Junction Fair is proud to be home to retailers who bring heart, innovation, and community spirit to the local area. Our “We are Junction Fair” series is a little shout out we’ve put together to those we feel are shining examples.
Follow along on our social media channels as we share their stories over the coming months.
We recently chatted with Rhys and Sophie, business owners from Sanbah Surf. Here’s what they had to say…
What made you choose Junction Fair as the home for your business?
The Junction Fair offers convenience as well as a unique specialty offering that makes it a desirable place to shop regularly. The mix of businesses in the centre means there isn’t another centre in the area like us. We love our loyal clientele who recognise this, who appreciate and support us all.
What does being part of the Junction Fair community mean to you?
We feel very proud to be a part of this Junction community. We have been able to provide a premium product and service in Surf Retail and our loyal customers have always supported us over the years 20 years of being in the centre. For this reason, we both love to give back to our customers and the community so we have done as much as we can to support local initiatives. Sanbah currently donates to local school fundraisers, sponsors local football clubs and surfboard clubs. We sponsor young upcoming surfers and promote them within our industry and through our contacts, we also help them gain further sponsorship with other surf brands. Through Sanbah we have been able to help fundraise for important causes like Mark Hughs Foundation fighting brain cancer, Sanbah staff members have surfed in charity surf competitions that fundraised for charities like Surf Aid, Few for Shoe and Hope in a Suitcase just a name a few.
What’s a challenge you’ve faced in your business, and how did you overcome it?
Navigating Covid was a massive challenge. With so many rules and regulations it was a lot to stay up to date with the latest information. Having to close our doors during lockdowns and work out new systems for selling to our customers via click and collect and expand our online offering to show customers what stock we had available as they couldn’t come in store to browse the products as usual. We are very proud of our team who worked tirelessly through a very stressful time to bring the best service to our customers. And while everyone was turning to buying online we are again very grateful for our loyal clientele who came and supported us through this time.
What makes the Junction Fair community feel special or different to you?
For me, I think having so many independent retailers selling premium products is the key to the Junction’s success. This gives the centre a real sense of high-quality goods, backed with great customer service. Every time you walk into the centre you see familiar faces, and this brings a very welcoming vibe that I think all locals like and appreciate.
What’s a memorable moment you’ve shared with a customer, your team, or the Junction Fair community?
We had a customer who each year visited Vanuatu for a surf trip. He was a regular customer and would come grab a new board and wax for the trip. He told us about an initiative that the Locals were trying to get up off the ground to encourage more kids to go to school. The idea was that any kid going to school in this particular area in Vanuatu would get a second-hand surfboard. But they needed donations of the boards. Sanbah did a shout out to the local surfing community asking for donations, even dinged or broken boards as we would get them fixed before sending them over. This has resulted in our community helping to donating over 100 boards over the years!