You could say Arrowtowner Lucy Hunt’s got her hands choc full.
Five years after taking a 50% stake in Remarkable Sweet Shop, which has stores in Arrowtown, Queenstown and the airport, plus web and wholesale divisions, she’s now the outright owner.
She’s bought out her business partner Jono Palmer, who set up the original Arrowtown store 20 years ago with his parents Liz and David.
Hunt — whose first job, ironically, was working in a Christchurch sweet store when she was (sweet) 16 — says she had no hesitation in buying Palmer’s share.
‘‘It’s scary but it’s exciting at the same time.
‘‘I think I just felt like I had certain visions I wished to carry out.’’
Her immediate focus is ‘‘just about consolidation and working through a few processes’’.
The airport store shifted in 2021 and a year later the Queenstown store moved into much larger premises a few doors along Beach St while the CBD upgrade was going on.
‘‘Along with Covid, we had a year-and-a-half as a war zone outside the shop, it was a debacle,’’ Hunt says.
Her priority now is creating some more ‘‘magic’’ in that larger store.
Though business is going well, and Christmas was very busy, ‘‘it’s certainly been challenging times, I think — it’s just got harder to eke out a profit in the last few years, hasn’t it?’’
She says her staff numbers range between 45 and 50, including an admin, warehouse and kitchen team based at ‘lolly HQ’, at Arrowtown’s Bush Creek.
