A new small format grocery brand has entered the market with the launch of Fresh Collective by New World. The store at 10a Constellation Drive on Auckland’s North Shore is the first to showcase this new brand.
The store joined the Foodstuffs North Island co-operative in May, and has been operating under a temporary New World banner since then. The store reopened on 4th July with a new look, new layout and new product offerings.
As well as picking up a great cup of coffee from the in-house barista, customers can now order fresh smoothies; grab some sushi; choose a meal kit for dinner tonight or pick up some premium cuts from the in-house butcher. Customers can also get their everyday, food-focused top-up grocery needs. The butcher, bakery and fresh seafood counter are all on show, so customers can see the goods they’ve selected being prepared.
“For some time now, we’ve been analysing what we offer our urban customers,” Foodstuffs North Island CEO Chris Quin says.
“We wanted to give them a smaller grocery experience that answers that question of ‘what will we eat tonight’ with plenty of fresh produce and take-home meal solutions.
“The store has fresh food at its heart, with an extensive deli counter, a full specialty cheese range and an extensive range of fresh fruit and vegetables. It brings the best of what New World offers to a small, local store. Fresh Collective by New World also has your everyday grocery needs, so that you can top up with the basics at the same time,” he says.
“We’ve been working on this concept for some time. We created a prototype of what a Fresh Collective experience would look like, which allowed everyone involved to walk around inside it and comment on the design and customer flow. That was a first for us, and we found it a really useful, creative part of the process. To be able to pick up the deli counter and move it to another position, or make an aisle a little wider, was really helpful.”
The next Fresh Collective by New World store will open in Mt Albert in the coming weeks. The Alberton Four Square store has been closed since June 20 while the refurbishment work takes place.
“We intend to keep refining the concept as we go, to suit each community. So there will be exciting features at the Mt Albert store that are different to what’s on offer at Constellation Drive.
“We are looking at other urban areas in the North Island where Fresh Collective by New World will suit our customers’ needs,” says Quin.
