News matters

After buying a country news agency at Clermont in Queensland, a mother and daughter team boldly hit the ground running

Story By Paula Heelan

It’s the week before Christmas and Clermont News is in the thick of its busiest time of year. Customers are streaming in to buy last-minute Christmas cards and presents, from lottery tickets, magazines and gift cards to bric-a-brac, toys and drapery. But new owners, Caroline Flohr and her daughter, Natalie Finger, are well prepared. Six months previously Caroline and Natalie took over as just the third owners of a newsagency that has been at the heart of the Clermont community in central Queensland since it was first opened in 1900 by Gordon Cumming Pullar. Three generations of the Pullar family ran the business for almost a century before selling to Ian and Sue McCracken in 1999.
Caroline says it was the McCrackens who enabled her and Natalie to confidently step in. “Usually when people buy a newsagency the sellers stay on for a week or two to help the transition,” Caroline says. “Sue and Ian helped us for a whole month after the changeover. We couldn’t have had better support from both the McCrackens and the town residents, who were happy locals bought the business.”