Career
The equivalent in the south of the state was Purity Supermarkets. Born and raised in the Netherlands, he was involved in the resistance during the second world war. From this humble beginning he went on to introduce self-service shopping to northern Tasmania, and the business grew into a chain of ten supermarkets, employing over 500 people.
In 1982 the supermarket operations were sold to Woolworths.
The Vos family retained ownership of the properties, including two shopping centres in the north and north west of Tasmania. Although they retained the Roelf Vos branding for some time, they were eventually 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 Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics store (Wellington Street), as well as Newstead, Kings Meadows, Prospect Vale, Riverside and Newnham. The Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics Wellington Street and Newstead stores are now Coles supermarkets, and the Newnham store has closed and is now a City Mission charity store.
Woolworths is currently looking for another store location in the Launceston Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics to include a Big West outlet.
Roelf Vos supermarkets were colloquially referred to as Vossie"s in Tasmania.
