Two different businesses, same name; two different managers, two different journeys – both successful. We talk to the interesting women behind the local Paper Plus Alexandra and Cromwell stores.

Behind the Brand showcases our innovators, entrepreneurs, business owners, managers, leaders. 

It’s like a backstage pass into the real person behind the success. What makes them tick, what makes them successful. A peek at some of Central Otago’s smartest and most interesting people.

Learn their secrets, get hot tips from those with experience, and discover why you should support their venture.

“We are locally owned with a long history, the money stays locally, we employ local people, we donate locally,” Sam Robinson began.

 Aimee Paardekooper and Sam Robinson entered their management roles by different paths, but their journeys have been intertwined. The mutual support and collaboration they have fostered together over the past decade is key. 

Sam started work in the Alexandra store 16 years ago.

“It was a perfect storm – having bought the Queenstown store, Michael’s attention was drawn more and more to Queenstown.

“It left a massive hole here; I’m kind of bossy by nature and I just started organising what needed to be done, and moving into the manager role just sort of happened naturally.”

Michael was Michael Paardekooper. The Paardekooper family has owned local Paper Plus stores for 35 years.

“Aimee’s parents mortgaged their house to get into business – with two young kids, they just had to make it work,” Sam said.

Aimee said the family lived on very little to make it work for a very long time. Her parents believed in reinvesting in the business so it became strong, rather than pulling out profits. And they loved the community in which they lived.

“They could see Cromwell was going to grow, they just had to hold on.”

Cromwell did grow – and the business grew with the town. The couple opened the Alexandra store five years later.

Growing up in the business, Aimee left to complete University study, then returned to Cromwell 13 years ago.

“It was just before Dad got diagnosed with Parkinson’s; I came back to help him, and everything just evolved from there.

“I ended up taking over the Cromwell store.”

“We’ve just kind of been winging it ever since,” they both laughed.

Aimee and Sam agreed the biggest challenge for them both has been their age.

“We both started out as managers in our twenties, and having to manage people older than you can be a challenge.

“People are the most important part of our business, so we had to work through that.

“Also the perceptions of other business people; we were young and female and often just dismissed, even though we were running businesses.”

Those perceptions changed over time as they built relationships, and their results proved their value. Both stores consistently rate in the national top ten.

The challenges the pair faced as managers kept changing, and Covid sped things up.

“At the moment our main challenges are managing logistics of stock and cashflow coming into Christmas, plus keeping connected with our locals,” said Aimee.

“We always plan, but now we have to be prepared for another lockdown and plan out even further.

“We had planned for this last one, and I think it went pretty smoothly because of that.”

Worldwide freight issues mean suppliers are getting stock late and there is less of it. There are also domestic freight issues compounding the problem. The pair are getting as much stock in as they can, ahead of the Christmas period, so Central Otago doesn’t miss out.

“This situation doesn’t look to be changing any time soon,” Sam added. “So, we’re planning further and further out, planning for a normal trading period but making sure we can trade through if it’s not.”

There’s also been a positive spinoff from freight issues.

“We’ve had to take a punt, move to bulk ordering well-ahead and importing by sea freight,” Aimee noted.

“Now, if you order from one of our international competitors, the carbon emissions generated through air freighting individual items is eight times higher.

They are lucky, Aimee and Sam said, as Paper Plus is a co-operative. Stores are individually owned, with a national support structure in place, but without the rules of a franchise. This has meant freedom to do business in a way that is right for this area.

They’ve been able to make business decisions with a local focus for both staff and customers.

“We’ve made changes like keeping more mail bags, paper in stock – essentials that locals use more of during lockdown, essentials for learning and business.”

Aimee explained the Cromwell store also supplies many of the medical centres, and is able to sell essential items through alert level 4.

They then opened with a difference in alert level 3.

“We had counters at the front door, and we did all the running through the shop for our customers.”

Sam laughed. “We were personal shoppers.”

They also provided click and collect services, took orders through social media, email, phone, however people contacted them.

Both agreed that to truly be local, they had to find reciprocal ways of operating throughout every facet of the business.

“We want everyone to support local business, so we ensure our business is local however we can,” Aimee said.

“We’ve moved to as many locally owned and operated suppliers of goods as possible.

“We sell locally published books and books that are of specific interest to the people in our community.

“Where we’ve had the choice between dealing with a big overseas brand or a local wholesaler, we’ve gone local.

“It’s difficult sometimes, but it’s the right thing to do.”

“Then,” added Sam, “we make it easy for locals to deal with us.”

“The national website gives people access to almost any book in the world, so people who prefer can go online to order.

“If people are concerned about an accurate delivery time, or want to ask questions, they can contact us directly by coming in-store, phoning, emailing or messaging us.

“It’s a balance between ease of doing business and keeping the personal touch,” said Aimee.

 Aimee and Sam, pictured left, work together and support each other as managers.

The key to looking after their people during uncertainty they said, is to keep communicating.

“It’s also about getting feedback; saying this is my idea of how it might look, how do you feel about it? Is there anything I’ve missed? Are there things that we can do better?” Sam added.

“Uncertainty can be stressful, you’ve got to be mindful of how people are feeling.

“Without our team, we don’t have a business.”

Aimee had also used live video on social media to keep in touch with customers, and had great feedback.

“Customers were so grateful, they said it felt like a personal connection back again; I was overwhelmed by their comments.”

“It’s all about keeping connected; not just putting messages out but also inviting people in.”

In business said Sam, there are constant challenges but it’s about picking yourself up again – it’s not the end of the world if something doesn’t work. Navigating challenges makes business interesting, creates successes and keeps her going.

Aimee agreed. Her father, she said, had always taught them that if you haven’t failed, you haven’t taken enough risk, so you haven’t learned.

That learning might just turn into the next success.

Images supplied