$10.5m New World The Sands to open at Pāpāmoa East

The Bay of Plenty’s new $1 billion fast-expanding Pāpāmoa East town centre is about to get a new supermarket.

Foodstuffs said New World The Sands will open on Tuesday, November 5.

Inside New World The Sands opening on November 5, 2024. Photo / Foodstuffs North Island

Around 100 people will work at the shop, which will have six staff-operated checkouts, eight self-scan checkouts and 149 car parks.

The business is owned and to be operated by Mark Troup-Paul who spent two and a half years overhauling Wellington’s New World Newton.

Foodstuffs North Island said it had invested $10.5m into the new Pāpāmoa store, which is a much-anticipated addition to the area, designed to serve the needs of arapidly expanding town.

New World The Sands opens November 5, 2024. Photo / Foodstuffs North Island

The business has opened four new stores lately:

1. New World Havelock North in July;
2. Four Square Huntly in August;
3. Four Square Snells Beach last month;
4. New World Mt Albert opened in October and replaced the flood-hit New World Fresh Collective.

New World The Sands is a $10.5m investment for the Pāpāmoa East project. Photo / Foodstuffs North Island

“The New Zealand-owned co-operative invests around $100 million annually in property upgrades and new store developments,” the business said today.

Foodstuffs North Island has eight new and replacement supermarkets planned or rising.

Groceries coming soon: Lindsay Rowles and Nick Hanson inside the vast new Pak'nSave Highland Park. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Next year, New World Point Chevalier will open on the ex-RSA site beside the Northwestern Motorway in Auckland. The store is expected to trade extremely strongly due to population density, intensification and high-spending demographics, with properties in the area remaining popular.

A $100m 6391sq m Pak’nSave Highland Park will open next year. It will be New Zealand’s biggest new supermarket and is being built on a gently sloping 2.09ha site at 503 Pakuranga Rd.

Next door, Woolworths has a 4812sq m store and fewer car parks and insiders say the new Pak’nSave is one of the cleverest moves Foodstuffs North Island has made, taking on the competition with a bigger, cheaper offering directly next door.

The Highland Park store will be one of the biggest for Foodstuffs North Island but the largest now under construction.

Christchurch’s new Pak’nSave Papanui by Foodstuffs South Island is 6260sq m.

The single-level Highland Park building is on the prominent corner of Highland Park and Aviemore Drives.

Being more than 6391sq ,makes a huge difference to how the store will be stocked and operated, says Lindsay Rowles of Foodstuffs North Island.

“It means you have more on the floor in easier-to-handle ways. Instead of a layer of boxes, you put a pallet on the floor.”

The new Pak’nSave would have an enclosed drive-through for click-and-collect shoppers, able to take six vehicles at one time, similar to those at Pak’nSave Henderson and Albany.

All has not been plain sailing with this project. In 2019, the Herald reported how Foodstuffs claimed rival Woolworths was using “anti-competitive” tactics to block it from opening a supermarket on the site.

Woolworths disagreed, saying Foodstuffs was aware of requirements in its lease agreement that ensured its supermarket remained part of Highland Park shopping centre.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.