101 Wonthaggi Newsagency & Lotto – A Fleming family legacy

WONTHAGGI NEWSAGENCY & LOTTO

For the Fleming family, customer service is in the blood - the Fleming name is synonymous with business in the Wonthaggi region. And despite the many ups and downs of business ownership, the family continues to support not only local customers, but other small businesses.

Fiona Fleming first moved to Wonthaggi when she was just three years old, after her parents decided to chase a rural dream and shake off the urban expansion happening in Melbourne.

“They decided to get out of Melbourne because Melbourne was getting too developed,” Fiona explained. “We lived in Doncaster, and they were starting to bulldoze all of the orchards across from us and start to build, this was before the shopping town was built.

“So, they decided we needed to get out of Melbourne, with my sister and I. They were looking for dairy farms around Gippsland and then the agent told them there was a Holden dealership going in Wonthaggi, complete with house. So, because he was already a mechanic, and cars were his trade, my dad’s ears pricked up.”

Fiona’s dad moved on from his garage in Northcote, where he built and raced Austin 7s, and took over Wonthaggi’s Holden dealership from Lionel Curtain on April 17th, 1961.

The family continued to run the dealership for 14 years, before a major health scare prompted her dad to look into new business ventures. He eventually bought the town’s taxi service and gas centre, with her parents sharing the load of both businesses. “So, I’ve grown up with business in the town.” Her early grounding in small business put Fiona in good stead when she and her husband took over the contract with Consolidated Media Distributors to deliver newspapers on the Cowes run. Eventually, another business opportunity caught their eye.

“We found out about the newsagency coming up for sale. At that stage Cowes came up, Wonthaggi came up and Inverloch came up within the space of 12 months of each other. We looked at it and went to dad and said this looks like a handy business to get into, so he gave us a hand with it and we ended up buying the newsagency while we still had the paper run.”

With the sale approved by News Limited and Fairfax, Fiona and her husband took over the Wonthaggi Newsagency, which was at that time located in McBride Avenue. It was almost 50 years to the day since her family had taken over the Holden dealership – April 18th, 2011.

They purchased the store just as the Desalination Plant was nearing completion, and the extra workers in the town kept the family on its toes.

“Extremely busy. It was 5am starts, because of everybody getting ready to go off and work at the Desal.”

But eventually, the huge number of construction workers left Wonthaggi, and what had always been the backbone of the business began to decline.

“Newspapers have dropped off probably at least 50% at a guess. We just watched it drop over the years. More and more people are going online. News Limited have maintained their coverage, but more people are getting their news online.”

A FLEMING FAMILY LEGACY

Words by Anita Butterworth Photos by Doug Pell

As with most small businesses, diversification was the only answer. The larger store located in Murray Street now includes Lotto and is under the Newspower banner. It also stocks a wide range of gifts and stationery, as well as art supplies for local art groups.

Wonthaggi Newsagency & Lotto is also one of only two V/Line agents in the area, and operates the Blueshyft Platform (incorporating Toll, TNT and Ladbrokes to name a few). And the store also collects dry-cleaning for Traralgon Drycleaners.

But it’s still an uphill battle to stay competitive.

“We already were doing magazine and cards. Magazines have dropped monumentally as well. The Plaza being built and the supermarkets selling magazines has impacted us. Cards have dropped off minimally but have held their own to a large extent. Especially in the lead up to Christmas, we were one of the few places that had cards in October because ours are locally produced. Lots of places waiting for overseas stock didn’t get their cards until a couple of weeks before Christmas.

“I’ve always been a very active and consistent stationary supplier in the town. We’re an OfficeMart which has now hooked up with Office Choice. When we moved into the bigger shop, we were able to expand the stationary range.

“About five years ago I started going to the gift fairs and working my way through in that respect to diversify. I try to be a point of difference. A large percentage of us in the town work together. We try not to be crossing over.” Fiona has a strong belief in the town's stores working together to help ride the small business rollercoaster.

“We also tend to be a bit of a pseudo information centre in the town. Because we’re open when they’re not and people tend to come into us for directions and where to get things. If I don’t carry something, I’ll send them to whoever in the town does. We’re supporting each other.”

And the Fleming family is continuing its strong tradition of putting customers first, particularly those who have been there through it all. Including the man who fostered her love for small business.

“I do tend towards having the older demographic, a large percentage of them because I’ve grown up in the town, and we have a lot of our home delivery customers who are the older demographic and we really look after our older people in the town, and that’s been one of my differences.

“I’ve still got my dad, he’s 91 and a half. And having grown up in the town and having a business in the town I’ve known these people most of my life. I work to make sure that they’ve got a service that can help them out.”

WONTHAGGI NEWSAGENCY & LOTTO Open Six Days a Week | Closed Sunday 31 Murray Street, Wonthaggi Vic 3995 Tel: 5672 1256