New owners for supermarket super-stores

A New Zealand Stock Exchange listed company and a private individual have combined to purchase more than $52million worth of supermarket buildings across the Lower North Island.

The supermarket portfolio had been placed on the market for sale through a tender process run by Bayleys on behalf of Foodstuffs (Wellington) Co-operative Society Limited.

DNZ Property Fund has purchased three of the supermarkets – New World Mirimar, New World Greenmeadows in Napier and Pak ‘n’ Save New Plymouth - for a total of $40.73million.

And a wealthy Hawke’s Bay businessman has completed the quartet – buying the New World Hastings site for $12million.

Two other supermarkets - New World Waipukurau and New World Marton – were also on the market for sale. Both received multiple tenders, but on completion of the sale of the first four sites, Foodstuffs (Wellington) Co-operative Society Limited withdrew the remaining two venues from the sale process, while reserving the right to potentially offer them back to the market for sale in future.

Bayleys Wellington director Mark Hourigan said that more than 30 tenders were received for the Lower North Island supermarket portfolio – ranging from offers to purchase selected individual sites, through to purchasing up to six venues.

“Buyer interest was extraordinary and far exceeded both our expectations, and certainly those of Foodstuffs Wellington. The level of interest obviously reflects the quality of the properties on offer, supported by the strong branding associated with each of the sites,” Mr Hourigan said.

Each of the venues successfully sold varied in size and rental returns:

1. New World Miramar is a 3161square-metre building on 6338square metres of land, returning $698,636 a year in rent.

2. The massive New World Hastings is a 4956square-metre building on 1.2hectares of land, returning $870,000 a year in rent.

3. New World Greenmeadows in Napier is a 4423square-metre building on 1.3hectares of land, returning 840,000 a year in rent.

4. The enormous Pak ‘n Save New Plymouth is a 8521square-metre building on 1hectare of land, returning $1.505million a year in rent.
 

Foodstuffs (Wellington) Co-operative Society Limited’s property division general manager, Wayne O’Styke, said the company would use proceeds from the sales to develop and expand other sites within its Lower North Island network.

“The awareness which Bayleys managed to achieve with the marketing campaign behind this portfolio was outstanding, and the results achieved enabled the company to positively reassess opportunities for the future through retaining ownership of the remaining two sites at this stage,” Mr O’Styke said.