NZ’s busiest supermarket Pak’nSave Wairau Park flood protection: $1m upgrade after 2023 deluge
New Zealand’s busiest supermarket, on Auckland’s North Shore, is getting a $1 million upgrade with anti-flood measures, early warning alarm systems and even a weather station.
Nick Hanson, Foodstuffs North Island’s property head, said improvements were being made to the store, which was flooded in the 2023 Auckland Anniversary weekend disaster.
Knee-deep water trapped about 80 people and contaminated truckloads of food, while shelving and cabling had to be dumped from the 5700sq m store, where checkouts were lifted to sanitise them.
Quinton Proctor, Pak’nSave Wairau Park owner/operator, spoke in 2023 of the disaster.
“Anything the floodwater had touched, we had to write off. Every piece of machinery was damaged – ovens, fridges, all gone. It was just devastating.”
Today, Hanson said the $1m upgrade aimed to protect the building against a repeat. The supermarket will remain open while the changes are made.
Works were underway to build concrete nib walls, install flood sensor alarms, a weather station for early warning of changing conditions and removable flood barriers, Hanson said.
Concrete nib walls are designed as a flood mitigation system, aimed at stopping water from flooding a building at its low points.
The works are at the Porana Rd end of the store, hardest hit in 2023 when that street turned into a river.
Hanson said the works would increase the site’s resilience, improve safety and minimise future disruption.
“We can’t control the weather, but we can control how we prepare. The work we’re doing now will help us recover faster from future weather events, while maintaining great customer service levels and improving safety for everyone,” Hanson said.
The supermarket is also adding a click-and-collect service as part of its upgrade.
“We know there’s strong demand from locals wanting to shop Pak’nSave Wairau online, so it’s great to be able to bring click and collect to the store as part of this investment.”
The store is beside Wairau Creek, which was inundated with torrential rain and overflowed in the 2023 disaster.
The supermarket is classified as New Zealand’s busiest based on the fact that it has sold more items at one point in time than any other supermarket in New Zealand.
It employs about 350 staff.
In the seven days leading up to Christmas 2024, it sold more than 1.5 million products, up 33% on an average week, Foodstuffs found.
On its busiest day on December 23, 2024, 270,000 items went through checkouts at the store on the corner of Porana Rd and Wairau Rd.
Not only is Pak’nSave Wairau Park this country’s busiest store but its customer base is one of the country’s most diverse.
About 40% of local shoppers are of Asian descent.
Top sellers in the week leading up to Christmas 2024 included:
- 250,000 eggs
- 49,283 cobs of sweetcorn
- 31,000 avocados
- 28,500 croissants
- 18,000 punnets of blueberries
- 17,911 punnets of strawberries
- 9229 bottles of cream
- 6436kg of chicken drumsticks
- 3847kg of lamb
In the latest works, a new canopy will be built over dedicated parking spaces for click and collect.
Customers will be able to pick up their groceries under shelter but in a partly open area.
Hanson said the new service will give shoppers the option to buy their groceries online and collect them when it suits.
Big Takapuna Pak’nSave planned
Flood protection measures were also considered in Foodstuffs North Island’s largest planned new supermarket.
A $100m Pak’nSave of more than half a hectare has been allowed at Takapuna with 197 carparking spaces near the motorway on- and off-ramps near Esmonde Rd.
Consent sought on December 6, 2024, was granted on June 12, 2026.
A 6461sq m building won approval.
That is larger than Foodstuff’s 6100sq m Pak’nSave Highland Park, so popular that trolleys ran out.
The Takapuna supermarket is to be built on the greenfields ex-rubbish dump reclaimed site at 6 Fred Thomas Drive, opposite The Lake House and Rosmini College.
The plans are for an undercroft, which means much of the car parking will be beneath the store.
The shop will be on the first level, partly due to the flood-prone nature of the site.
An upper-level service yard will also be created for hundreds of deliveries to be made to the store daily.
The site was historically part of the Barrys Point Landfill, which closed in the 1970s. It is generally flat in topography and is currently vacant and covered in grass.
Pedestrian access will be from Des Swan Drive and Fred Thomas Drive. A travellator will get people up to the supermarket level from Fred Thomas Drive below.
Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs South Island had a $380m-plus expansion and upgrade programme in the past two years which included:
- Plans for a $100m, 6461sq m Pak’nSave Takapuna on a reclaimed greenfields site, 6 Fred Thomas Drive opposite the Lake House Arts Centre;
- Developed and opened in February last year, the new $100m Pak’nSave Highland Park;
- Developed the new $73m New World Pt Chevalier, opened last year;
- Bought Woolworths Te Atatū to upgrade to New World Te Atatū;
- Developed and opened the $40m+ Pak’nSave Rolleston near Christchurch last October;
- Developed the new $28m frozen distribution centre at Hornby, Christchurch, opened last August 21;
- Refurbished and expanded the flood-hit New World Mt Albert for $6m;
- Opened the New Four Square Ōpunaki near New Plymouth in April, costing about $6m;
- Opened the Four Square Waipawa in Hawke’s Bay in November 2024, costing about $5m;
- Opened the Four Square Putāruru in November 2024, costing about $5m;
- Opened the New World The Stands at Pāpāmoa last November;
- Developed the Gilmours Hawkes Bay, which was only a delivery service. Opened as a wholesale cash-and-carry store for customers in a $12.6m upgrade.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 26 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
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