we have a new premises lined up.

Take care,

John, Zoe & the team.