WHEN the flood waters rose rapidly on Monday, October 17 forcing Fairley’s IGA on Numurkah road to briefly shut its doors, extraordinary work went on behind the scenes to ensure that the region had what it needed when the store reopened.
Introducing alternative trading hours, the following day and with only a skeleton staff available, the store was able to service the community effectively as customers filtered back through its opened doors.
With its own sizeable warehouse outback full of dry goods and grocery items, the most pressing challenge for Fairley’s IGA became the supply of fresh produce.
Applauding the intrepid efforts of many of Fairys suppliers, fresh produce operations manager, Dom D’Agostino said, “We see our suppliers as our business partners, and they all went over and above to see our region had what it needed.”
Explaining how the freight of fresh produce was coordinated by the massive effort of suppliers, many of whom are established in Melbourne, Dom said, “Trucks were travelling over an extra hour, facing two-hour return trips in order to get stock here. They’d have to go all the way north to go south, then all that way north again to get home.”
Fresh produce operation supervisor, Debbie Hill added, “After having been diverted three times trying to find a safe route to the Supa store, one distribution truck had to use another supplier’s cool store in Numurkah overnight after having already travelled hundreds of kilometres out of his way.”
With 95 percent of stock now back on the shelves, Debbie said,”We would like to thank all our suppliers for their energy and support not only for our store, but for the entire community.
“We would also like to thank all our amazing staff, some of whom have lost their homes to floods but still managed to turn up to work.”
