Foodtown
 |
|
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Fate | Rebranded to Countdown |
| Founded | 1958 |
| Defunct | 13 November 2011 |
| Headquarters | Auckland, New Zealand |
|
Number of locations
|
3 (2011) |
| Parent | Progressive Enterprises |
| Website | www.foodtown.co.nz |
Foodtown was a New Zealand supermarket chain owned by Progressive Enterprises. The supermarkets tended to be integrated with a shopping mall, instead of being stand-alone stores. All Foodtown stores have been rebranded as Countdown.
On 18 June 1958, the first Foodtown supermarket of 1,400 square metres was opened on a 1.1-hectare site at Otahuhu. Three small business owners - Tom Ah Chee (New Zealand-born Chinese), Norman Kent, and John Brown - sold their small businesses and pooled their resources to personally build and supervise construction of New Zealand's first American-style supermarket. The Otahuhu supermarket proved a success and a second Foodtown was built and opened in Takanini, South Auckland in 1961.
In 1961 the company was restructured when the Picot family joined the business. Their family company, Progressive Enterprises, contributed an equal amount of capital to that accumulated by the three original partners and became the parent company to Foodtown Supermarkets Limited.
In March 1988 Progressive Enterprises became part of the Australian company Coles Myer. During this time it saw the expansion of the Foodtown chain to areas outside Auckland (Hamilton, Wellington, Tauranga, Palmerston North, Wanganui and New Plymouth) and also saw greater expansion within the wider Auckland area.
In April 1992 Coles Myer relaunched Progressive Enterprises onto the New Zealand stock exchange as a public company. During this time no new Foodtown Supermarkets were opened.
In October 1993 Foodland Associated Limited (FAL) bought the majority shareholding from Coles Myer and shortly after bought all remaining public shares and delisted Progressive from the New Zealand stock exchange. With this purchase Progressive Enterprises became the parent company for a number of FAL brands. Progressive Enterprises consisted of: Foodtown Supermarkets, Countdown, 3 Guys, Georgie Pie Restaurants, Rattrays and Supervalue.
On 17 June 2002 Progressive Enterprises Ltd bought Woolworths (NZ) Ltd from Hong Kong-based owners Dairy Farm Group. The sale saw Progressive's supermarket brands Foodtown, Countdown, 3 Guys, SuperValue and FreshChoice joined by Woolworths, Big Fresh and Price Chopper. As a result, PEL increased its share of the NZ grocery market to approximately 45%.
Foodtown was the first Supermarket in New Zealand to launch a loyalty card called the "Foodtown Card", which offered exclusive discounts and competitions to cardholders. This was renamed in 2003 after the merger of Progressive and Woolworths (NZ) Ltd as the "Foodtown Woolworths onecard".
...
Wikipedia