Queensland butchery Fair Dinkum Fresh has opened a fresh-food supermarket in The Village at the Emerald regional shopping centre.
The 653sqm store will offer fresh meat and produce as well as selected grocery items. It will also house a cafe.
Fair Dinkum Fresh owners Jason and Tracey O’Loughlin expanded the business via a Queensland Government Rural Economic Development Grant. More than 30 local tradespeople were involved in the store’s construction, and the supermarket will employ 24 staff.
“We are proud to launch a new regional supermarket with an emphasis on doing business the old-fashioned way with excellent service and providing high quality meats and accompaniments while supporting local employment and communities,” Jason said.
“It is my hope that this store will also provide an opportunity to create a whole new vegetable-growing industry to our local area. Plans are already afoot to establish a co-op to supply our business and wholesale to other smaller retailers and businesses in the Central Queensland area.”
He said in a statement Sentinel Property Group executive chairman Warren Ebert is supporting his new venture.
“Sentinel is delighted with what Jason and Tracey have delivered to The Plaza with Fair Dinkum Meats and we are very excited by what Fair Dinkum Fresh will bring to The Village. Emerald and the Central Highlands is one of the most productive regions in the country and we hope this new fresh food supermarket stocked with premium quality Queensland produce will be a magnet for customers in Emerald and surrounding towns and communities,” Ebert said.
O’Loughlin opened a butchery at Blackwater before establishing Fair Dinkum Meats at another Sentinel shopping centre.
