The New World Taumarunui team at the newly opened store. Photo / Michael Bradley
The New World Taumarunui team at the newly opened store. Photo / Michael Bradley
New World Taumarunui has finally traded its provisional store at the local athletics club for a brand-new, purpose-built supermarket on Hakiaha Street.
The new $14 million store, located on a site Foodstuffs has been operating on for over 50 years, has been in the pipeline since 2020, but New World Taumarunui had to trade from the local athletics club for 15 months while the new store was built.
As a thank you to the club for letting New World use its premises, Foodstuffs North Island is now giving the club building a makeover.
The supermarket rebuild has been led by the owner-operator of New World Taumarunui, Aiyad Khan, with support from Foodstuffs North Island and the New World Taumarunui team.
Khan says the new store’s focus is freshness and convenience.
“We’ve got a much bigger range of fresh foods and have made some significant upgrades to the bakery, deli, butchery, seafood counter and frozen department. We’ve also got lots of special products, like sushi made in-store, fried bread, hāngī pork and pigs heads.”
For 15 months New World Taumarunui traded from the old athletics club which will now be fully refurbished. Photo / Supplied
Another special component of the new store is a commissioned five-metre by two-and-a-half metre tōtara carving at the store entrance (kūwaha). It’s called Nau Mai Ki Te Ao Hou (Welcome to New World) and depicts the Māori food gods.
The carving was made by local carvers Rewhiri Tarapata, Brett Te Kene, Kopeke Te Wiki and Mitchell Crown from Ngāti Hāua and the tōtara was sourced locally.
Khan says he knew a new store was in the pipeline when he and his family came to Taumarunui in 2020 - in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It was only due to the support of the community that we were able to move into the athletics club and keep trading.”
The new New World Taumarunui has a focus on fresh produce. Photo / Michael Bradley
Moving into the provisional location was a great way for the Khans to connect with the locals.
“We had teachers from Turaki Primary School across the road helping us stack shelves in the athletics club so we could open for business and the whole community reached out.”
Khan, originally from Fiji, is a Foodstuffs veteran who has worked for the co-op since 1999 when he joined New World Victoria Park as a check-out operator.
The new New World Taumarunui will employ 90 people and is, with 2,200 square metres, about 40 per cent bigger than the previous store.
Local carvers from Ngati Haua were comissioned to make a carving from totara to welcome visitors to the store. Photo / Michael Bradley
The supermarket is located at 10 Hakiaha Street, and open seven days a week from 7am to 8pm.
Foodstuffs North Island is a co-operative of 350 grocers who own and operate New World, PAK’nSAVE and Four Square stores in communities around the North Island.
For more information visit New World Taumarunui’s Facebook page.
