After trading for a decade as Stationery Essentials, Wendy Robinson and her staff are planning a big celebration to mark their 10 year milestone this Saturday.
Wendy has been a part of the family business since her parents, Margaret and Ian Settree, took over Copper City Stationery from Trevor Buddle in 2005.
Prior to that, Mr Buddle, who was based in Broken Hill, had run the stationery shop in Cobar for 17 years.
“At the time it was really funny how all this came about,” Wendy told The Cobar Weekly.
“We were doing a major printing job for Cobar Paper Chase and mum was dealing with Copper City Stationery about fancy copy paper.
“She wasn’t happy with the limited selection at the time and she jokingly said to Trevor that he had better sell her the shop.”
Wendy said within two days that offhand comment became serious and the ball was rolling to negotiate a sale.
When the Settrees bought the business (which was then located on the corner of Marshall and Barton streets which is now occupied by CentaCare), they planned to incorporate it with their Cobar Paper Chase employment, secretarial and bookkeeping business.
Within a year they had outgrown the Barton Street store, so plans were put in place to relocate to the Cobar Paper Chase office in the old State Bank building across the road which was owned by Margaret and Ian.
In January 2009, after major extensions and modifications to the building, they moved to their current main street location.
“The bigger location in Marshall Street gave us room to expand into more office furniture and also to introduce a party and fancy dress costume range,” Wendy said.
“It was very exciting at the time as we sourced new suppliers to introduce a wider range of stock to our clients.
“It also gave us the opportunity to have more stock, which gave us a better buying power in the Office Choice chain.
“With the expansion of the new business we became bannered with Office Choice which gave us the signwriting, catalogues, specials, website and a better buying power,” she said.
In December last year, Margaret and Ian were tragically killed and since then their business legacy has been carried on by Wendy and her staff.
To honour Margaret and Ian’s memory and celebrate their legacy, Stationery Essentials will be holding a 10th birthday party this Saturday at the shop with a sausage sizzle, a visit from Disney characters, give-aways, a lucky prize draw and discounts across the store.
“If mum and dad were here, they would have proudly made a big fuss of Stationery Essentials’ 10th birthday,” Wendy said.
“On the day we’ll be encouraging people to buy a helium filled balloon to be released in memory of mum and dad.
“The money from the sale of the balloons will go to Batyr, a group that focuses on preventative education in the area of young people’s mental health.
“It was a cause that mum in particular supported and was very passionate about,” Wendy said.
