Four Square Britomart: Small-format grocer opens in Auckland CBD precinct

Four Square Britomart's owner operator Mark Coulston outside the new store which opens this week.

Small-format food and grocery chain Four Square has opened a new store in Auckland’s Britomart precinct.

Foodstuffs North Island said today that Mark Coulston is the owner-operator of Four Square Britomart at 16 Customs St East.

The 600sq m store is on the ground floor of the heritage-listed Hayman Kronfeld Building, between Customs St East and Galway St, and has six aisles, eight self-checkouts and two operator checkouts.

That is the twelfth new supermarket Foodstuffs North Island opened this year and the sixth Four Square opened in 2023.

Other Four Squares opened this year were in Mount Maunganui, Waverley, Onehunga, Te Kowhai near Hamilton and Eden Terrace in Auckland.

Chris Quin, Foodstuffs North Island’s chief executive, said the new Britomart store was the first time a Four Square had opened in downtown Auckland.

Four Square is 99 years old.

The new store has Flight Coffee and Daily Bread pastries and an outdoor seating on Galway St. It is also selling Dedwood Deli sandwiches, pizza, chicken and chips, fresh YB Sushi and also has a build-your-own salad bar.

Corporate functions and Uber Eats delivery are also part of the services offered. Scooptopia with Kāpiti Ice Cream will run over the summer months. Ice creams will be served with special toppings, fresh strawberries and melted chocolate.

Coulston said he started working with Foodstuffs in 2018 at Pak’nSave Silverdale where he was a grocery assistant.

Five years later he became owner-operator of Four Square Houhora Wharf which is 70km south of Cape Reinga Te Rerenga Wairua.

Coulston said he had made a big change, from running a small store in a small coastal town to a mini-supermarket in Auckland.

Foodstuffs North Island said it gets around 2.7 million customers annually and employs around 24,000 people, who it refers to as ‘Foodies’.

Co-operative members own 323 stores in the North Island, under the Pak’nSave, New World, Gilmours and Four Square brands.

Four Square was formed in the 1920s out of the Foodstuffs grocery buying co-operative.

Foodstuffs’ founder John Heaton Barker became concerned at the activities of the grocery chain stores of the day that were making life very difficult for independent grocers in Auckland, according to the history.

The name Four Square emerged when he was talking on the telephone to one of the buying group members on July 4, 1924.

He drew a square around the 4 of the date on his calendar.

He immediately realised he had a suitable name for the buying group, stating that “they would stand ‘Four Square’ to all the winds that blew”.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.