Top Nosh on both sides of city

Good news for food lovers on the western side of the Tauranga Harbour Bridge - specialty food trader Nosh is coming your way.

Formerly known as Good Food Trading Co, the Mount Maunganui store carved a place for itself in the Tauranga food market when it opened in an industrial area off Hewletts Rd just over two years ago.

Owned and operated by Jamie and Jo Blennerhassett, the store developed a loyal customer base and five months ago become part of the Nosh Food Market group, an Auckland-based upmarket specialty foods chain.

Now the Blennerhassetts are ready for their next challenge - a new Nosh store in central Tauranga.

Operating as a joint venture between the Blennerhassetts and Nosh Food Market, the new store will be a similar size to the 900sq m Mount store and employ up to 35 people.

Nosh secured a suitable building close to Tauranga's CBD - the exact location is still secret - and plans to open in August.

The Blennerhassetts said a second store was always part of their plans but the partnership with Nosh made it happen faster.

"When we started we didn't want to be one store so it was a case of how do we get to that point of being able to grow and becoming more than just a single food retailing outlet, knowing that volume is absolutely key," Mr Blennerhassett told the Bay of Plenty Times.

Nosh's much larger buying power allowed it to offer better and more frequent specials, attracting more customers.

Nosh management had already found a possible site for a new store and a 50/50 ownership deal was part of the arrangement that allowed Good Food Trading Co. change to a Nosh Food Market in October.

During their deliberations, the couple learned that less than 20 per cent of customers came from the harbour bridge's western side - meaning a largely untapped market on the other side.

Despite the harbour bridge, there remains a psychological barrier between Tauranga and the Mount, Mr Blennerhassett said.