Construction of $12 million New World Kaiapoi to begin

Media release

December 15

Construction of $12 million New World Kaiapoi supermarket to begin

Work on building the new Kaiapoi New World supermarket will begin before Christmas and is expected to take approximately a year to complete.

The new $12 million supermarket will replace the previous building that was destroyed in the September 4 earthquake. Resource consent has been granted and the existing site has been cleared.

Owner/operators Andrew and Jacqueline Palmer said that they were more than halfway through a $6 million upgrade of the old supermarket when the earthquake struck.

“The original plans were to have the revamped supermarket open about now. Even though we will have to wait another year, we will be getting a brand new building and equipment which we know our customers will enjoy,” they said.

The new supermarket will be approximately 2400 sq metres, which is about 400 sq metres bigger than the original building and there will be 83 carparks. It will sit on the same site as the previous building, but the car park will be reconfigured to allow for a better flow of traffic.

Amongst the features of the new supermarket are:
• An espresso coffee counter at the entrance to the supermarket
• A larger wine and beer area with a correspondingly greater choice
• A bigger, more customer friendly butchery
• A larger fish and seafood area including a cabinet for fresh mussels
• A bigger deli and cheese stand

“In areas such as butchery, seafood and deli we are wanting to return to the old fashioned style where customers can interact over the counter.

“We want our customers to be able to talk with our trade certified butchers, for example, so they can discuss the different cuts of meat on display and ways that it should be cooked. The same for the bakery, seafood and deli.”

The checkout area has also been extended from nine lanes to 14, including six self-scan lanes.

“Since the earthquake we have been heartened by the fantastic support we have had from the community, both in terms of wishing us well with the rebuild, and also the way other businesses rallied around and took on our permanent staff.

“We also know from talking with the owners of Northwood and Rangiora New World’s that many of our customers are shopping with them which is fantastic,” they said.

Leighs Construction, which had the contract for the $6 million redevelopment of New World Kaiapoi, also has the contract for the new supermarket.

“We are delighted to be working with them again. They were just amazing when we were carrying out the extensions before the earthquake. They went out of their way to ensure that our customers were not unduly inconvenienced at that time. They were just as devastated as we were by the damage caused by the earthquake,” they said.

ENDS

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