Matt Stacey is blown away by support that his family business has received since a devastating fire. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Matt Stacey is blown away by support that his family business has received since a devastating fire. Photo / Michael Cunningham
A family home kill business that went up in flames in May this year has been completely rebuilt three months later thanks to unwavering community support.
Chop Shop Home Kill owners Matty and Alicia Stacey are going to build a gratitude board that pays homage to the countless people who helped restore their business and livelihood.
“Honestly, it touched my heart heaps,” Matt said.
When the family business went up in flames in May, the couple described it as a “kick in the teeth” as they had been a day away from finalising their insurance. Not to mention, Alicia was due to give birth any day and the Staceys had just finished paying off their business loan of 18 months.
Despite the blow, the family had to continue business as usual. Another business owner helped store meat and Matt worked nights to keep customers serviced.
But the devastating experience for the hard-working family became a show of community support which left Matt speechless.
In place of the previous metal shed that housed thousands of dollars of gear and was completely destroyed in the fire is a new facility stocked with recently purchased gear.
The Chop Shop home kill and butchers was destroyed by a fire in late May. Photo / Tania Whyte
The family paid around $40,000 to get their shop up and running again but the remainder of the cost was donated by community members, business owners, friends and people from further afield.
Matt said the kindness had brought “a ray of hope” that people were still keen to help one another despite some of the bad things taking place, such as ram raids.
“There’s no way we could have done this whole building without the help of the people and the donations, it just doesn’t happen,” Matt said.
The rebuild took 10 weeks and an “unreal” amount of people lending a helping hand. People pitched in to drop off hired diggers, help clean up, carry out electrical work, donate roofing materials; build rails, and retaining walls - plus more.
A carefully compiled list of 29 individuals who helped the family in one way or another will feature on a gratitude board that will be placed outside the entrance to the business.
That way old and new customers will see that without community support-they wouldn’t be there, Matt said.
“There’s no way we could have opened and been operating this fast at all, it’s incredible. It’s pretty mind-blowing, it means so much.”
Chop Shop Home Kill serves hundreds of customers across Te Tai Tokerau - from Ruakākā, Dargaville, Tinopai and further north.
'Chop Shop # 2' marked by Matt and Alicia's children's hand prints. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Brodie Stone is the education and general news reporter at the Advocate. Brodie recently graduated from Massey University and has a special interest in the environment and investigative reporting.
