How stacking baked beans became a bigger story for Roz White

Roz White pictured with husband Michael at their Forest Glen store: “As a retailer, it’s a privilege for me to be able to take that beautiful, preciously grown food that’s nourished by somebody with hard work and hard hands, and bring that to your community.”

by Cameron Outridge

For more than a decade, Roz White worked in the supermarket business she had built with her husband Michael without loving the job.

It was hard, repetitive and relentless: long hours, cartons to unpack, shelves to fill and customers to serve in a small convenience store bought with more hope than retail experience.

But when Mrs White finally looked beyond the day-to-day grind and saw what the business could mean to its community, everything changed.

“I had to take that fundamental shift,” Mrs White told the Queensland Country Press Association conference on the Sunshine Coast recently.

“I was just looking down at the Coca-Cola and the things I had to do and the pallet I had to strip down, and I wasn’t loving it because it was task driven.

“The mindset shift for me had to happen when I looked up and saw not what I was doing, but what I was a part of.

“When I saw the bigger picture, everything moved from black and white to colour, and that’s when the passion kicked in.”

Today, Roz and Michael White own six White’s IGA supermarkets on the Sunshine Coast, operating stores shaped around community, local producers and an appreciation for food that began in Mrs White’s childhood.

Growing up as the youngest of eight on a cattle property at Coalston Lakes in the North Burnett, Mrs White described herself as “the quintessential country girl”.

By the age of 14, while still attending school, she had become her father’s right-hand helper, mustering cattle, driving tractors and feeding weaners. “That was my life and I loved it,” she said.

Her father, she said, instilled three qualities which would later carry her through the hardships of business: “determination, tenacity and resilience”.

Mrs White met Michael when they were both transferred to the same bank branch at Tewantin. Wanting to stay on the Sunshine Coast rather than transfer around Queensland to progress in banking, they bought a small Night Owl Convenience Store in Maroochydore in 1993.

Over the years, the Whites became IGA retailers and transformed older supermarkets into larger, more distinctive community-focused stores at locations including Mount Coolum, Mooloolah, Bli Bli, Peregian Beach, Baringa and Forest Glen.

Yet Mrs White said it was finding purpose, rather than simply growing the business, that made the difference. “Who knew you could learn to love stacking baked beans?” she said.

That purpose ultimately brought her journey full circle through the White’s IGA Locavore program, which identifies and promotes food grown, raised or produced locally.

Mrs White said her upbringing had given her a deep respect for the effort behind every locally grown lettuce, pumpkin or cut of meat.

“I know how hard it is to create that beautiful food, to grow the fresh lettuce, to breed the cattle, to muster the cattle, to bring that beautiful, fresh goodness to your plates and to your family,” she said.

“As a retailer, it’s a privilege for me to be able to take that beautiful, preciously grown food that’s nourished by somebody with hard work and hard hands, and bring that to your community.”

Through the Locavore symbol in store, shoppers can identify local products, while an associated Little Locavores program encourages children to grow herbs and pumpkins and learn where their food comes from.

Mrs White said each local product also carried a story worth telling.