GIVING young people a job was one of the highlights Colin Cleary enjoyed in his 25 years as manager at Port Fairy's IGA supermarket.
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Mr Cleary, 67, retired from his job this week but will remain a partner in the business.
"The 25 years have gone really quick when I look back," he told The Standard.
"It only seems like yesterday that I started in the job. We've offered hundreds of jobs to people in those 25 years, especially young people. It's been a joy to offer the young ones a job and watch them develop their skills. Over the years I've had lots of young ones come back and say thanks for giving them a start in their working lives and that has given me great pleasure. We've been very lucky to have had such great workers."
He said one of the biggest challenges was coping with the footprint of the supermarket. "We've just had to adapt over the years," he said.
"It's been a balancing act to run the business with the size of our store. The last time we did extend the footprint was about ten years ago and we can't do that anymore.
"I can vividly remember 25 years ago and we had wooden floors in one section, a carpeted floor area and another one was concreted while there was a section with Lino. The floor was up and down all around the store.
"We would love to offer a bigger supermarket to our customers but the size of the store is what it is. We can't do anything about that."
Cleary said there would be no major change in management as the supermarket had plenty of competent people running different departments.
