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Woolworths Shopping New Zealand |
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Woolworths Supermarkets
(New Zealand) is an Auckland-based supermarket chain
and a unit of Woolworths Limited, the owners of
Australia's Woolworths Supermarkets. Like its parent
company, it is not related to F.W. Woolworth.
History
1929 - 1979 Woolworths
Founded in 1929 by Percy Christmas, the chain was
separated from the parent company Woolworths Limited
in Australia and was called Woolworths New Zealand.
The chain during this period was mainly Variety and
General Merchandice products trading under the
Woolworths brand
In 1956 Woolworths first entered food retailing with
their Food Fair store, it wasn't until 1967 that
Woolworths launched its first Supermarket in
Henderson
Woolworths was expanding and in 1971 aquired the
self help grocery chain and later rebranded these as
Woolworths.
1979 - 1990 L.D. Nathan
In 1979 Woolworths was sold to L.D. Nathan. At that
time L.D Nathan owned the Super Value North Island
supermarkets, they rebranded these stores to
Woolworths.
1980 saw L.D. Nathan aquire the McKenzies General
Merchandice stores, these stores were then rebranded
as Woolworths. With the large number of general
merchandise and supermarkets L.D Nathan decided in
1985 to split the into two separate divisions;
supermarkets and general merchandise. L.D Nathan
rebranded their General Merchandise business in 1988
to DEKA. 1987 and 1988 saw the launch of the Price
Chopper and Big Fresh brands
1990 - 2001 Dairy Farm International
Woolworths WanganuiOwnership changed hands in 1990
when Hong Kong's Dairy Farm International acquired
the Woolworths supermarket chain,
The chain had three supermarket brands, each with a
distinctive offering: Woolworths has the finest
full-service supermarkets in the country; Big Fresh
offered a unique shopping experience; and Price
Chopper was positioned in the discount sector.
The Woolworths stores are broad-range supermarkets
with an average size of 30,000 sq. ft. The Big Fresh
stores were larger, with an average size of 51,000
sq. ft, and offerd the widest possible selection and
excellent value. The Price Chopper stores were
compact with an average size of 14,000 sq. ft, and
were limited-range discount stores located mainly in
small towns.
In 1995 Woolworths introduced a pilot online
shopping site with a small group of users. This was
early days for on-line shopping in New Zealand.
Woolworths was a key player in introducing online
supermarket shopping to the New Zealand market.
In 1999 Woolworths developed a mini supermarket
format at two BP fuel forecourts in a trial project,
BP pulled out of the project in 2000.
In 2000 The Food Safety First (FSF) Programme was
introduced in all Woolworths and Big Fresh stores
nationally. This programme employed HACCP (Hazard
Analysis Critical Control Point). This programme was
created by the Ministry of Health to identify all
potential hazards and controls them before they
result in food poisoning problems.
In 2001 Woolworths partnered with Gull Petroleum to
establish mini supermarkets at Gull fuel forecourts
called Woolworths @ Gull
2001 - present Progressive Enterprises
In 2001 Dairy Farm International sold its Woolworths
New Zealand Limited business amd it merged with
Progressive Enterprises (operator of Foodtown,
Countdown, SuperValue and FreshChoice. In 2005,
Woolworths Limited re-acquired the New Zealand unit.
Operations
There are 63 Woolworths supermarkets and 22
Woolworths Quickstop and Micro Stores across New
Zealand. |
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