New Stores update

Take a look inside our new stores

Countdown Waiata Shores

We’re absolutely thrilled to have opened our first Green Star rated supermarket in the North Island with the MP for Takanini, Dr. Neru Leavasa helping us to officially open the brand-new Countdown Waiata Shores store earlier this year. It’s not simple or cheap to build such a sustainable store, especially when you throw a few COVID-19 and supply chain challenges in the mix, but we think it’s well worth the investment. We’re proud to have created a supermarket that not only meets customer needs now but also leaves a lighter footprint for future generations. If you’re in the neighbourhood, pop in and check out the digital shelf labels that help reduce our paper use, see if you can spy the solar panels on the roof helping to power the store, and make use of the integrated cycle lanes and bike parking!

Countdown Awapuni

After eight years of planning, development and construction, it was pretty exciting to finally open the doors to the long-awaited Countdown Awapuni this month! The 3,565sqm Countdown Awapuni store has been built to meet the needs of the Palmerston North community with a modern look and feel, extensive fresh foods section, in-store bakery, cellar and a purpose-built space for online customers to pick up their orders. The supermarket also features some of our latest sustainability initiatives including electronic shelf labels to reduce paper use, electric vehicle charging stations for customers choosing lower emission transport, an electric online delivery truck, a transcritical refrigeration system, and doors on all fridges to reduce energy use and lower carbon emissions.

Check it out in the video below – our Store Manager, Tayna will show you around.

Countdown Greville Road

It was fantastic to open our brand-new Countdown Greville Road store and we were honoured to have a number of special guests join us for the celebration including MP for East Coast Bays, Erica Stanford The store is a great place to shop with a modern look and feel and we’ve implemented a number of planet-friendly features as part of the build. We’re also proud to be partnering with KiwiHarvest to rescue any food that can’t be sold, but is still good enough to eat, to ensure it goes to our communities in need rather than to landfill.

It was a bit of a race to the finish line to make sure all the final touches were ready to go for trading, but what an incredible job our team has done! Don’t forget to pop in to say kia ora to the team when you’re next in the neighbourhood!

Countdown Balclutha

We were thrilled to welcome the local community into our brand new, state-ofthe-art Countdown Balclutha store after 12 months of construction.

The $18 million dollar development is the first Countdown in the area and has a number of key sustainability features like electronic shelf labels to reduce paper use, bike racks for customers, a transcritical refrigeration system, and doors on fridges. It is also another important milestone in our $50 million programme of investment in Otago and Southland, which will see a further four new store or existing store renovation projects delivered over 12 months.

We were honoured to have Clutha Mayor, Bryan Cadogan, open the 2,530sqm Countdown Balclutha for us. The Balclutha store has also created 80 new jobs which we’ve been able to fill with the support of the local council and the Ministry of Social Development, so it was great to have the Mayor there to thank him ourselves!

Metro Herne Bay

Herne Bay locals now have a fresh, new grocery shopping destination on their doorstep, with the opening of our fourth Metro store on the corner of Kelmarna Ave and Jervois Road.

We’ve designed the 1,600m2 store to suit the needs of the local community and have also created 65 new jobs with the development, with around half the team living within walking, cycling or scootering distance of their new workplace. We’re already hearing great feedback from customers about the premium range of products on offer like barista-made coffee, ready-to-go meals, fresh-made sandwiches, salads, health-focussed snack options, take-home dinners and fresh pizzas made in store. If you’re in the area, we’d highly recommend stopping in for a bite!