Dairy owners put in extra hours to make move happen
Busy Bee has fresh new base on Main St
After several months of renovating, the Busy Bee dairy, now relocated, reopened on Main St in Foxton on Friday. The last customer to be served prior to 6pm on Thursday night on Johnson St was Alex Scott. He was also one of the first customers to be served in the revamped Busy Bee.
“It’s a positive move to shift from an old building to a renovated building, nice and clean and brand new. The new signage, the Streets ice cream and Foxton Fizz were done locally by Duane Edwards. Being in a new location hasn’t affected our business,” said dairy owner Daryll Johnson.
“We posted on social media about the proposed move and the feedback has been strong. Keeping the Busy Bee name from the highway which has been there for about 20 years, was important as well.”
“The old Busy Bee building will eventually be knocked down and replaced by a Robert Harris cafe´ and bakery,” Johnson said.
“We feel very happy and excited to be here,” said Evangeline Johnson, Daryll’s wife. “The renovation took hours and hours of work, and to finally be in our new location is a relief.
“We finished in our old shop at 6pm Thursday evening, and then started packing up and moving here to our new location. We finally finished our move at 12.30am and opened at 6am this morning, [it] has been exhausting.
“It’s also good not to travel home, as we live here as well. Originally
Daryll came from Auckland and I came from the Philippines. I will take this opportunity to thank all the customers for their support over the years, as we wouldn’t be here today without them.”
“My sister Juliet Cotter does a lot of work here as well one of her main jobs is bagging all the lollies, so she is known around here as the lolly lady,” Johnson said.
The Busy Bee building has a bit of history behind it, as several businesses called it home over the years, from a transport company to a petrol station, a lawyer’s office, a clothing shop and now the Busy Bee Dairy, which is open from 6am-6pm daily.