It’s been a very intense 36 hours for our co-operative and partners as we’ve worked our way through the effects of this very significant weather event. We’ve now fully assessed the impact on our locally owned and operated PAK’nSAVE, New World and Four Square stores and are pleased to say, people are safe and all but three Foodstuffs stores are open and operating today and every suburb impacted by the floods has a shopping option nearby.

Our thoughts are with the families of the three tragic fatalities that have occurred.

While the wet weather continues, we’re not expecting a repeat of the record rainfall experienced on Friday. At one point we had 14 stores impacted in a severe to moderate way, so to now have only three stores not able to open, and with clear plans in place to get them open, it’s a huge testament to the mahi of our teams. It’s been awesome to see everyone pull together to make sure every community impacted has a local option to get their groceries.

Every hour counts when you’re picking and transporting groceries - and while we had a few delays with transport, we’re in good supply and thanks to the dedication of our amazing Distribution Centre teams, we’re catching up and in pretty good shape under the circumstances.

It’s still too soon to tell what impact the rain will have on locally grown produce partners. Our buying teams are staying in close contact with our suppliers and growers so we can anticipate any potential issues with supply and work with them on their recovery plans.

We’d like to thank our customers for only buying what they need, so everyone gets their fair share when they shop while we recover. If you’re driving to store today, please go carefully.

A huge thank you to everyone who has been in touch via social media, offering to help clean up and thanking our teams. We’ve seen your messages and appreciate the support.

These stores are currently closed while we recover them to be safe for our teams and customers:

• New World Fresh Collective, Alberton Road, Mt Albert, Auckland
• New World Newmarket, 42 Nuffield Street, Newmarket, Auckland
• PAK’nSAVE Wairau Road, 30-60 Wairau Road, Glenfield, Auckland

Early yesterday morning we stood up our emergency funding support for flood impacted communities across Tāmaki Makaurau. To date we’ve donated over $100,000 worth of goods to our community partners so they can replenish their shelves and keep supporting their local communities. Over the coming days our teams will keep working with our community partners to ensure they’re well supported. A big shout out to our foodbank partners for all you’re doing, we love working with you.

Attributed to Chris Quin, Chief Executive of Foodstuffs North Island.

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