25 June 2026

Hundreds of people crowded into the car park of the new Woolworths Flaxmere store early this morning, as the new store opened its doors to the Flaxmere community.

“This is the biggest crowd I can remember seeing at a store opening in the 12 years I have been with Woolworths. This one really has been off the charts,” said Matthew Grainger, Woolworths New Zealand Director of Property.

Cultural groups from Flaxmere Primary School and Flaxmere College performed at the opening, and Flaxmere College Kapa Haka gave a thunderous performance of the haka Tika Tonu as Hastings District Mayor Wendy Schollum cut the ribbon to formally open the store.

“The haka from Flaxmere College was just spine tingling and to see that turnout for a store opening was amazing. We’ve been blown away by the community interest in this store and it was just an incredible privilege to be there today to experience that energy. We are investing in New Zealand and we’re proud to serve this community and to bring more supermarket competition to this part of Aotearoa,” said Sally Copland, Managing Director of Woolworths New Zealand.

The new $25 million Flaxmere store brings a much-needed full service supermarket to Flaxmere and also brings around 80 jobs, all of which have been filled from the Flaxmere and Hastings communities.

The store’s first ever customer was Flaxmere local Belinda Duly.

“I wanted to have a look here before work. Oh it’s fantastic, long overdue, love it. It’s going to have a big impact - we don’t have to go to town to do shopping now, it’s just going to be amazing. It’s been so long overdue, it really has,” said Belinda Duly.

The 3,460m² full-service supermarket anchors TW Property’s redevelopment of the Flaxmere shopping precinct, bordered by Swansea Road, Caernarvon Drive, Pam O’Keefe Avenue and Te Ara Moeke.

“I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve already achieved here, and what we still have coming for Flaxmere. It was a massive effort from our team to get the store ready on time, and to see all those people here to celebrate with us was pretty overwhelming,” said Terry May, CEO of TW Property.

The site includes 345m² of specialty retail with a local pharmacy soon to open. It features 171 customer car parks and a covered parking area for online customers to collect their shopping.

There are two 50 kW dual plug charging units installed, servicing four EV car parking spaces, and sustainability measures include doors on fridges to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, and bike parking to make it easy for customers and team to do a quick shop with bike not car.

Pre-cast concrete panels feature etched patterns inspired by the Flaxmere community.

To celebrate the opening, GoBay bus services 6 and 7 to and from Flaxmere will be free from Thursday 25 June till Sunday 28 June.