St Peters Post Office celebrates 40 years

Thursday 30 June 2022

St Peters Post Office is celebrating its 40th anniversary this month.

Dennis took over in 1982 and was later joined in running the business by his wife, Lorna, and their daughter, Stephanie Andrijasezic.

“My dad ran it for himself for a while; when he first took it over half of the shop still sold sandwiches,” said Mrs Andrijasezic. 

“My mum had started her own hairdressing business, Rosaire Hairdressing, at 17 so she was running that above what used to be Midland Bank."

Pictured: Mrs Andrijasezic takes responsibility for ordering the gifts for the shop. 

“She later joined my dad in running the post office. She used to go to school in the post office building, which was formerly part of St Peter’s School, so she’s been in the area basically her entire life.”

Mrs Andrijasezic had originally worked in finance. 

“Around 2007, while my children were young, I decided to leave finance and move into running the business with my parents because it offered more flexibility,” she said. 

“Gradually I took over more and more of the day-to-day tasks, but my dad still does a lot of the back office stuff and my mum orders all the cards.

“We get along well and it’s nice to be able to have a family business.”

Pictured: Dennis Burns took over St Peters Post Office in June 1982. 

Mrs Andrijasezic said that the staff at the post office “tend to stay for a long time”.

“One of our staff, Diane, has been with us for around 30 years, and she worked with my mum at Rosaire before that,” she said. 

“We are a very close-knit group and have known each other for a very long time. Our staff go above and beyond for our customers, and I think that adds to our role as a valued part of the community.”

I grew up in the north of the island, but fondly remember visits to St Peters Post Office; I think it would be fair to say that it is established in the wider island community, not only in St Pierre du Bois.

“I think it’s really important that we have good relationships with our customers. Some will even come in just for a chat and we know them well,” continued Mrs Andrijasezic.

Pictured: The shop also sells stationery and greeting cards. 

The business was hit “very hard” in the first covid lockdown according to Mrs Andrijasezic. 

“Although we are an essential business, we closed during the first lockdown because two of our staff had covid and my mother is in her 70s, so I didn’t want her to go in,” she said. 

“Only my mother and another staff member knew how to do the post office stuff at the time. I since learned how to do it, which meant that we were able to stay open in the second lockdown with reduced hours.”

Pictured: A social media post thanking customers for their support received over 250 "likes" within hours of being posted. 

Mrs Andrijasezic said that he hoped the business would keep running successfully. 

“I know a lot of people buy online, but you just can’t beat being able to go into a shop, have a chat and look at things before you buy them,” she said. 

“Hopefully people continue to pop in and we can keep running for many years to come.”