Shop hit by ram raiders ready to open its doors

Nearly four months after a ram raid smashed down its doors and a fire destroyed thousands of dollars worth of produce, Narrogin Fresh is preparing to reopen.

Just before 4am on Saturday, June 11, a stolen Holden ute reversed into the doors of the supermarket during an attempted burglary.

The car became wedged in the doors and the offenders set the vehicle alight before fleeing the scene.

As well as damage to the front doors and surrounding structure, the fire from the car caused significant smoke damage to the roof as well as rendering much of the produce unsafe for consumption.

After months of work, the supermarket is now nearly fully repaired and stocked, with a opening date planned for the end of November.

Co-owner Rob Rybarczyk said repairs were expected to total a bit over the estimates at the time, which were about $600,000, for renovating, restocking, wages and loss of income over the past three months.

“I don’t know what the end cost will be, probably a little bit over what I as expecting,” he said. “When you start getting down to all the nitty-gritty and things like shelf lab els —we’ve got about 2km of them to purchase — just things like that add up.”

Mr Rybarczyk said while progress had been slow, most of the repairs have been completed, with much of the remaining work filling the new shelves.

“Most has (been done), now we’re building the shelves cleaning the shop, setting out the stock, restocking it, testing everything and getting back into it,” he said.

“It will be good to get back into it.”

Investigations into the incident are still continuing, but Narrogin Detective Sergeant Brendan Woodford said despite CCTV footage being released, no new leads had appeared.

Mr Rybarczyk said he was frustrated that no one has been charged for the crime.