White’s IGA have been inducted into the Sunshine Coast Business Awards Hall of Fame after winning the Retail (large) category for three years running.
Co-founded Roz White, who purchased her first corner store with husband Michael in 1993, credited her staff and the community for the accolade.
White’s IGA have six stores across the Sunshine Coast and 520 staff.
“I have been skipping around the stores, I am just so excited by this,” Ms White said.
“I keep saying to my staff and to our customers, this is your celebration too, you are a part of our story.”
Reflecting on 31 years of business, Ms White said she would never forget the couple who made her business ownership dreams come true.
“Our first business mentors were the couple we bought our first store off, Rob and Sandra,” she said.
“We scratched together enough money to buy the store but we didn’t think about any money we would need for stock – we had none.
“This couple very generously gave us 12 months vendor finance to pay off the stock – otherwise it would never have happened – none of this would ever have happened without them.”
White’s IGA has gone on to give many Sunshine Coast teenagers their first ever job, and have some staff clocking up their 28th year of service.
“We had one girl who came to us as a teenager and worked part time through school and university and then came to work with us in HR once she got her degree,” Ms White said.
“We have a man who is one of our most senior leaders in the business who came to us as a teenager and chipped away at a business analyst degree over 10 years to work his way up in the business.
“When you find good people – you hold onto them.”
Ms. White noted that the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic only strengthened the bond of an already tight-knit team.
“Our staff were frontline through the whole thing and regardless of their own fears – they continued to serve our community,” she said.
“We basically became a two-pillared business and we had two jobs to do – keep people safe and keep people fed, but afterwards I felt this enormous fragility and there was a vulnerability in our team that i had never seen before.
“We then had to work and implement support and strategy to bring the health and wellness back to where it needed to be and we implemented programs to help our staff to do that.”
She said the cost of living crisis was a new obstacle the Whites faced alongside the community.
“Now we have moved into a new phase where there is financial strain in the community, and our team feels that too,” she said.
“The workforce has changed since COVID, people’s attitudes have changed – it’s such a time of evolution and as a business you have to continue to respond as expectations change and you have to change your workforce and evolve and adapt.”
