When Matthew Mullins was a teenager at Christchurch’s St Bede’s College, he got his first job in the supermarket sector in a warehouse.
He began at the age of 15 at a Hornby grocery distribution centre.
Now aged 40, he and wife Nicole are the owner/operators of the new state-of-the-art New World Pt Chevalier, opening August 19.
Mullins’ career is a classic Foodstuffs’ story.
He started as a picker in the chilled and frozen distribution centre at Hornby, where Foodstuffs South Island has its centralised base to distribute goods throughout the Mainland.
He worked his way up through the ranks from store to store, moving north gradually with advancements.
“There’s an opportunity [in Foodstuffs] to own your own business if you work hard and I was on that pathway early on.
“It was always a goal of mine. I enjoy the industry, I enjoy working in supermarkets, getting exposure and learning on the job. In every role, I took that opportunity.”
Now, he has become a boss, soon to be in charge of more than 120 staff in a $73 million store owned by Foodstuffs North Island.
Standing near the checkouts of the new store, Mullins recalls the journey.
He got the job at Hornby all those years ago because his uncle John Mullins was head of Foodstuffs South Island’s supply chain.
From there, he went on to work at New World Fendalton, then became a store manager at Wellington’s Railway Metro New World from 2014 to 2018.
He then went to the larger New World Newlands in Wellington where from 2018 to 2020 he was also store manager but in charge of a much larger staff.
He has not always worked in the supermarket sector, but has worked as a personal fitness trainer.
He and Nicole took their first leap into ownership just after Covid.
In 2021, they bought New World Ōtaki on the Kapiti Coast and have owned that ever since, praising the new Transmission Gully as easing traffic and telling of a huge refit and store upgrade now underway.
But Mullins said he had always wanted a much larger store.
“Owning a brand new store, it’s a massive challenge but it’s always something I’ve been interested in. Opening a brand new store is the ultimate challenge.”
He has family and friends in Auckland, “but I haven’t moved up here fulltime. I’m going between Ōtaki and Auckland right now”.
He and Nicole have three children: One aged 5 and 2-year-old twins.
They plan to live in the Pt Chevalier/Westmere area but now own a home in Ōtaki.
A Foodstuffs North Island spokesman said a number of events were planned for the August 19 opening of the store on Great North Rd.
Principals from local schools would be invited along with community leaders, he said.
The store on Great North Rd is opening early, due to the fire at New World Victoria Park.
To buy a New World supermarket, owner/operators usually borrow millions of dollars and repay the loans from their profits in the stores.
The Herald reported in April that Mullins was understood to be paying about $14m to buy New World Pt Chevalier fixtures and fittings, with no goodwill payment due because it hasn’t traded previously.
The land and buildings will remain owned by developer Foodstuffs North Island.
“We just want to come in, integrate into the community, run a good local store, just provide a really good place to shop and a really good place to work.”
And to continue the expansion story, that very Hornby distribution centre that Mullins started at all those years ago has just been replaced by a new building.
Foodstuffs South Island is soon opening its new $28m automated frozen distribution centre, which is to increase capacity 222% from the existing 2800 pallets of food stored at the headquarters to a massive 6240 pallets.
Mainlanders’ ice cream, french fries, hash browns, frozen vegetables and berries will be housed here before being trucked to Pak’nSave, New World and Four Square supermarkets.
Pallets will be stacked 15m high in the 17.2m-high building designed and built by Apollo Projects on the wider 35ha site where the business has its South Island headquarters.
The quarter of a hectare or 2300sq m building is expected to meet the needs of Foodstuffs for frozen food for the next 25 to 30 years.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.