Eleven years on from its opening in Palmerston North, local residents can now enjoy their grocery shop at the freshly refurbished, state-of-the-art Woolworths Kelvin Grove with the supermarket’s official relaunch.
Woolworths New Zealand Director of Property, Matt Grainger says that as part of the supermarket’s transformation to Woolworths New Zealand, it is investing significantly in upgrading stores around Aotearoa to provide a better experience for team and customers.
“The upgrade of our Kelvin Grove store is an example of this investment. We’ve undertaken a $4.6 million renovation to modernise our store and better meet the needs of our customers and team. It’s not just changing our signage to Woolworths – it’s about investing in improving our offer to our communities and providing the best supermarket experience,” says Matt.
Woolworths Kelvin Grove Store Manager, Adam Georgiou was part of the store opening 11 years ago and says the team are all really excited to be able to unveil the transformation of the store to the local community.
“It has been a lot of hard work from a lot of people but I think everyone that comes into the store will agree it has been worth it. I’m really proud of what we’ve got on offer with our renovation now complete.
“A large part of the project was doubling the number of online pickup lockers on offer from 32 to 64 bays with a new canopy over to add more convenience and weather protection for customers. We’ve also made other enhancements including new checkouts and additional self service checkouts, upgrades to the wine and beer section, bakery, and fresh produce area- a wonderful shopping experience from start to finish,” says Adam.
Sustainability was a core focus of the renovation with electronic shelf labelling to reduce paper use, a dedicated healthy foods aisle, doors on chilled dairy refrigeration cases, and a new mobility scooter to make the store more accessible for customers who need it.
Team and customer safety was another significant consideration with the installation of bollards, double entry gates, and trolley locking.
Woolworths Kelvin Grove partners with Just Zilch and The Salvation Army to redirect food that cannot be sold but still good enough to eat to help address hunger in the community. Woolworths New Zealand recently donated $25,000 to fund Just Zilch’s operational capacity which will allow them to continue providing $85,000 worth of food to New Zealanders in need every week. At the reopening, Woolworths Kelvin Grove donated a trolley full of groceries to The Salvation Army to help their work this holiday season.
Woolworths Kelvin Grove is located at 7 Fernlea Avenue and is open 7am – 10pm, seven days a week.
