Professionals Serendipity 
Granny Macs has earned its name, being the oldest of the surprisingly numerous fudge stores on the mountain. Mandy ffrench, the owner, helps me get some insight into just why it’s such a popular Mountain treat, and how this sugar showroom started it all.
Kyle Hitchmough
Ho w long have you owned the store?
I came out from the UK fifteen years ago and purchased the business. It was set up by Mike and Valerie Fitzner about 22 years ago, and it had been a Granny Macs for seven years when I bought it from them. They were retiring and I’d come out to Australia on a business visa. Their granddaughter runs Tamborine Dreaming and they set up both businesses. I bought this one from them and their granddaughter bought the other.
What goes into the day-to-day of owning and operating a place like this?
A lot of hard work. There’s always something. From the very basics of getting down to the nitty gritty cleaning bits that might get missed on a regular basis, to catching up with paperwork, to chasing up deliveries and dealing with technicalities.
You have a sign out the front that says all the fudge is made on the premises. Do you make it yourself?
I make some of it. We’ve got four senior staff and myself who all know how to make our fudge, but two of them are the main fudge-makers. What they don’t have time for, I’ll do, and I’ve created some of the flavours. It’s quite fun, and it’s creative!
Do you have a favourite flavour? What are your best-sellers?
A few! One of my favourite flavours is our top seller and has been for three years now, and that’s the salted caramel. For me personally, I find that combination of sweet and salty very mouth-watering. We use pink Himalayan salt. It’s a lovely smooth, soft texture. I had a few customers over a couple of weeks coming in and asking for salted caramel, so we did a bit of experimenting, and it immediately took over from our previous top seller which was ‘cookies and cream’.
On a more personal note, what do you enjoy most about running this place?
International customers. Absolutely, hands down. I just love meeting people, people of all nationalities, religions, cultures… It’s just social, it’s lovely to chat to people. We get a lot of elderly groups coming through, disability groups… I just love people, I love communicating.
Are you a local to the area? What’s your opinion on the Tamborine area, as a location and a community?
Yes, I am. I think it’s a fantastic community. We’re so blessed with a beautiful environment up here. People are friendly—I’ve found people in Australia generally much more chilled than in the UK. There are some lovely people up here. One of the things I noticed when I looked up Tamborine Mountain before I came up here was there was a real estate agent called Lane Realty at the time. Barry Chick, who now works for Professionals, gave me the history of the mountain, the environment, the ecology… The pictures I saw gave me the impression that there were a lot of people interested in natural therapies, spiritual issues… and those are all my areas of interest.
What’s interesting is that Granny Macs isn’t the only fudge store in this area— even on this road. Do you think there’s a reason the fudge scene on the mountain is so prevalent?
This was the original fudge shop. Within two weeks of me arriving another fudge business popped up. I think most people love fudge, don’t they? All retail businesses struggle, and I think people see that there is demand for fudge and think “well, let’s try adding that into our business.” There seems to be room for all of us, it hasn’t touched the percentage of fudge sales. And all fudge makers are different— even if they’re making from the same base ingredients, you add your little extra personal touches to get the effects that you want. I’ve tried the other three fudges here, and they’re all quite different. I always say to the customers, go and taste, see which you prefer. There’s no bad blood.
Do you have any interesting stories from your time here? Any notable moments that coloured your experience?
The thing that comes to mind is that for the whole time I’ve been here, we’ve had a lad called Stanley with Down Syndrome. He busks out the front of the shop on Sunday afternoons. He plays his music, he dances to the music, he likes to sing. He’s an amazing dancer, I’ve seen him out there ballroom dancing with a lady. And sometimes he has crowds around him, all following his lead and steps, and it’s just great. He’s such a character.
Is there anything else you’d like to go on the record?
What I hear all the time from locals is that the only time they come onto Galleria Walk is when they have visitors, and they bring them onto the street for the day. A lot of the time it’s because it’s too busy, so we think— if we open later in the evening, will that bring the locals in at a quieter time? There’re many businesses here that need that extra custom, that are doing a great service with fabulous products. I’d just like to see the street promoted a bit more. I’ve enjoyed my time here. It got me my residency, I was also able to sponsor my daughter and her boyfriend. The three of us have managed to get residency from having this business, which has been great for us.
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Or email the writer at kyle.hitchmough@hotmail.com, and follow me on Twitter @realcasualrvws.
