15,000 residents of one Auckland suburb will be left without a supermarket for more than a year, leaving some concerned about where they will shop.
Woolworths’ Te Atatū supermarket is finally closing today after it was revealed Foodstuffs North Island had bought the Te Atatū Rd site and promised to refurbish and modernise the existing buildings ready to open a New World in over a year’s time.
The supermarket, which willclose early today at 6pm, had 55 staff and served over 15,000 residents in the area. It was one of the remaining stores with Countdown branding in New Zealand.
As a thank you to the community, staff will be giving out small treats to customers who shop on the store’s final day, before the supermarket holds a catered dinner for its team to acknowledge the closure.
Woolworths New Zealand’s director of stores, Jason Stockill, thanked the store’s loyal customers for their many years of support, and said the team were saddened to be leaving the community.
“We’re pleased that many of our team will be continuing their careers with us at nearby stores. Others have decided to make a change and move on to new opportunities, and we wish them all the best.”
Woolworths confirmed that 27 staff would be relocated to its nearby stores in Te Atatū South, Lincoln Rd and Henderson, while the remaining 28 staff opted to take redundancy following consultation, with some staff likely to retire.
“We look forward to continuing to serve many locals at our Te Atatū South and other nearby stores, and through online shopping. Again, we’d thank the community for their kind words and support over the last few weeks.”
Woolworths New Zealand’s director of stores, Jason Stockill, said the team was saddened to be leaving the community.
Local residents will be left waiting for a new supermarket until April next year, as new site owners Foodstuffs plan to modernise and refurbish the existing buildings, expanding the store footprint by 25% to 3000sq m and offer a wider range of products.
Foodstuffs North Island’s general manager of retail and property, Lindsay Rowles, said his business would deliver “a quantum leap in west Auckland” and he called the purchase a “grocery game-changer on the way for Te Atatū”.
“We’re talking a full structural upgrade, re-roofing and expanding. It’s going to result in a virtually brand-new store for the community,” Rowles said.
“We’ve been wanting to bring more competition to the people of West Auckland for a long time. Currently, the only locally owned supermarket option is Pak’nSave Lincoln Road, with the nearest New World stores in Hobsonville and New Lynn, which are both a 20-minute drive away.”
Big changes
Today’s store closure comes just weeks after Woolworths announced its new operating model, which one union claimed could lead to pay cuts that will cost experienced workers thousands of dollars.
But Woolworths New Zealand said the changes would ensure the business had the right expertise, in the right place, at the right time to improve customers’ experience.
Woolworths said the key difference was that team members would “collaborate together on tasks, rather than work separately in departments”, which it said will mean more employees on the store floor helping customers and stocking shelves.
“The new model also means clearer leadership pathways so our team can have long and fulfilling careers with us.”
But First Union national retail secretary Rudd Hughes said for workers at Woolworths, the result would be “absolutely immiserating”.
“Imagine you’ve worked for your local Woolworths in a specialist role and reached a senior pay band after 20 years on the shop floor – now, many will be back to square one and facing significant financial hardship as a result of the restructure,” Hughes said.
Hughes said the wide-ranging restructure would result in the disestablishment of department management and duty supervisor roles.
Staff currently working in those roles could suffer pay cuts and lose hours as a result of their re-employment under newly created roles, and Hughes said many were considering redundancy.
Woolworths plans to pilot the new operating model in its upper North Island stores from late May, with consultation on the new pilot to begin shortly.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
