Taste: Time to shop around

FAMILY grocers are having to expand to counter the influence of the big supermarkets on food producers.

For Elaine Reeves. Nick Nikitaras with the large range of Herbie's Herbs in the new store. Preview to the opening of the new Hill Street Grocer store at West Hobart.

IT was time to get bigger or get out Trent Reisenleiter decided when he and his wife Jonelle were wondering whether to continue with their 10 years in retailing in Tasmania.

In 2005, the couple had bought what became The Foodstore in Lenah Valley from the Nikitaras family, owners of Hill Street Grocer.

With that sale there was just one Hill Street (they later dropped the “Grocer”) at 109 Hill St, West Hobart, and one Foodstore among a number of independent corner shops with attitude — the Salad Bowl in South Hobart, Lipscombe Larder in Sandy Bay, Raw in Dynnyrne, Jim’s Oasis in Davey St.

Away from the corner-shop model we also had butcher-deli Wursthaus Kitchen, Salamanca Fresh and Gourmet Deli in the Hobart CBD.

I remember food lovers who came from all over Australia for the 2007 Australian Symposium of Gastronomy envying the abundance of small, independent food shops.

But since 2005 the big supermarkets have driven prices down on staples such as milk and bread and entered into more direct relationships with bigger growers.

In a story last year in the The Monthly, headed “Supermarket Monsters”, Hill Street was lauded as “a family grocer the way they used to be”.

Writer Malcolm Knox said of brothers Nick and Marco Nikitaras: “They win through the quality of their produce and service, but they are losing behind the scenes, in the farms and the fields, where their supermarket rivals are cutting down their supply options … A decade ago their region had 12 lettuce growers; it now has two.”

Trent Reisenleiter feels the days of “being able to operate as a single stand-alone shop are gone”.

“Small shops are all getting a little bit bigger to have economies of scale” — Peter Trioli, Wursthaus CEO

There are more big supermarkets, street markets and more small stores opening — without the population of Hobart growing appreciably.

The Foodstore partners bought shops in Bellerive and, in 2012, Raw in Dynnyrne.

It meant a bigger scale of buying — from 185 active suppliers — and efficiencies in managing staff and stock.

Meanwhile, Hill Street set up shop in Lauderdale, then New Town, bought the Salad Bowl, Bayview Grocer in Blackmans Bay and Wells IGA in Latrobe.

One by one, the last three shops bought will be revamped in the Hill Street livery and name.

On May 25, the new Hill Street “home” store opened on the corner of Hill and Arthur streets in West Hobart, and it is breaking new ground by going into partnership with existing businesses.

As well as the usual emphasis on artful displays of fresh fruit and vegetables and corner-store supplies, the new shop has a cheese room run by Madeleine Delany, formerly of Neal’s Yard in London, and a homewares section curated by Elenora Del Pio.

Kate Sice of Botanical will staff her own section in the shop and also manage flowers in all the Hill Street stores.

Meat, sausage and smallgoods will be supplied by Wursthaus, which is expanding its Cambridge factory.

But rather than expanding its retail outlets Wursthaus “re-amalgamated” Wursthaus Kitchen shops in Hobart and Launceston with the factory, new CEO Peter Trioli says.

When founder Mike Jones retired last year, most shareholders, except Trioli, smallgoodsman Heath Ransley and butcher Bruce McCarthy, were bought out, and new investor Robert Rockefeller came in.

Rockefeller is also an investor in Hill Street, hence the increased alignment of the two businesses.

“It’s a tough game trying to compete against the supermarkets,” Trioli says.

“Small shops are all getting a little bit bigger to have economies of scale.

“Take beef — we can buy bigger volumes of cattle and get them at a cheaper price, and we’ll be able to pass those savings on to customers.”

And Trent and Jonelle Reisenleiter decided to sell rather than buy another shop.

In the new financial year, Behrakis brothers Peter and Dennis will add the Foodstore group to their Salamanca Fresh shops in Salamanca, Kingston and Davey St.