New wholesale outlets

Press, 29 March 1982, Page 13

New wholesale outlets

Dingwall and Paulger, Ltd, has opened two new warehouses in Christchurch. The most impressive of the two is the bulk wharehouse, self-service warehouse for retailers and head office on nearly a hectare of land at 300 Manchester Street, in what was formerly Blackwell Motors’ city showroom. The other newly opened premises 'are at 220 Antigua Street, where there is a wholesale warehouse of more than 763 square metres next door to the former head office. Dingwall and Paulger is a public company selling mainly groceries but also wines, variety goods, hardware and soft goods. About a quarter of the firm’s business is at the wholesale level, supplying institutions, hotels, dairies, caterers, tearooms and even farmers’ groups. The firm now has six' warehouses in Christchurch, five of them self-service, and all of them almost exclu-

sively for the wholesale trade, as the firm’s retail operation obtains 95 per cent of its goods direct from the manufacturers. Although the company began in wholesaling, the bulk of its activity these days is at the retail level, in the form of Keystore Wholesale Groceries *(N.Z.), Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary that is well-known throughout Christchurch. Out of the parent company’s staff of about 450, some 330 are employed in the Keystore operation. The first “Keystore” was established in the city 14 years ago, with the aim of offering grocery prices that were cheapest overall in the South Island. This basic policy remains unchanged and there is now a network of 95 Keystores, spread to most corners of the South Island, and all offering the same level of pricing advantage. The Keystore name has become associated with pre-

dominantly smaller stores of 100 to 400 square metres, carrying a full range of groceries along with a selection of wholesale hardware and variety goods. The idea has been to provide a concentration of stores, so there is one within easy reach of almost everybody, especially in the Christchurch urban area where there are 52. The balance is spread from Picton to Bluff, and also includes the West Coast. Among these smaller stores are five supermarkets. Known as “Super-Keystores,” these are established in Rangiora, Kaiapoi, Hornby, Halswell and Invercargill. There is also a wine shop at Richmond Village in Stanmore Road. Another whollyowned subsidiary, this outlet recently came under the Hadleigh’s franchise — an association of independent wine resellers who have come together for the sake of shared advertising and bulk purchase benefits.