Top 10 | Taking a look at the best business stories of 2022

Shops, eateries, retail outlets and other businesses opened, closed, changed owners and management, and also planned renovations and new delopments.

Here is a look at some of the top business stories that made the news in 2022.

Every week the Mind Your Business column is among the top read stories on the Central Western Daily website.

Published online each Monday, and often during the week in print, it has developed a regular readership.

One of the best read editions of the popular column featured the opening of the BoW Project – Cafe and Eatery at the North Orange Shopping Centre, Red Rooster being on the market and the planned relocation of McCarthy’s Pharmacy from Lords Place.

FAMILY-owned, the Robin Hood Hotel continued its plan to become a family-friendly social base when it announced stage two of its renovation plans.

A development application for $755,000 worth of upgrades was passed by Orange City Council early in the year and Robin Hood general manager Steve Quinlan said the pub was keen to get started on remodelling its interior.

“The Marlows purchased the hotel in April last year with the intention of investing money into it,” Mr Quinlan said, explaining largely cosmetic work had already been completed as stage one.

Millthorpe had been without a corner store now for so long that the sight of a couple of tradies hammering a nail was often enough to spark speculation about when Ashcroft’s on Pym was going to open.

So when the doors swung open for a soft opening on November 15, the locals were chomping at the bit to check out what was in store.

Owners Ben and Adam Ashcroft toiled away for months turning the historic store back into what it’s always been, a place for locals to pick up a few items for dinner or to grab those necessities of life.

Sunday, June 5, marked the last day the pair were in charge of the day-to-day running of the store, having made the decision to hand the reins over to Kristen Plante.

Mrs Nagle said she and her husband wanted to get out while they both “still really loved it.”

“This has been our baby for eight years and we’ve been in retail for 18 years total and we really love it, but it’s just time,” she said.

Best-selling author Kelly Rimmer was promoted from longtime-customer to owner at Collins Booksellers on Summer Street in 2022.

Founders Margaret and Phil Schwebel revealed plans to retire, 22 years after setting up the business.

Ms Rimmer said she had no plans to modify the layout of Orange’s last bookshop, but said a series of new monthly literary events are in the works.

Kelly Rimmer is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon-bestseller, with 13 published novels and more than two million readers.

AN historic corner store on the corner of Warrendine and Anson Streets is in for a new life.

A development application put on exhibition at Orange City Council on Thursday reveals a plan to turn what was formerly Mrs McNeilly’s corner store, and more recently Bissy’s Permaculture Cafe, into a four-bedroom dwelling.

The DA is seeking council’s permission for mainly internal alterations and additions to the existing art deco building which local history experts estimate was built in the late 1920s or early 1930s.

The property, known as 88 Warrendine Street, was sold late in 2021 for $836,000.

Among more than $4.5 million in developments that were approved by Orange City Council from February was a popular fast-food chain.

As part of the successful development application, submitted by the highway service group Spectrum Retail, the existing building was to be demolished.

In January, Bras N Things was confirmed as the newest shop for the Orange City Centre.

Orange city Centre manager Nicole Chapman confirmed the lingerie business would open inside the shop next to Big W, which was previously occupied by MyHouse.

Elsewhere in the centre, Strandbags had moved in from its former Summer Street location and Price Attack was expanding.

In May, a well-known Molong business announced it was closing its doors forever after 44 years of trading.

Be Tempted at Barnesys was an “icon” in Bank Street for the past 16 years.

Graham ‘Barnesy’ and Robyn Barnes started the business in Cumnock back in 1973 before shifting to Molong, where there daughter Jodie Laffin later became the business operator.

She said her parents put in “hard work and long hours”, sole trading in the hospitality world until 2007.

In October it was announced that two national retailers had been locked in to occupy part of the former Bunnings Warehouse building at the Orange Homemaker Centre.

Sentinel Homemaker, owners of the 7838 square metre site at 13/5295 Mitchell Highway, gained approval by Orange City Council earlier in the year to develop the existing area into four retail outlets of varying floorspace.

Then in October, Sentinel confirmed that it had agreed to terms for two of the four retail spaces.

“National retailers have agreed to take out leases on two of the tenancies,” a statement from the property investment firm read.

“Sentinel is also in advanced negotiations with other national tenants for the balance of the space.”

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