Raeward Fresh owners moving to new venture

It’s an exciting time in the Caldwell household, with a new baby, a new shop, and a shift to a new town, but both Laura and Gareth say they will miss their Raeward Fresh family.

After four years as owner-operators of Raeward Fresh in Richmond, they have bought Kaiapoi New World and are in the process of moving.

“This is a great new challenge and exciting opportunity for us to also become part of a community similar in a size way to Richmond,” Gareth says.

The news they had a new store came just three weeks before Laura gave birth to new baby Charlie and, by the time he is 6 weeks old, they will have completed their shift. In the meantime, there is a lot of work to do with handing over their two businesses while starting the next, with a two-week overlap where they will be running the three stores.

“It’s not the first time things have worked like this. We found out I was pregnant with George the day before we took over Raeward Fresh,” Laura says. “You just make it work.”

Looking back over the past four years, Laura says the highlight has been how the staff have come on the journey with them.

During that time, they integrated the wholesale business Fresh Connection, purchased and rebranded Westmeats, and tripled their staff. With wholesale supply now the biggest part of their business, Covid-19 was a challenge.

They had 60 staff from their wholesale operation with little to do. However, they see positives that came from that time. They moved all their staff to the Raeward Fresh Champion Rd store where they all worked together on home deliveries to the community

“That brought staff from sites together and drew the team closer,” Laura says.

Gareth has owned businesses from the time he was 18, except for two years working in a bank to gain financial expertise.

Laura knew she wanted to own her own business but went a different route, gaining qualifications in marketing and management.

In 2011 Gareth moved from England to Nelson. He and Laura met on a blind date and have been together ever since.

Their first taste of working together was after Harper was born. Laura joined Gareth at their previous business, Speights Ale House Nelson - and they worked together from then on. They enjoy working together even though it is 24/7 for them and they talk about it a lot at home.

“We put everything into the business,” Laura says. “It’s such a massive part of who we are and what we do.”

Laura is planning to take time off to settle the children into their new life and spend some time with Charlie.

Before then she will help with the handover here while Gareth starts in Kaiapoi.