By Lachlan Ellis<\/p>\n
A local business will be without a familiar face for the first time in 34 years, with the owner making the decision to sell.<\/p>\n
The Ballan Newsagency is currently owned by Ian and Olive Ireland, and has been since 1988, but a handover of the business is planned for 28 November this year.<\/p>\n
Mr Ireland said it had been an honour to be a part of the Ballan community for over three decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s time that we start enjoying life as we get older, our family\u2019s grown up, the commitments are less. It\u2019s a bit sad, we\u2019ve made a lot of friends in the business,\u201d Mr Ireland said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a pleasure serving the Ballan community. The people we\u2019ve met over the years have been tremendous. We\u2019ve seen the town grow, we\u2019ve met new people coming to town from all walks of life to live here, and we\u2019ve seen people move on. We\u2019ve seen families start, and children grow up, get married and start their own families. It\u2019s been great to participate in the Ballan community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The building will remain a newsagency, and Mr Ireland believes current staff will remain in their roles if they wish to.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur last trading day [Ollie and I] will probably be the Saturday morning [26 November], we\u2019re hopefully going to have all our family members here, because they\u2019ve all been a part of it. We\u2019ll be able to chat with people who come in, but other than that, we don\u2019t have anything extra planned at this stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs for what\u2019s next, Ollie and I will probably sit back, and enjoy Christmas. In the New Year we\u2019ll hopefully go on a couple of little holidays in Australia, places we haven\u2019t been that we want to go to, and just enjoy our little property. And we\u2019ll start to get a few things done at home that we haven\u2019t gotten done, because we\u2019ve been working.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ballan Newsagency was originally located next to the Ballan Hardware store, where Seek Accounting is currently situated, but purchased its current location from the closing Westpac Bank in 1996.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Lachlan Ellis A local business will be without a familiar face for the first time in 34 years, with the owner making the decision to sell. The Ballan Newsagency is currently owned by Ian and Olive Ireland, and has been since 1988, but a handover of the business is planned for 28 November this […]<\/p>\n