Bereavement gets beach house style
A RARE dedicated space for informal funeral gatherings is being launched this week on the Surf Coast.
Kings Funerals’ beach house-style space in Torquay will support the trend towards more relaxed and reflective funeral ceremonies while giving the funeral home a place to meet grieving families and offer viewings.
While the space can be used for more solemn ceremonies, Kings Funerals general manager Beth King said it had been designed to cater for changing attitudes towards death and funerals.
“People on the Surf Coast are more likely to have that informal, relaxed attitude to all areas of their life, including funerals,” Ms King said.
“But that is also emerging across the entire community.”
Research commissioned by the Australian Funeral Directors Association notes the personalisation of funerals is a growing trend in
Australia, with just over half of the respondents to a 2014 survey viewing them as a normal part of life.
Built by Torquay’s Basebuild Construction, the Geelong Road building is designed to be comfortable and flexible.
Ms King said Kings Funerals had identified about five years ago that it wanted to have a presence on the Surf Coast, adding to its venues in Geelong’s CBD, Newcomb and Ocean Grove.
“Until now, we have either been meeting people in their homes or they are coming into our offices in Geelong to meet with us for organising the funeral,” she said.
Ms King said the intimate Torquay setting was the first dedicated space for nonreligious funeral gatherings on the Surf Coast, with people previously only having access to community facilities or outdoor areas.
Kings’ senior operations manager Briohny Fitzgerald and her husband Richie Fitzgerald, a big wave surfing legend, have witnessed many a “paddle-out past the break” in honour of Surf Coast lives.
Ms Fitzgerald said Kings had realised that a space that matched the passion people had for sun, sea and sand was hugely important.
“Traditional funeral homes can often feel sterile and unfamiliar, and even scary,” she said.
“In Torquay, and in all our venues, we work on creating a space where people feel comfortable and relaxed.
“This means people are far more likely to feel like connecting and sharing stories, which is of course key to the grieving process.”
The setting can accommodate 40-50 mourners and has webcast production facilities.
Ms King said she would be paying close attention to the uptake of the new offering and the direction it may lead the business.
“We are really interested to see how many people embrace this over the coming years and use this space,” she said.
“It’s a smaller space than what we are used to but that suits some people.”
A NEW tool retail franchise in Grovedale is targeting support from DIY enthusiasts as well as professional tradies.
While national tool retailer Total Tools caters primarily to those “who make a living using tools”, the group’s chairman and local franchisee Warren Jones said he also expected the Surf Coast Highway store to attract aspirational amateurs.
“Even though the bulk of our customers are tradesmen, because we sell to the tradesman it attracts a lot of serious DIY-ers,” he said.
Mr Jones has added the 2000sq m Grovedale store to his suite of Total Tools franchises in North Geelong, Brooklyn, Melton and South Melbourne.
The North Geelong store, which opened in 2010, and the Grovedale stores will support each other.
“We would describe them as sister stores,” Mr Jones said. “They work well together.
“Tradies can buy from either store and we will share resources and stock between the two.”
The Grovedale store, which employs a team of 15, opened shortly before Christmas but will have its official “grand opening” on Wednesday with a raft of opening offers, specials and giveaways to be repeated on Saturday.
The move to open a store servicing Geelong’s growing southern fringe was on the radar for about five years, Mr Jones said.
In addition to the Armstrong Creek growth corridor, he expects the store to service trades in the Surf Coast.
“Torquay is very heavy with tradesmen,” he said.
“Most people won’t pass one tool store to get to another; we needed to establish a presence in the south.” The new franchise adds to the national chain’s extensive buying power.
Mr Jones said Total Tools, which started more than 30 years ago, had grown into the biggest specialty tool retailer in Australia with franchises in every state and territory.
“In 2005, the group had 20 stores, now we have 90,” he said. “It has been spectacular growth.”