FREEDOM TO TRADE ON IN TOWNSVILLE
THE owners of Freedom Furniture are investing in its Townsville store by restocking the outlet with its latest range and retaining staff employed under a previous franchise.
It comes after the store’s former franchisees, who continue to operate a Freedom store at Cairns, closed after 25 years of trading in Townsville when the premises’ lease at Domain Central expired at the end of February.
The managing director of Freedom Australia, Tim Schaafsma, said they were supporting the store through its regional structure and intended to continue to operate Townsville as a franchise operation.
“We have some plans to restock the store to ensure it presents the current version of Freedom around Australia,” Mr Schaafsma said. “While it’s an end to the franchise agreement for Townsville, it’s not the end of Freedom in Townsville.
“We are investing in the store and we are looking for a store manager.”
A regional manager with the help of Freedom’s Sydney support centre was running the Townsville outlet with staff who had chosen to remain, Mr Schaafsma said.
He said the Townsville staff were “very excited” to continue working with Freedom.
“We do value everyone who works with us ... and the staff who wanted to continue working with Freedom, we made sure they could,” Mr Schaafsma said.