We used to take our kids to Christchurch’s iconic "pink” LollyShop whenever we went across to see family in New Brighton or we had an event to cater for, such as kids' birthday parties, movie nights and road trips.
Fast forward to 2019 and we discovered that Richard had cancer. At that stage, Richard was the family ATM which made us rethink about what our family needed if the worst case scenario happened, a family business seemed like a good idea.
We discovered that after 23 years, the original founder & owner of the LollyShop had put the business up for sale. With both Richard and I having worked in retail and distribution this seemed to be the perfect answer - and who doesn’t love lollies?
So we bought the LollyShop and took over the business in January 2020, 6 weeks prior to the COVID-19 lockdown. Like all NZ businesses, this was an extremely stressful time for us. Luckily, we have a very supportive family and a great team and over the next 18 months we not only continued to grow by opening a second store in Hornby and increasing the range, but we are also now sending out more “sweet” parcels locally & internationally.
Learning all about lollies and the confectionery industry has been fun and interesting, unfortunately our waistlines has also grown with us! We've been lucky to be able to meet all our original reasons of owning a business by having our two teenagers, Richard's brother, his children, all work in the business. It’s our great team and loyal customers that make coming to work everyday fun.
- Jeannette & Richard
