It's big, red and everywhere

By ANNE GIBSON property editor

At least 1.5 million people a week visit the 74 "red barn" Warehouse stores spread throughout New Zealand, making it big shopping business, and a big property business, too.

And there is more to come. Many more red barns will spring up next year, and many existing sheds will have substantial additions.

The property chief of The Warehouse, Glen Inger, can afford to be confident, as the company is one of the country's largest property developers and spenders.

In a sector bedevilled by lack of confidence he is spending big-time.

The Warehouse has added "half a million square feet," or 50,000 sq m, to its property portfolio this year. In comparison, the St Lukes mall is 33,000 sq m.

The amount of floorspace The Warehouse has added this year includes both new stores and extensions to existing ones.

Depending on its wheeling and dealing, The Warehouse owns anywhere between $70 million and $130 million worth of property at any one time.

At present, it controls $100 million of property around the country.

Although owning property is very much an ancillary part of the retailer's business, Mr Inger reckons it is one of the keys to its success.

Negotiating good rent deals on the stores it does not own and developing new stores at a low cost are a matter of pride for Mr Inger.

"We tend to buy the land and use our own consulting engineers and architects.

"We don't need quantity surveyors and project managers clipping the ticket along the way, so we do it all ourselves," he says

The Warehouse has a 20-strong property team at its Northcote head office.

Moving from the north to the south, property expansion of The Warehouse this year includes:

A 4000 sq m store worth $4 million-plus was opened in the middle of last month on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. The site halfway down the peninsula is alongside a mall.

The new 5000 sq m store in Westfield's Glenfield mall opened in October, following $100 million of rebuilding and expansion.

The Glenfield Warehouse replaced the 1700 sq m store in Wairau Park, which closed this year because of North Shore City's restrictions on its selling clothing and footwear, an extremely sore point with management of The Warehouse.

The Wairau Park store is leased by Placemakers next door. The Warehouse had taken a six-year lease, with a right of renewal, which was due to expire just after it moved, after being on the site nearly 12 years.

The giant Manukau store had an extra 1000 sq m added.

In Auckland's CBD, the store in the Downtown is being refurbished and a Warehouse Stationery outlet added.

At Auckland Airport, a 5500 sq m Warehouse worth more than $5 million opened late last month. Mr Inger is enthusiastic about the potential for this store, citing that the airport has the single largest payroll on any one site in New Zealand. Added to that are the millions of passengers and the pick-up and drop-off visits to the airport, as well as those waiting for delayed flights.

The store there also draws people from Onehunga, Hillsborough and Mangere, suburbs without their own stores, but in line for development.

In Hamilton, a 5000 sq m store worth $4 million was opened in the southeastern suburb of Hillcrest.

The Tauranga store was extended by 500 sq m and the Te Awamutu store by 700 sq m.

Following the purchase of two adjacent houses the Taupo store will be expanded by 30 per cent.

At Dannevirke, a $2.5 million Warehouse is due to be finished in the middle of next year. Most smaller rural towns like this used to have McKenzies and Woolworths and in many instances a Deka too, but the closing of many of these has left them without a large shop.

Mr Inger says The Warehouse is moving into those places to meet a need.

At Paraparaumu, the owners of The Warehouse site, who also own the Coastlands shopping centre, are spending $1 million expanding the existing store, adding 1500 sq m, or half as much space again.

A new indoor-outdoor garden centre is part of this expansion.

In Nelson, construction has just started on a 2300 sq m addition that will bring the store up to 6800 sq m. In Rangiora, North Canterbury, a $3 million Warehouse of 4300 sq m opened in August.

At Belfast, on the northern outskirts of Christchurch, Auckland property developer Jonmer Projects has built a 5400 sq m Warehouse, which opened in October.

The largest Warehouse, of 9300 sq m, in the Christchurch suburb of Linwood, also opened that month.

The South City store in Christchurch's CBD added an extra 1000 sq m this year, in a $1 million expansion that took it up to 4500 sq m.

The store is owned by Colonial First State Property Trust, which owns the $24 million South City shopping centre.

The Timaru store, which opened in 1994, will get a $250,000 internal refurbishment next year.

In Queenstown, a $3 million medium-sized store of 3500 sq m has been built near the airport. This alpine version features dormer windows, a schist frontage and a sandstone roof.

In Invercargill, the store was expanded by 1000 sq m, bringing it up to 7000 sq m.

Strange, but true, Warehouse facts:

* With energy-saving computerised systems in place, the Warehouse saves enough electricity to keep a town the size of Cambridge in power for an entire year.

* The Warehouse controls lighting, air-conditioning and heating of its 74 "red sheds" from corporate HQ at Northcote. So, while watching the morning traffic stream into Auckland, staff can tell what the outside temperature is at the new Queenstown store, boot up the lights for staff as they arrive and control big ceiling dampers to change the inside temperature of the shop.

* Nearly half as many Warehouses will spring up throughout the country in the next three years. A 40 per cent expansion plan is under way.

* The largest Warehouse in New Zealand is at the Eastgate shopping centre at Linwood, Christchurch. At 9300 sq m, it eclipses the 8000 sq m Cavendish Drive store at Manukau. Why so large at Linwood? Simple, really. More than 100,000 people live in a 3.5km radius of the store, and Eastgate has 1000 carparks.

* The Warehouse makes nearly half all the department store sales of non-food items nationwide. It has between 42 per cent and 44 per cent of this sector.