By Margaret Maccoll
Noosa’s iconic surf shop Golden Breed shut its doors on Monday after the landlord handed them their marching orders.
Store manager Nick Van de Merwe said they were told the premises would be demolished and there was no place for them in the new build.
“It’s been brewing for a long time,” he said.
“We wanted to save it. All our staff are going to lose jobs. It’s quite horrible.”
Nick said when they first leased the site in October 2008 it was an ugly besser block building that they clad in wood.
The store has a relationship with the shop next door and Nick hopes to maintain some presence at the roundabout location while seaching for another site.
“We’d love to find something else in Noosa,” Nick said. “We’ve got our fingers crossed but nothing’s going to be what we had. I’m not sure what the future will be.”
Golden Breed has stores in Coolangatta and Byron Bay and most of the Noosa store’s stock would be transported to its other stores.
Nick said as well as being a local employer the business had been a long term supporter of the Noosa Festival of Surfing.
