Big Northcote Food Centre

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32315, 5 June 1970, Page 1

Big Northcote Food Centre

The new food distribution centre being built on the Main North Road, Northcote, adjacent to the Ovaltine factory, for the Four Square and New World grocery groups, will be the second biggest food warehouse in New Zealand. •The centre will be ready for occupancy next April. The building, in concrete block and brick with steel framing, would have 120,000 sq. ft of floor space, and would cost about $750,000, said Mr R. W. Thomas, the gen-

eral manager of Foodstuffs, Christchurch, Ltd, the wholesale company for groups in Nelson, Marlborough, Buller, Westland, Canterbury and South Canterbury. Mr Thomas will leave tomorrow on a 12-week visit to the United States to study the latest techniques in food warehousing and retail distribution.

The company had sold its property on the corner of Moorhouse Avenue and Antigua Street to an investment company, Mr Thomas said. “We have been the cause of

congestion on that corner for many years. Our business has increased by 250 per cent in the last 25 years and we have had no provision for parking. ‘The new building is on 13) acres in Northcote and there is room for expanding it to three times its size, still with plenty of room for parking. “At present the entrance will be from the Main North Road, but provision has been made for entrances from Lydia Street and Northcote Road in the future. “Fire prevention necessitates

us having a water reservoir and this will also be a swimming pool for our staff of about 150,” he said. The new building will have 104,000 sq. ft on the ground floor, with a stud of 20ft and the roof rising to 35ft in the middle, allowing for stacking of goods by forklift trucks.

The administration offices will occupy the second storey of 16,000 sq. ft. The area of land fronting the Main North Road will be landscaped and laid out in lawns and shrubs.