Stihl going strong: Community support fuels Kendray family revival

The Kendray family – Andrew and Catherine and their daughters Georga, Dana and Rebecca – outside their temporary Rigby Street premises.

by Janine Hill

FIVE months after a devastating fire, the Stihl Shop is going strong at temporary premises in Nambour.

The business, operated by the Kendray family – Andrew and Catherine, and their daughters Georga, Dana and Rebecca - had been running from premises at the corner of Coronation Avenue and Rigby Street until the February fire.

Georga Kendray said nearby business Bat Fit Crazy offered shed space in Rigby Street which they gladly took up. 

They rent two more spaces to get the floor space they need for the amount of stock they carry plus a workshop.

“There’s a bit of running backward and forward. We’ll be glad when that’s all over,” she said.

The Kendray family plan on rebuilding once their insurance claim for the fire has been finalised.

“We are definitely going to be rebuilding it. We just can’t do anything until the insurance has been sorted out, which is frustrating,” she said.

Georga said the family was grateful for the assistance from Bat Fit Crazy and other businesses, such as A. J Steel, which offered manpower to help the family get up and running again after the fire.

She said customers had also been supportive.

“Our customers have been amazing. We still have people offering space in their sheds if we need to store anything,” she said.

“A lot of them have waited for us to get the workshop up and running. They’ve been very patient and very understanding.”

About 120 customer machines – lawnmowers, whipper snippers and the like –were in the workshop and destroyed when the fire occurred.

The Kendrays offered the customers new replacements for what they would have paid to have their machines repaired.

“Our customers come first. We couldn’t really expect them to live without their machines for months and months while we waited. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for our customers.”