Countdown unveils new Waiheke supermarket
Work on the site is starting this month and the new store is expected to open in the first quarter of 2016.
Countdown is replacing its Ostend Rd store on Waiheke Island with a new store at Belgium St.
Countdown’s general manager for property, Adrian Walker, says it has been designed to fit in with the island environment and will be the company’s most sustainable supermarket, operating at almost full self-sufficiency.
Rainwater will be utilised through a collection on the roof and the store will also recycle grey water through an onsite waste water treatment system, which will be redistributed in a native wetland at the back of the proeprty.
“We needed to find a solution that would stack up for what the growing community needs and also financially for us to make this investment,” he says. “We’ve been open about the challenges we’ve had that are unique to large construction on the Island – the size and nature of our site, the store features required, and the cost to bring over materials and labour from Auckland.”
Work on the site is starting this month and the new store is expected to open in the first quarter of 2016.
It will create 60 jobs in addition to the 73 at the existing store. The new store will also be 150% larger at 3490m2 and include five or six specialty retail shops along the roadside, with 176 car parks that will be partially underground.
Meanwhile, in Auckland, a $220 million Countdown is being built in Ponsonsby’s new Cider Building, on the site of the controversial Sohole (a failed development that was left to gather water for some years).
A Pak’nSave will be built in Ormiston, south Auckland later this year by Todd Properties as part of the new giant subdivision there.
New World Milford has temporarily shut down to be renovated and re-opened in time for Christmas trading. And a larger New World Browns Bay has opened on a new site in Anzac Rd with more carparks. The supermarket, which employs 130 staff, had previously been in smaller premises in Bute Rd for many years. Both the Pak’nSave Whakatane and Pak’nSave Taupo are being revamped this year.
Nevil Gibson for NBR Food Industry Week
Mon, 23 Mar 2015
Mon, 23 Mar 2015
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
Countdown unveils new Waiheke supermarket
46288