Retailer to bring jobs to Masterton

Uncle Bills Wholesale Club will bring eight jobs to Wairarapa with the opening in Masterton of its fourth lower North Island store early next year.

Owner operator Peter Trotter said the cut-price retailer, which is a sister company to the 10-store Pricebusters chain, is set to open in the former Warehouse building in Dixon Street by Easter at the latest.

The Pricebusters chain, which was launched in 1987, maps the same regions and includes a Queen St store in Masterton that will close before the new store opens.

Mr Trotter said the four Masterton Pricebusters staff will migrate to Uncle Bills and the store will also employ up to eight more part-time workers.

Building owner Florus Bosch said the building was originally occupied by Warehouse for about a decade and had been for the past six years tenanted by Warehouse Stationery, which is now operating out of half of the site.

A large wall had been built to divide the building and Uncle Bill's will have a 1000sqm floor space, including upstairs offices. A loading bay is being built for the new business on the Bannister Street side of the premises.

Mr Trotter, who is based in the capital, said Uncle Bill's already operates shops of a similar size in Porirua, Kilbirnie and Palmerston North.

He said Uncle Bills is able to offer shoppers lower prices on goods ranging from cotton buds to noodle bowls to coffee because of efficiences in their direct ship-to-shelf business model.

"There is actually a man called Uncle Bill in China who has warehouses full of goods. We import the goods we want in a single container that goes onto a truck and straight to our store," Mr Trotter said.

Uncle Bills is at the stage where Warehouse was when it first started and due to the low prices on their house-branded items had fared well through the recession.

Mr Bosch said he has also signed tenants in a 280sq m retail space bordering the Warehouse carpark alongside the Brsicoes Store.

He said the pop-up retailer will offer giftware for Christmas shoppers during a six-week period and will occupy the Dixon Street end of a 480sq m retail space that extends through to Queen Street.

The $2 Nik Nak shop had vacated the Queen Street portion of the same building about 10 days ago and he said he is now negotiating a tenancy for the entire space.