Woolworths (New Zealand)
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1929; 88 years ago |
| Founder | Percy Christmas |
| Headquarters | Mount Maunganui, New Zealand |
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Number of locations
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1 (2017) |
| Owner | Woolworths Limited |
| Parent | Progressive Enterprises |
| Website | Woolworths (New Zealand) |
Woolworths is a New Zealand supermarket chain and a unit of Woolworths Limited. The chain has been re-branded as Countdown, but a single outlet under the name still operates at Mount Maunganui's Bayfair Shopping Centre, and will not be rebranded to Countdown.
Founded in 1929 by Percy Christmas, the chain was separated from the parent company Woolworths Limited in Australia and was called Woolworths New Zealand. During this period, the chain was mainly Variety and General Merchandise products trading under the Woolworths brand.
In 1956, Woolworths first entered food retailing with their Food Fair store, and its first dedicated food store opened in 1963 in New Lynn. It wasn't until 1967 that Woolworths launched its first Supermarket in Henderson.
An article on NZ Foodstuffs history blog longwhitekid - "Research Sucks: Woolworths and the Advent of American Style" about Woolworths Food Fair and food supermarkets, and the advent of American-type convenience shopping elements, explores the discrepancies in dates and who was first in the race to become the country's first, dedicated "U.S.-style" supermarket, depending on the definition of such.
Woolworths was expanding and in 1971 acquired the Self Help grocery chain and later rebranded these as Woolworths.
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 acquire the McKenzies General Merchandise 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.
Ownership 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 different offering: Woolworths is a full-service supermarket; Big Fresh offered a themepark style shopping experience with model animals, dioramas and music; and Price Chopper was positioned in the discount sector.
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Wikipedia