KEY POINTS:
Smaller communities that have done without a Warehouse could see one sprout in their neighbourhood within five years.
New Zealand's largest listed retailer is planning a blitz of up to 30 new stores as it looks to take advantage of depressed land and building prices.
Warehouse Group managing director Ian Morrice said the company had identified 30 "regional catchments" did not have a Red Shed, but could support one.
"Some of them are rural market towns, which have big enough catchments and populations," he said.
"But also in metro locations where we can't get enough of a big selling space, - we're prepared to innovate and look at smaller format stores whether that be in different parts of Auckland or in Wellington."
At 2000 square metres, the new stores would be much smaller than a typical 5000sq m Warehouse outlet.
But the new formats were not unique to the retailer, which already has smaller stores in locations such as Johnsonville and Papakura.
Mr Morrice said work on the first two new stores, in the South Island, had started.
The expansion could take the number of Red Sheds from today's 85 to more than 100 in five years, he said.
Bigger stores were also on the
horizon, such as in Silverdale, north of Auckland, where the retailer has available land.
But the development of a new store there would depend on population growth.
Larger replacement stores were a possibility as growth outstripped some older urban outlets, said Mr Morrice.
Founder Stephen Tindall, who started the company in 1982 in an old Takapuna warehouse, said the company's history showed it performed well in tougher times, so it was the right moment to be expanding.
"We feel this is a very good time to secure some more space while prices are right for land and buildings."
