TravelPharm shuts up shop in Auckland, staff given no notice

TravelPharm's Auckland Airport stores have closed. Photo / TravelPharm website

Health store chain TravelPharm has closed all of its Auckland stores.

TravelPharm operated three stores at Auckland Airport; in the domestic terminal, and airside and landside in the international terminal.

The chain, which markets itself on its website as a family-owned New Zealand company specialising in health supplements and natural products, closed the Auckland stores last Saturday.

The Herald has been told staff received no notice of the store closures, and many turned up to work without realising they had lost their jobs.

They were told no wage arrears or holiday pay owed would be paid, according to one source.

Richard Kim of TravelPharm's marketing department said he did not know why the retailer's Auckland stores had closed.

He was unable to comment on conditions surrounding staff affected by the closures.

Kim referred the Herald to company director and founder Yoon Song.

Song, understood to be in South Korea temporarily, did not answer the Herald's questions.

He would not comment on why the stores had closed.

"Business is trading as normal other then Auckland Airport stores closures."

TravelPharm operates stores in the domestic and international terminals in Christchurch and Queenstown Airports.

TravelPharm had been trading at Auckland Airport for more than 10 years. It opened its flagship airside store in December 2017, along with premium honey speciality store Beecology. It opened its first store at Auckland Airport in 2007.

The business started as coin-operated massage chairs in airports, but two years later TravelPharm was established. As of December 2017, the pharmacy chain employed more than 170 people and in the past decade the group's turnover had grown from $1 million to $37m.

The supplement retailer had 10 stores throughout Auckland, Christchurch and Queenstown at the end of 2017, and at that time Song said he had plans to open "dozens of New Zealand concept stores" in Korea, Japan and China.

A spokeswoman for Auckland Airport confirmed all of TravelPharm's stores in both terminals had closed.

"Due to our commercial agreements we can't comment further," she said.

It is unclear if TravelPharm operates any other Auckland stores.