Ngai Tahu leaps north with fish venture

By IRENE CHAPPLE

South Island iwi Ngai Tahu is planning a nationwide fish retail chain and will launch its first store in Auckland within two months.

The store - under the new brand name "Pacific Catch" - will be established in Sanford's Auckland Fish Market, opening today.

It marks a major leap north for the iwi, which has diverse business interests in the South Island.

Ngai Tahu Seafood, which has a turnover of about $90 million, has operations in Dunedin, Bluff and Wellington.

This year 50 positions in the South Island were made redundant, leaving 200 staff.

The company is now focusing on the Auckland market, where Ngai Tahu Seafood general manager Gavin Holley believes there are "excellent opportunities".

Ngai Tahu is creating what it claims is New Zealand's only significant specialist fish retail chain. The main competition will be supermarkets.

Holley said "the intention is to offer customers a superior range of seafood products and superior service".

He said most of Ngai Tahu's fish came into Wellington but could be landed in Auckland.

Ngai Tahu has employed about 12 staff for its Auckland operation.

Holley was coy about the company's future plans, saying it would roll out "several stores a year for the next few years".

Any more detail was commercially secret, including what the company hoped for in annual turnover.

Holley did say "we certainly need to be very careful and be very planned" with the Auckland venture.

Ngai Tahu has two other stores in Auckland, one which was part of last year's purchase of Cook Strait Seafoods. Both would eventually come under the Pacific Catch brand, which will also eventually adorn some Ngai Tahu product.

Parent company Ngai Tahu Holdings owns Shotover Jet, has a shareholding in WhaleWatch Kaikoura and has significant property investments.