Countdown Colombo Street to reopen this Wednesday

Countdown Colombo St opens on Wednesday 13 April 2011 and is back to normal trading hours, after an extensive clean up job following the Christchurch earthquake on February 22.

The supermarket did not suffer any structural damage from the earthquake, but an electrical fire broke out that night and the entire store was affected by water damage.

Countdown’s Chief Operating Officer, Dave Chambers, said it has been a long wait for employees and customers while extensive recovery work took place.

“We essentially had to strip the entire store and start again,” Mr Chambers said. “Our Colombo St team members and other Countdown team members have been involved right throughout the clean up process, working hard to ensure we could open again as soon as possible for the local community.”

Mr Chambers said the store was able to recover some of the stock to donate to the SPCA and the Salvation Army.

“The good news is that Countdown Colombo St is now looking very sharp and ready to serve our customers, with new fixtures and fully restocked shelves.”

Countdown Colombo St employs 140 team members and will resume normal trading hours of 8am – 10pm. “We’re pleased our team members have been able to return to work as expected,” Mr Chambers said.

Mr Chambers said Countdown was committed to providing employment for its Christchurch employees.

“We have been able to maintain employment for all 2,250 of our employees in the Canterbury region despite having three stores closed and hundreds of employees unable to work in their regular stores.”

Twelve of Countdown’s 15 stores in the Christchurch area are now open. Countdown Eastgate, Countdown Ferrymead and Countdown The Palms remain closed. Mr Chambers says these stores were the worst affected by the earthquake and recovery work continues.

Countdown is collecting donations for the Salvation Army Canterbury Earthquake Appeal in all Countdown, Woolworths, Foodtown, SuperValue & FreshChoice stores nationwide. Over $500,000 has been donated by customers and employees across New Zealand so far. In addition, Woolworths Limited in Australia has collected over NZ$900,000 across all Woolworths supermarkets and Dick Smith stores in Australia.

Information on store openings will continue to be provided on the Countdown website at www.countdown.co.nz and our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/countdown.

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