Greerton Village is humming with new businesses moving into the area. The growth in the retail community is sparking a vibrancy which was clearly apparent at Wednesday night's Business After Five meeting.

The Waipuna Hospice Shop Greerton hosted the first BA5 networking event for 2018, with Greerton Mainstreet Manager Sally Benning updating the gathering of business owners on recent developments in the community.

'You'll know we've had some issues with beggars and streeties,” says Sally. 'The police arrested a young woman yesterday.”

On February 8, two shops in Greerton Village had their windows smashed. Reports of fighting and windows being smashed in the evening quickly brought police to the site, where they found that Café Essence and Greerton Lotto, both Cameron Road shops, had their windows broken.

'On Friday afternoon this week, I've been invited along to a meeting with the other mainstreet managers and the area Police Commander, as well as city councillors,” says Sally. 'My understanding is that there will be a new initiative aimed at educating the public.”

Sally reports back to the Greerton Village retailers on relevant topics and issues through a newsletter and face to face. The networking meeting is held monthly, hosted each time by a different business.

Paula Taplin, manager of the Waipuna Hospice Shop in Greerton welcomed the other business owners, providing refreshments and presenting key information about their shop.

'I have an assistant manager and 40 volunteers just for this shop,” says Paula. 'There are 750 volunteers that help Waipuna Hospice in total and they contribute almost 80,000 hours per year to help support us.

'So part of the aim of the stores is to help cover the shortfall in funding for the Hospice. After funding by the health funding we are $2.7 million short in the services we provide, so the stores help raise money to cover the shortfall. '

The Greerton BA5 networking event at the Waipuna Hospice Shop Greerton

Waipuna Hospice recently opened a new shop in Domain Road, Papamoa, making a total of six shops across the Western Bay of Plenty. The shops are located in Katikati, Mount Maunganui, Greerton, Te Puke, Papamoa and Fraser Street.

Greerton Village have highly popular events on their 2018 calendar. Coming up is a shop window dressing competition, the Vintage and Retro Fayre which includes a trip for two to the Gold Coast sponsored by House of Travel The Crossing, an Easter egg trail, and yarn bombing with prizes and funds raised for local charities.

Four new businesses in Greerton Village include Robyn's Cottage, which relocated from the Tauranga Historic Village into Chadwick Road; Bay Entertainment; Maitea, a specialist tea bar has also opened in Chadwick Road; and The Law Shop which will be moving in to the old TAB site.

'We don't have empty shops for long,” says Sally. 'We love that. People want to come here.”

Rex and Robyn Parker from Robyn's Cottage