In January last year, Geoff Hatton stood and watched his Betta Home Living store on Cranbrook Road, Batemans Bay, go up in flames as the Homemaker's Centre burnt to the ground.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Now, less than 18 months later, Mr Hatton and the rest of the crew are back in their familiar digs, and will celebrate with a grand re-opening this Saturday, May 15.
Mr Hatton said it the culmination of months of hard work since the "blur" of a day in 2020.
"We briefed staff the night before and made sure they were all safe at their own homes, because we knew the fire was potentially coming the next day," he said.
"I had an early truck deliver, and by the time I was there the fire had already burned through Runnyford Rd and was burning at the bottom of Cranbrook Road and heading towards us.
"I was evacuated shortly afterwards, and I watched the store burndown from down the street."
After the tragedy, it only took Betta two weeks to find a new tenancy.
"We got into there the next week and started to arrange with our suppliers to get supplies back, we fitted out the shop, and we reopened on Kylie Crescent on January 20," Mr Hatton said.
"We'd been trading from Cranbrook Road since 1996, so we're excited and very proud to be back in the new store.
"Everyone played their part and it's all built by us with the support of our suppliers."
The grand reopening on Saturday will feature a live radio broadcast out the front, and "a lot of specials throughout the shop".
"We've got some great deals from our suppliers, and we're really keen to let everyone know we're back trading in our familiar store," Mr Hatton said.
Mr Hatton said the re-opening would have been near impossible without the support of customers and suppliers.
"I want to thank all of our customers for their support, it's been a bit overwhelming since the fires," he said.
"We received lots of messages from people when they realised what had happened, and there was a lot of emotion as well.
"We received good support from suppliers as well, even the big national corporations who you wouldn't think would care about little businesses like ours were really helpful and couldn't do enough for us."
Furniture One will also return on Saturday, and manager Kim Samsa said staff were "excited".
"We always knew we'd be coming back here, I guess it was just how long it took to build it," she said.
"We're so excited, because we're keeping the other store as well (on Orient Street)."
Joel Erickson
Contact me at j.erickson@austcommunity.com.au or 0447 796 748.
Contact me at j.erickson@austcommunity.com.au or 0447 796 748.
