The Napier branch of wholesale restaurant, grocery and hospitality supply chain Toops will close on August 15, it's owners confirmed today.
The closure, after more than 30 years operating from a corner site at the Austin St-Taradale Rd entrance to the Onekawa industrial district, had been signalled last week whenFoodstuffs North Island Ltd announced it was reviewing its Toops and Gilmours cash-and-carry operations with a view to centralising in larger-format stores.
The company is closing Toops stores in Napier and New Plymouth and Gilmours in Rotorua and the Auckland districts of Panmure and Henderson.
The jobs of 128 full and part-time employees are affected, including 29 at the Napier store, many of them longer-term employees.
Foodstuffs says it will be "investing" in seven remaining stores, the nearest to Hawke's Bay being in Palmerston North.
Pipi Cafe Havelock North proprietor Chris Morris, who worries about the supply options for his and similar businesses and initiated a campaign to "SAVE TOOPS NAPIER" mused: "We went out fighting - but it felt like their mind was made up. Oh well!
