Connings Expanding Into Nelson

The Conning family is delighted to announce its first steps towards bringing its farm-fresh, locally-grown produce to Nelson.

This would be in the form of a Connings pop-up store in the central city that would stock fruit and vegetables harvested from the Connings Market Gardens located on the Waimea Plains. The new store will be in addition to the current Appleby Connings Food Market store.

“We grow what people like to eat, and we sell what we grow,” says Simon Conning, in reference to the successful formula that has seen the family business grow over 45 years from gardens to its Connings Food Market in Appleby.

“Before we developed Connings Food Market in Appleby, we had smaller stores that people appreciated for the fresh, affordable produce and low food miles.

“We know Nelsonians love their fruit and veg and make special trips to our Appleby store to stock up. As many as 30 per cent of our Connings Food Market customers are from Nelson, so we are stoked to be able to bring our produce closer to them,” Simon says.

This development for the 45 year-old family business has been enabled with a recent agreement between Nelson City Council and Connings.

The council has agreed in principle to Connings leasing a council-owned site on Achilles Avenue for the pop-up store, with the option of buying 69-101 Achilles Avenue for the construction of a new Connings Food Market.

“Let’s start with what we do best, providing affordable produce, within walking distance for thousands of workers and residents.

“We pride ourselves on our service – providing high-quality, low food-mile fruit and vegetables. And because we are the growers, selling directly to customers, we can keep the costs down and offer great value for families,” Simon says.

“While we get the pop-up store humming along, we can keep working on our plans for a beautiful new store – a Nelson Connings Food Market with an expanded range of high-quality grocery products and artisan foods.

Simon says that Connings staff get loads of compliments about the architecturally-designed flagship store in Appleby and that Nelsonians will understandably be curious about a new building might look like on Archilles Ave.

“It’s early days and we’ll take people on the journey with us.”

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