Health Food Central
Kingscliff
How long has Health Food Central been
operating.
Kingscliff was our first store back in
2005. It was at the time under the
‘Healthy Life’ banner which we changed
after a short time, realising that going
our own way would be better for us. We
then went on to open the Tweed Mall
store in 2011 and have recently relocated
that store within the centre to coincide
with the Opening of the new full line Aldi
store in early 2019. We are now next
door to the Aldi store which has brought
a new breath of life into the centre.
In 2016, I must have been feeling a little
over excited and decided a third store
would make my life better in some way.
Our Burleigh store was born and just
like a new born impacts your life, I was
surfing less and working more. We did,
however, get into the groove and life
settled back to a manageable roar.
52 Complete Health
Who are your main types of customers?
We have a broad range of lovely
customers across all our stores, with
some patterns depending on which area
the store is in. Kingscliff and Burleigh
heads are probably more similar in
terms of their demographic profile.
Young 25 – 40yo families and health
conscious millennials/gen x people are
very educated these days about health
options and natural alternatives and
make up a big part of our market. We
also have a lot of healthy ‘Boomers’
(55 -75yo) who pride themselves on
buying as little orthodox medicine as
possible. Good on them! Our Tweed
store is probably a little more slanted
to the ‘Boomer’ age group but we are
seeing a definite increase in the younger
customer as Tweed/Coolangatta loses
it’s older image and becomes cooler for
the younger crowd.
Owning a health food store it helps if you
are passionate about all things healthy,
but owning three health food stores
well you had really better be totally
dedicated. John owner and operator of
the Health Food Central group of stores
is that and more. It is a great pleasure
being able to read his thoughts and
philosophy of the industry, I am sure
there will be a collective head nod at
some valid points he raises.
Thanks John.
What are the changes in peoples buying
habits over the past couple of years/
fast moving categories
I think there has definitely been a big
shift away from the old bodybuilding
products that used to dominate health
food store shelves, despite being full of
artificial sweeteners and flavours. There
has been a strong shift to plant based
products, and a constant increase in the
vegan category across many areas of
the store. The state of the environment
and the growth of an earth conscious
community has also seen a big growth
in eco friendly products that eliminate
the use of single use plastics. Reusable
coffee cups started this category and
now it has morphed into straws, cutlery,