Four Candles had ambitious plans to open four more locations. Photo / Chris Keall
Independent supermarket Four Candles has closed down less than a year after opening.
The upmarket Auckland grocery business founded by retail veterans Murray Snowden and Chris Fisher opened on the site of the old Nosh on Constellation Drive in October.
Shortly after opening the North Shore outlet, Snowden told the Herald four supermarkets were planned.
But signs displayed in the shop window today said it was closed, and thanked customers for their support.
Snowden has worked for the UK's biggest food manufacturer Northern Foods and for British supermarket chains Asda and Iceland.
The Constellation Drive site has been home to a handful of failed grocery businesses over the years.
Those included Foodstuffs' short-lived small-format grocery business Fresh Collective by New World.
It did not operate on the site for long - and the 700sq m location was empty for months before Four Candles opened.
That site was near a much bigger Farro Fresh supermarket just a few hundred metres down the road.
Four Candles - named after an old BBC comedy sketch - aimed to stock products and local artisan brands deemed too small to be sold in the major supermarkets.
It also imported products such as French cheeses, Italian pasta and wines.
The layout of the store was designed with Covid-19 in mind, with aisles 30 per cent wider than regular grocery aisles, and low-level shelving.
In March, managing director Snowden described trading in the first five months as "like a rollercoaster on top of a jumping jack".
He said unpredictability was the biggest challenge to forecasts and planning ahead.
"There are days that are particularly quiet followed by days which are well above average. A lot seems to depend on the daily [Covid] case numbers, which have a big effect on sentiment," he said at the time.
Four Candles opened its doors for the first in October 2021. It was due to open in August last year but faced several delays due to Auckland's Delta lockdown.
He was tight-lipped on how many millions had been invested to start up the business.
Snowden said the business strived to operate on a more ethically focused business model. But it is not clear how profitable - or possible - that was.
The Herald has contacted Four Candles for comment.
Just five months ago Snowden said Four Candles would open two more sites in the short-term, and the self-funded Constellation store was being used as an experimental location to see what worked best, before a planned rapid expansion over the next five years.
Retail expert Chris Wilkinson, managing director of First Retail Group, said the demise of Four Candles was very sad.
"Strong experience in the sector, but challenges around costs and supply chain would have made it difficult for even the most resourced of operators."
One commentator the Herald spoke to said they believed the name Four Candles "failed to engage or enthuse" and it appeared that the brand did not have a clear proposition.
"It needed to be an aspirational destination which centred on an artisan bakery and butchery with great coffee and all the things you need on a daily basis. That would have required the operators pull together independent operators to co-locate," the person said.
The Government has committed funding to the sector in an effort to support future plans.