Foodstuffs North Island, the 100% New Zealand owned and operated co-operative behind PAK'nSAVE, New World and Four Square in the North Island is pleased to announce all its affected stores have successfully reopened following the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle.

Cyclone Gabrielle brought strong winds, heavy rain and flooding to the North Island, causing loss of life, damage to homes, businesses and crops. When the Cyclone hit, Foodstuffs North Island had 33 stores that were unable to open.

'Our thoughts remain with all those who continue to be affected by Cyclone Gabrielle, our teams have done an incredible job getting all the affected stores open,” says Foodstuffs North Island Chief Executive Chris Quin.

'We're now delivering stock by road to all stores, except Four Square Tokomaru Bay, where we're continuing to deliver stock by helicopter. The safety of our customers and our teams is always our top priority, and we took the necessary steps to ensure our stores were safe to re-open.

'Having seen the devastation first hand, I've got so much respect and admiration for the hard work of our owner operators, truck drivers, team members, support teams, business and supplier partners. Given the cyclone struck a week ago, it's a big milestone to have all our stores open and its testament to the dedication, commitment and culture we have here at Foodies.”

The Four Square Taradale team in Napier. Photo: Supplied.

The final store to re-open was Four Square Taradale in Napier. With the area being evacuated on Tuesday, February 14, the store was without power and unable to trade for a week before regaining access to mains power on Tuesday, February 21.

'Getting all the stores open and serving our communities is just the beginning, we want New Zealanders to know we're fully committed to supporting the recovery from here,” says Chris.

'I'm proud of our team's response to the cyclone, we've had team members chartering helicopters to fly in product, Waka Kai has been on the water delivering essentials to isolated communities in the Coromandel, our IT team has been flying in Starlink kits to restore connectivity and our truck drivers have shown great bravery delivering through the storm.

'We'd like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding during this time.”

Chris says Foodstuffs North Island has a long-standing commitment of supporting local communities and being ‘HereforNZ'.

'And one of our promises is to make sure every New Zealander has access to food,” says Chris.

'Every locally owned New World and PAK'nSAVE has a direct link to at least one foodbank, food rescue, or social supermarket partner and we've been working with them and other community organisations and charities to honour this promise in the wake of the recent Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle.”

In the last few weeks, the HereforNZ team has donated over $335,000 worth of product, or cash funding to support the immediate need, says Chris.

'And in the coming days, we'll be increasing our support as we work with our community partners.”