There is no denying that the recent few years have been incredibly tough for businesses and despite a few hardships, ladies’ fashion boutique Elmari has just celebrated one year of trading at their Birtwill Street store, and they want to say a huge “thank you” to the community for their support.
With two other stores on the coast (Cotton Tree and Mooloolaba) the ladies behind Elmari know what they are doing, and the Coolum shop was their first venture north of the river, what the women did not expect was severe weather with flood damage and for their boutique to be shut in the lead up to the busy Christmas period.
Co-owner Cher Harck explained that it was a challenging first year, but the community support has been overwhelming.
“It wasn’t the smoothest first year, but we are still here as a result of the support that we have received from this amazing community.”
The women noticed a leak in the ceiling in February which was because of the huge amount of rain and then in November the ceiling completely collapsed leaving the shop closed for three weeks and some clothing soiled.
The roof was fixed, the boutique re-opened and, in a way, to give back to the community the ladies decided to support local charity SunnyKids with a huge sale on Friday, March 3 with all proceeds from the soiled stock going to the charity.
“We sold much of the clothing that was soiled during the collapse and raised $2,500 for SunnyKids.
“They are a charity that is close to our hearts as they support women and children going through domestic violence and most of our customers are women.”
Proprietors Cher and Elmarie have also loved being part of the Coolum community by way of supporting others.
“We are one of the sponsors of the Mount Coolum ladies’ golf team, and they supported us immensely both when the roof collapsed and with our charity sale.”
The boutique has also hosted a private shopping event for the Quota Coolum Beach ladies and has loved seeing so many locals take the time to come into the shop and say hello.
“We have now been here for a year and the love that we have received has been incredible.
“No one wrote us off when we were closed when the ceiling collapsed, and we just want to let the community know that we are so thankful for their support.”
Elmari Boutique is located in the Pacific On Coolum complex on Birtwill St.