LOWERING the number of empty shops in Wodonga and a Christmas shopping promotion are some of the plans of a traders’ group.
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Wodonga Retailers will be formally launched next Monday night after having been a loose organisation over the last 12 months.
The group was formally incorporated last month and president Greg Haysom is keen to see membership jump from 30.
“The aim would be to have every retailer in Wodonga, I’d like to see 150 members and I think from what we’re looking at, at the moment, we could go close to that after Monday,” Mr Haysom said.
The emergence of Wodonga Retailers comes as shopping in the city is recast with the recent opening of the Wodonga Central and Mann Central complexes.
But Mr Haysom and his vice president Rhys Torpy said their group was focused beyond the centres.
“They’re a drawcard for the city, but it’s not just the big shopping centres, there’s so many small businesses that people don’t know about,” Mr Haysom said.
He added he would like vacant shops occupied.
“We would like to fill some of those shops,” Mr Haysom said.
“A property valuer told me there was 13 per cent of Wodonga shops empty and 12 months ago it was six per cent, it would be good to return towards that figure.”
Promotions are also being flagged, with the group aiming to have Easter and Christmas events along with other activities to draw dollars.
“With the City2City fun runners next year, when it finishes we want something to offer them,” Mr Haysom said.
“We want to have a big event leading up to Christmas next year.”
Wodonga Retailers will not be beholden to the city’s council through funding.
“We want to be completely independent from council,” Mr Haysom said.
“We don’t want to take funding from them because we believe that’s in the best interests of Wodonga businesses.”
Nevertheless, the retailers are keen to work with the council and Mr Torpy said it did not want to be a group “that harps on, we want to go forward and be positive”.
The launch will be held at the Steak Pit restaurant at Elgin’s Wodonga from 6pm Monday with membership open to businesses throughout the city.
The annual membership is $50 with stickers available for shop windows.
