Smiths City Group Ltd expects to open a new store in Upper Hutt by March, creating eight to ten jobs in addition to the 14 created at its new store in the Porirua Mega Centre, which opened before Christmas.The Christchurch-based retailer is also looking f
Smiths City Group Ltd expects to open a new store in Upper Hutt by March, creating eight to ten jobs in addition to the 14 created at its new store in the Porirua Mega Centre, which opened before Christmas.
The Christchurch-based retailer is also looking for a site in Wellington city but has not identified one yet.
It said it has signed an unconditional agreement to lease with Trentham City Investments Ltd for a store in a new retail development in Upper Hutt. The shop is 2196sq m.
Managing director Rick Hellings does not anticipate lines of applicants applying for jobs as occurred with a supermarket opening in Auckland, saying his company was not holding a recruitment day.
"We've had a very good response to both the Upper Hutt and Porirua openings but we've tended to do it through application, rather than people queueing at the door. The quality of candidates we have had so far has been excellent," he said.
The company also owns Wellington appliance retailer LV Martin. These news stores stock the full range of Smith City products.
The Upper Hutt store is at the old Hazlewoods site alongside the redeveloped Upper Hutt mall.
A strategic review by the board identified Wellington as the best area for immediate growth for the company.
"Upper Hutt people have traditionally gone to Lower Hutt or to the city where they work for retail. There's now a very good offering within Upper Hutt and the key is for Upper Hutt shoppers to shop in their own area," he said.
As reported in the company's recently released interim report, it was expected that the opening of stores in the Wellington area will make use of the logistics already in place for the operations of LV Martin&Son without increasing group warehousing and delivery costs.
