By Judy Jeffrey
After 15 months, Officeworks Underwood has finally re-opened its doors just in time for Christmas and the back-to-school rush in early 2024.
In August 2022, fire tore through the building and destroyed not only the Officeworks building and everything inside, but it also took out all the other businesses attached.
Unfortunately, the fire left the staff wondering what will happen to their jobs. This turned out to be nothing to worry about as the Officeworks team care for their team members. Staff were filtered through out the other Officeworks in the areas around Logan, ensuring all had a place to work and keep making a living.
The new Officeworks sees 44 team members on the ground assisting customers, and of that 44, eight of the original crew have returned to carry on from where they left off. All the team pulled together over the last five weeks to get the store ready for the big grand opening which happened yesterday.
Under new direction from store business manager Jordan Collins, the new branding, new colours, and new strategies are all set to go.
“After a year of rebuilding, we are thrilled to be reopening the doors and connecting with our Underwood community once again,” said Jordan Collins.
“I’d like to thank all our team for their dedication to making this reopening possible and to our valued customers and community for their patience as we navigated our return to making Officeworks Underwood bigger and better for our customers and local community,” she said.
“While the store was closed, we provided the flexibility our team members needed. We arranged other work opportunities for our team at nearby Officeworks stores and in our Customer Service Centre.
“With a team member base of 44 people at Officeworks Underwood, we are delighted to welcome back seven members from our original team as well as five internal transfers,” she said.
The day also was a refreshing sight to see the amount of blue Officeworks staff from far and wide as well as other community groups that have all supported the team to come back bigger and better.
Woodridge North State School and Underwood Play and Learn both received donations from the new team. Also, a tribute was given to the previous manager, John Rodgers, for the quick and efficient way that he and his team evacuated everyone out of harm’s way on the night of the fire.
The team at Underwood are inviting the local community to celebrate their return this Saturday, November 11, as part of a free Community Fun Day. Giveaways, arts and crafts, complimentary coffee and more will be on offer.
Officeworks Underwood is located at The Zone, 183 Kingston Rd, Underwood QLD 4119 and is open to customers Monday to Friday 7am - 9pm, Saturday 8am - 6pm and Sunday 9am - 6pm.
