Hospice Taranaki needs help to find new retail space to cope with demand Reporter: Glenn McLean Photographer: Dan Nganeko
Hospice Taranaki boss Paul Lamb has sent out a desperate plea to landlords to help find the organisation a space for its ever expanding retail store north of New Plymouth.
The New Plymouth district’s growing population near Bell Block, combined with an increasing volume of donations being dropped off at its Waiwhakaiho Hospice Shop, has the team of volunteers and paid staff at the site almost suffocated by stock and customers.
While Lamb applauds the generosity of everyone donating and buying goods, he also knows they have to act and want help. “We ideally want to move at the beginning of next year because the next couple of months leading into Christmas is a really busy trading period for us,” he said. “It’s going to be too complex for us to move in that time and we need to give our volunteers a break at the end of that time.”
Finding a new retail space, especially one that has enough car parks to complement the foot traffic of customers, was not proving easy. Lamb said he had been working with a number of people to scope out something suitable, but there was nothing on the horizon and things were starting to get more than a bit desperate. “It’s not easy,” he said. “We want to stay in this Waiwhakaiho basin area but there are very little properties coming up for lease.”
Lamb believed they would be attractive tenants, especially for potential neighbouring businesses, given the retail store at Waiwhakaiho had an average of 5500 sales per month. “That means a lot of foot traffic in our area,” he said.
The volume of sales from the Waiwhakaiho store meant it was one of the most important fundraising arms of the organisation, which conducted more than 19,000 home visits, handled over 13,000 phone calls, admitted more than 180 patients to their inpatient unit, and provided ongoing support to an average of 250 patients and their families in the last year.
“All our net returns from our shops go straight into our care services, so it’s vitally important to us,” he said. “Our net income from our shops is about $1.6 million a year and we know that money is not out there in the community right now if we had to go and ask for it, because there is a lot of people doing it pretty damn hard at the moment.”
Lamb said Hospice Taranaki was also conscious it faced a growing demand for its services and the need to draw more and more on its retail arm.
“Exponentially, our expenditure to support those people is going to go up and there is a lot of pressure and uncertainty on the health sector at the moment and the level of government funding. “So things like our retail group and the success of our retail grow is really, really important.”
Anyone with information about potential properties for lease that may meet Hospice Taranaki’s needs is encouraged to contact Lamb at paul.lamb@hospicetaranaki.org.nz
