For the past 13 years, Muffin Break in the Richmond Mall has been called comedy central by some customers because of its cheeky owner Martina Kidd and her team who will be serving muffins and coffees for the last time on 15 June.
It’s been a hectic business but suited to the diminutive bundle of energy who has been called a pocket rocket at times, and even sitting down for a chat, she’s drumming her fingers on the table to release some of that energy.
That energy, combined with skills that come from once being a financial advisor for a German bank, has seen her take the business from ranking 22nd for turnover among New Zealand Muffin Break franchises, to the top five.
But with the renovations in the mall and the high cost of moving the business to a different site at the other end of the mall, she has decided to call it a day and walk away. That leaves her both sad and angry, or as she says, “sangry”, but positive there is something new out there for her to tackle with her usual energy.
She has never been scared of hard work or trying something new. When she first came to New Zealand and met her partner, she worked on a dairy farm near Invercargill, getting on the digger when needed, before renovating an old dairy store to create The Cabbage Tree restaurant and function Centre at Oreti Beach.
For a while, it was a food hub for The Fastest Indian movie that was filmed on the beach. But it was also challenging competing with the Invercargill Licencing Trust.
Queenstown followed as front of house for the previously named Real Journeys and then a stint at lifesaving in Cromwell when her kids were small, before the Nelson itch and a beach with warmer water lured them to Tasman.
When the Muffin Break franchise came up for sale, she snapped it up and six years later renovated the site as part of the long-term plan.
“People come here and get friendly staff and it’s fast and efficient. You get enough time with people to get to know them without feeling you’re intruding.”
Then there’s that smile and the cheeky quips to customers.
“I’m German and told we don’t have a sense of humour. If people don’t laugh and don’t get it, that’s not my problem!”
She has 11 staff working on different shifts to cover the seven-day-a-week business and she says they have known since November that closure was inevitable.
While she would have liked to stay and continue the business in its present location – even closing for a while if necessary - she says it just doesn’t make sense financially to move it away from its prime site.
It will be a hard last month, she concedes. Once 15 June is past everything in the café will be for sale, then she’s off to Germany for two months to spend time with her elderly mother and catch up with other family members, before contemplating her next move.
“Something will pop up; something good will come.”
The Richmond Mall is undergoing a large-scale reconstruction which has seen some stores move or close.
Tinline Property, chief executive Jamie Gaskell earlier said these changes were “anticipated”.
