Spark has temporarily closed its Whakatane store, after discovering it did not meet the company's own earthquake safety standards.
In a statement, Spark said it was in the process of undertaking a nationwide audit to understand whether the buildings it operated out of met a range of health and safety requirements.
"Unfortunately, we've just discovered that this store [Whakatane] does not reach the Spark policy standard for earthquake resiliency, so it's been temporarily closed for the safety of our staff and customers. Our policy standard is more stringent than government building requirements, so we are making this closure by choice rather than by necessity.
"We apologise for any inconvenience that customers experience from the store closure but we're sure our customers will appreciate that the safety of our staff and customers is paramount."
It said it was investigating opening temporary premises in a safe location as soon as possible - "preferably in the next few weeks".