Opening of The Source

Last month we saw the opening of our latest tenant in the Town Centre, @The Source Shell Cove and we sat down with the owners, Shane and Amy, to find out a little more about their story…

We’re both locals, we’ve lived in Shellharbour our whole life, Amy mostly from Warilla, but myself, I went to Shellharbour Public School, played footy here and all our family and friends live around here.

The inspiration for this venture was our kids. They are only three and one, but we want them to be conscious of the environment and the way people impact that. We’ve always been quite beachy people and when we go for walks each afternoon we always take those ‘umpers’, as my son calls them, from Bunnings so they can collect the rubbish we find so it doesn’t end up in the ocean, they already understand the horrible impact that has.

As far as opening a franchise of ‘The Source’, that all happened after I was watching a documentary called 2040 which is made by an Australian based down in Melbourne and it is basically about what the world would be like in twenty years if we used the current renewable energies that we have now, regenerative farming – just hopeful, easy and practical practice for a better world. During that doco, The Source featured and I thought it was such a great concept. When I researched it more, I realised there was one in Wollongong and we stopped in and had a look and was so impressed by the zero-waste model, the food was just a bonus.

When we started the process, we had a few meetings with The Source owners and it was more a case of them choosing us, they’re particular about who they let run their franchises and there was a bit of a process in that but they were amazing and you can see the pride and passion they have in their brand and businesses – and why it’s been such a success.

It’s been good to bring the old-fashioned way of doing shopping back but with a bit of a twist and the support has been amazing.

We’ve had such a positive response from the community and people keep commenting about how happy they are this option is here now and so many people we don’t know have come in and just can’t believe the options and range we stock. It’s been super positive, it’s been unreal to be honest.

This is our first taste of retail. Amy was a dental practice manager, so we both have experience in managing people, not so much managing a business, but we’ve got a lot of experience with people, we know the importance of that and that will be a big part of what we bring here. We both did a bit of retail when we were younger, Shane worked at Kmart over ten years ago, but beyond that, we’re 100% diving off the deep end! It’s been a steep learning curve, that’s for sure!

For us, The Source is all about customer service and experience, and that’s our edge. A lot of our staff are training in nutrition or are naturopaths, we have a five-star chef as well and those small things with good customer service and great food are going to be key to our success and ensuring people know they are getting the knowledge they expect when they come here.

We’ve picked a key moment, to be honest, if COVID-19 hadn’t happened, we probably would have been in eight months ago, but in hindsight that has all worked out well. The Waterfront Town Centre is picking up, we’ve seen a lot more foot traffic than we did even when we were first looking at coming here and even just the amount of parents who bring their kids to play in the splash park while they just sit down to grab a coffee. The site isn’t even finished yet and it only gets bigger and better from here.

We’re excited about the future and being part of it as it starts to get closer to that completed stage, even the boardwalks around The Waterfront will be amazing and once it’s all in, boom!

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To find out more about The Source Shell Cove, find and follow them on social media –

Instagram – www.instagram.com/thesourceshellcove

Facebook – The Source Bulk Foods Shell Cove

Or, visit them and try their huge range for yourself – 101 Cove Boulevard Shell Cove.