Foodstuffs North Island Sends IT Support By Helicopter To Deploy Starlink Kits To Reopen Supermarkets Cut Off By Cyclone

In the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle, severe flooding and road slips have isolated several towns in the Coromandel, East Cape, Gisborne and Hawkes Bay regions. Four Squares, New Worlds and PAK’nSAVEs in the affected areas were struggling to maintain business continuity due to disruptions to business-critical systems and electronic payment platforms. In response to this urgent need, Foodstuffs North Island’s IT team and its partners have deployed Starlink kits, satellite-based internet solutions, to help affected stores open for business and to continue serving their communities.

Each Starlink kits consists of a small satellite dish that can be quickly and easily installed on the roof of each supermarket. Once installed, the dishes can connect to the Starlink satellite network, providing a reliable and high-speed internet connection that’s essential for EFTPOS units at the checkouts. Online connection to a bank’s system is a requirement of every modern chip and pin card and the internet’s also essential for back of house ordering, reporting, pricing functions and enabling fuel sites to open.

Simon Kennedy, Chief Digital Officer for Foodstuffs North Island explains: “Everyone relies on access to groceries, so our stores play an essential role in their communities right across the North Island. Our owner operators are local people and are personally affected by the devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle, and all our people have a sense of responsibility and want to be open in times of need. Our IT team is committed to providing our owner operators with the support they need to get their stores open so their communities can get their groceries during what is an extremely difficult time for everyone.”

“Starlink kits allow us to quickly deploy IT solutions to isolated stores, enabling them to access critical systems. As Cyclone Gabrielle approached, we positioned the Starlinks, and other spare equipment, in locations close to where the weather impact was forecast to be most extreme. Since the cyclone hit, our IT team has been working around the clock to configure and deploy kits to affected stores” added Kennedy.

Having first used Starlink kits only a month ago, the Foodstuffs team had to rapidly conceive, build, test and then prove a viable solution under the most challenging of situations. The task of configuring the Starlink kits fell to the team of Campbell Mander, Head of IT Operations and Security for Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs partners Datacom, Wordline, Windcave and EFTPOS Now.

Campbell Mander said: “These days people tend to use the internet for everything and it’s not too different for our stores. When they lose connectivity, they’re very limited by what they can do. Working with our vendors, we got additional Starlink kits, set them up, got some EFTPOS pin pads, set those up for specific stores and then got them distributed to cut off stores through our field engineering network. Starlinks are quick and easy to set up for a basic internet connection but using them to support a full supermarket operation is a little different. It’s a bit like trying to power a whole house with just a couple of AA batteries, but we have found a way.”

“Our store networks are a very complex setup that enables all the required IT services to work cleanly for each store. We’ve recently deployed a new generation of networks to our stores and the crisis has forced our team to condense what would normally take weeks, into the space of just a few days. It’s been a huge team task and I can’t explain how proud I am of everyone.”

Getting the configured Starlinks out to stores required working with multiple field teams and was led by Carl Layton, User Technology Manager for Foodstuffs North Island who said: “With our usual courier service unavailable we’ve had our IT technicians transport the kits across the North Island to get to the right stores. There’s always going to be nerves sending our technicians into isolated areas without cell phone coverage. We’ve had to test, test again and then hope for the best. Being flown in by choppers over the devastation caused by a cyclone is not the normal day for an IT technician.”

The deployment of the Starlink kits has been met with tremendous relief and gratitude from the affected store owners. Sam Wanklyn, Owner Operator of Four Square Wainui Road in Gisborne said: “We’re still cut off here in Gisborne. My store lost connectivity at 4am on Tuesday which meant we couldn’t trade. By 10am Wednesday the team had flown in a Starlink kit and IT technician and had gotten us back online and operational. It’s meant we’ve been able to open our doors and provide groceries to our community when they’ve really needed it. We’re starting to get more stock through now and the feedback from the community is that everyone is pretty happy being able to get the essentials.”

To date, Foodstuffs North Island has been able to deploy Starlink kits to PAK’nSAVE Gisborne, New World Wairoa, Four Square Wainui Road, Four Square Tokomaru Bay, Four Square Eastern, Four Square Ruatoria and Four Square Waimamaku.

Foodstuffs North Island remains committed to supporting affected communities as they recover from the devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle. The deployment of Starlink kits is just one example of the ongoing efforts to help these communities get back on their feet.

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