Nana’s Pantry has recently
celebrated their 16th Birthday having
opened the Bundaberg store in
2003 followed by the Hervey Bay
store in 2006. We started out as we
wanted to operate our own business
and loved the idea of wholefoods
and cooking. We got the idea for
Nana’s Pantry from Leisa’s Nana as
every time Leisa would visit, there
were always amazing aromas and
something special cooking. Leisa
never knew what exciting treats she
would find in her Nana’s Pantry.
It was a very challenging time in our
lives as Darryl resigned from his job to
start the business and Leisa was pregnant
with our son being born only 5 weeks prior
to our opening. With the opening of the
Hervey Bay store in 2006 Darryl’s sister
Helen jumped on board as manager for the
Hervey Bay store.
46 Complete Health
Nana’s Pantry services a large
demographic of customers due to our
extensive product range. We would
possibly have a larger customer base
of families, elderly and environmentally
conscious.
We are largely different from other
health food stores as we don’t supply
supplements, only wholefoods. As well
we have a naughty corner of confectionery
and award winning Italian Gelato.
We have noticed a significant trend
towards our customers leading a healthier
lifestyle due the numerous diets being
advertised (ie vegan, keto) as well as
customers interested in reducing waste
and using their own containers.
Our fastest moving categories would
be confectionery, gelato, nuts, coffee and
cereals.
Trends that we are predicting over
the next 12 months would be towards
convenience food and anything pre
prepared due to time poor families. We
also believe the trend towards wholefoods
will continue as people become more
aware of what they are consuming and
maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
We always believed that people’s
health would be an ongoing concern
regardless of the economy or any other
downward trends. We believe that
although there can be quieter periods
overall there will always be interest in the
wholefoods market.
We believe there will always be a
gradual increase in the natural health
sector once again due to peoples ongoing
interest in food varieties and general
health and well being.
Changes we would like to see in the
natural health and wellness sector is
constant improvement to the labelling
laws and products that are grown,
processed and packed in Australia to be
labelled very clearly so customers can
support our local farmers as well as a
continued move to less processed and less
genetically modified foods.
We all love working at Nana’s Pantry
due to the close relationship between our
staff and our customers. Our customers
are a constant inspiration to us as they are
quite often the ones to recommend new