The Napier branch of The Warehouse, off Hastings St, and neighbouring group partner Noel Leeming. Photo / Paul Taylor
The Napier branch of The Warehouse, off Hastings St, and neighbouring group partner Noel Leeming. Photo / Paul Taylor
The shape of retailing giant The Warehouse in Hawke's Bay late Monday seemed unlikely to face significant change amid staff restructuring expected through the chain of more than 70 stores nationwide.
The Warehouse, which opened its first store on Auckland's North Shore in 1982, has been a player in Hawke'sBay for more than 30 years, since first establishing in the region in Carlyle St, Napier. It opened in a similar era in Queen St, Hastings.
It now operates three stores in the region - in Hastings St, Napier, in Hastings where The Warehouse became an anchor tenant of the former Nelson Park site when the branch opened almost 11 years ago, and in Dannevirke.
Staff at sites throughout the country were called to meetings on Monday morning, and told of plans which are expected to see the Red Shed shedding of about 900 fulltime and part-time jobs.
A small number of store closures have been signalled nationwide in recent times, but there were no suggestions of stores being closed in Hawke's Bay.
The Warehouse chief operating officer Pejman Okhovat said in a statement the meetings centred on proposed rostered hours changes, and were not related to closure of the Dunedin, Johnsonville and Whangaparoa stores – the Dunedin store remaining as part of an online network.
