General News
21 February, 2025
Town to lose Jono and Johno store
Grant Jonasson and Charlie Johnson announced last Friday they will be officially closing down their Warracknabeal Jono and Johno store.
Just as the store is going into its 10th year of trading, Mr Jonasson and Mr Johnson expressed their sadness through a Facebook statement and explained their reasons behind the sudden closure.
Jono and Johno has been in town since 2008 opening in their original location in 140 Scott Street, which formally housed Elliade old gas shop.
The pair closed the store in 2010 before returning five years later in their current location at 61 Scott Street.
"We were proud as punch when we opened J&J in Warrack for a second time," the Facebook statement read.
"It broke our hearts to close 140 Scott St. I can’t begin to describe how it feels to let you know we now have to close 61 Scott St.
"There’s a bunch of reasons why the business model we’ve created is no longer feasible to operate, but the simplest way to explain it is that our costs are too high and there’s only so much revenue we can generate in a town with a population the size of Warracknabeal."
Mr Johnson said the decision to close wasn't due to people shopping locally rather than it was the opposite.
"We had great community support," he said.
"It's the decrease in population around town and online shopping has taken a toll on us."
In the Facebook statement it said, "Our Warrack store generates around 50 per cent of the revenue our successful Ballarat store does, with only 2 percent of the population".
"You folks have given us every opportunity to keep the doors open. We really cannot thank you all enough.
"Most of the business costs come from wages, but reducing staff isn’t an option when you have a store with the range of goods that we do.
"Cutting staff would mean orders wouldn’t be placed, shelves would be left bare, staff would be run off their feet. It just wouldn't work.
"You may also wonder why we don’t try to downsize the business to just the J&J range (what you see on our website). This is where we remain competitive and it’s the model our Ballarat store is based on.
"We have looked at this but unfortunately, we still can’t make the figures work."
A closing down sale is now on with all stock ready to go.
Mr Johnson said an official closing date hasn't been set as stock needs to go first.
"Once the sale is over, we plan to leave the shelving, counters etc in the hope someone may wish to lease the building and possibly open a similar business, but we’ll be looking to lease it, regardless," they said.
"Once the store is closed, after sale support will be run through our online team in Ballarat.
"We want to thank all our staff, both past and present, for helping make the store the valued community asset it has been.
"We’d especially like to acknowledge our current team—Bob, Brett, Gary, Pete, Jacquie, and Kiana—for their dedication, hard work, and commitment to keeping the store running smoothly. Passionate and a laugh-a-minute. We appreciate you all.
"We will always be proud of Jono & Johno Warracknabeal and we’re grateful to have been part of your lives for the past ten years."