Roelf Vos (1921 – 2 December 1992) was a

Dutch Australian Dutch Australians refers to Australians of Dutch ancestry. They form one of the largest groups of the Dutch diaspora outside Europe. At the 2021 census, 381,946 people nominated Dutch ancestry (whether alone or in combination with another ance ...

businessman who established a

supermarket chain A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limit ...

carrying his name initially in Launceston, and later throughout northern

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

. The equivalent in the south of the state was Purity Supermarkets established by Engel Sypkes. Born and raised in the Netherlands, he was involved in the resistance during the second world war. He migrated with his wife and children to Australia in 1951 where he initially worked as a labourer on a wage of $19. In 1954 he opened a gift store in Deloraine followed shortly afterwards by another in George Town. Around 1958, he rented a small shop in Launceston, a milk bar which he converted into northern Tasmania's first self-service grocery store. Vos-Supermarket-Burnie-20170413-001

By 1969, he was operating eight supermarkets in Launceston, each with a car park and a combined turnover in 1969 of $3,500,000. In December 1969 he purchased two Moran & Cato shops in Ulverstone and Devonport for $250,000, and was hoping to open two new shops, one of which in

Burnie Burnie is a port city on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. When founded in 1827, it was named Emu Bay, being renamed after William Burnie, a director of the Van Diemen's Land Company, in the early 1840s. , Burnie had an urban popul ...

. He ultimately had thirteen supermarkets employing 500 people. In 1982, after he suffered two heart attacks, the supermarket operations were sold to Woolworths, which continued to trade under the Vos name for 20 years. Vos went on to establish the

Grindelwald Grindelwald is a village and Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli (administrative district), Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Berne. In addition ...

resort in Tasmania, modelled on

in Switzerland. The Vos family retained ownership of the properties, including two shopping centres in the north and north west of Tasmania. They were rebranded as Woolworths in the early 2000s. At the time of the final loss of the Roelf Vos name, the stores in Launceston included a CBD store (Wellington Street), as well as Newstead, Kings Meadows, Prospect Vale,

Riverside Riverside may refer to: Places Australia * Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania Canada * Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon * Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta * Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...

and Newnham. The CBD Wellington Street and Newstead stores are now

Coles supermarkets Coles Supermarkets Australia Pty Ltd, trading as Coles, is an Australian supermarket, retail and consumer services chain, headquartered in Melbourne as part of the Coles Group. Founded in 1914 in Collingwood by George Coles, Coles operates ...

, and the Newnham store has closed and is now a

City Mission The City Mission movement started in Glasgow in January 1826 when David Nasmith founded the Glasgow City Mission (Scotland). It was an interdenominational agency working alongside churches and other Christian agencies to provide for the spiritu ...

charity store. The Final store to be built under the Roelf Vos name was the Legana store, just north of Launceston. Only opening in 2000, a fitting final store being only a 5 minute drive from Grindelwald. Roelf Vos supermarkets were colloquially referred to as Vossie's in Tasmania.

References

1921 births 1992 deaths Dutch emigrants to Australia People from Launceston, Tasmania Australian grocers {{retail-company-stub

See also

References