Foodstuffs North Island says Four Square Taradale, the last of 33 of its stores closed due to the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle, has reopened.
Chris Quin, CEO at Foodstuffs North Island, said all stock is now being delivered by road to all stores, except for the Four Square Tokomaru Bay on the East Cape, where the grocery company continues to use a helicopter.
“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. 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,” Quin said.
“Given the cyclone struck a week ago, it’s a big milestone to have all our stores open and it is a testament to the dedication, commitment and culture we have here at Foodies.
“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. 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,” he said.
“We’d like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding during this time.”
Four Square Taradale in Napier (whose staff are pictured at the top of this article) was closed when the Napier suburb was evacuated on February 14. Without power for a full week, it was unable to trade before being reconnected to mains power on Tuesday.
During the past few weeks, Foodstuffs’ HereforNZ team has donated more than $335,000 worth of product, or cash to support the immediate needs of communities and during the coming days, the company said it will be increasing its support as it works with its community partners.
