There’s nothing quite like bowing out on a high note.
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So it was a welcome surprise for Tiger Models and Hobbies owners Hans and Helen Wanders on Friday when their business was named the state’s best model and hobby outlet at the Australian Enterprise Awards.
On the same day, they announced they would be retiring and selling the business after 13 years at the helm.
“That's just added another $10,000 to the price of the business,” Mr Wanders joked.
After buying the business in March 2004, the Wanders family expanded the St John Street store in 2008 by moving into a vacant shop space next door.
Mr Wanders said the recent closure of Birchalls had left a considerable hole in Northern Tasmania’s hobby market.
“We get people down from Smithton and from Wynyard; people that want hobby stuff because we're the only shop of its kind in the North of the state.
“We have hobbyists that start at seven or eight that are doing modelling right up to people in their 70s or 80s, so you're working for a whole different range of age groups.”
The Wanders family are the third owner of Tiger Models and Hobbies, following on from Malcolm Howie and David Cooke, who founded the business in 1991.