{"id":222825,"date":"2026-01-08T07:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T07:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/222825\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T07:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T07:20:07","slug":"on-the-up-freshchoice-kaikohe-to-replace-woolworths-with-local-owner-operator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/222825\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Up: FreshChoice Kaikohe to replace Woolworths with local owner-operator"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019ll be great to end up owning the store where I started my store manager career 21 years ago,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty surreal. <\/p>\n

\u201cNormally you\u2019d have to move away from the town you live in and take whatever store is available. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut this meant we could stay in the mid North, so it was a perfect fit.\u201d <\/p>\n

Currently the store manager at Woolworths Kerikeri<\/a>, Dudley has been with the company for 32 years, after starting out as a store butcher in the Bay of Plenty. <\/p>\n

Woolworths Kaikohe <\/a>will close on February 15 for a refresh before being reopened as FreshChoice on February 24. <\/p>\n

An Okaihau resident, Dudley said he was looking forward to bringing a fresh new shopping experience to the locals. <\/p>\n

The supermarket will be family run, with Paula-Lee working full time in store, along with one of their sons. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really exciting for us all, and it feels very special, after starting out all those years ago as a butcher. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a great career path for me and who knows, maybe for my children too.\u201d <\/p>\n

FreshChoice supermarkets<\/a> are locally owned and operated franchises, but they operate under franchise agreements with Wholesale Distributors Limited (WDL), a division of Woolworths New Zealand. <\/p>\n

FreshChoice executive general manager Tim Cartwright said the decision to convert the Woolworths Kaikohe store to FreshChoice was made after a review of how the store can best meet the needs of the locals, now and into the future. <\/p>\n

\u201cWoolworths focuses on larger stores and a broader customer segment while the FreshChoice franchise model is the best fit for smaller stores that are tailored for local customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFreshChoice delivers a locally relevant range and service that is curated by the local owners, who work hard to meet the needs of the customers in their community. <\/p>\n

\u201cPricing is one element of the total offer, and as such will be aligned to the local offer in that store.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are 32 permanent roles at Woolworths Kaikohe. <\/p>\n

Dudley said he has recruited 24 staff so far \u2013 26 including himself and Paula \u2013 while some staff chose not to reapply for roles. <\/p>\n

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019ll be great to end up owning the store where I started my store manager career 21 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[24752,11164,138,2046,9060,12600,19134,48266,30616,440,19133,1044,111,139,31469,69,90,1523,133637,8465,111655,4482,97,4758,223,61,810,540,102,92],"class_list":["post-222825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-ago","tag-began","tag-business","tag-career","tag-decades","tag-dudley","tag-forward","tag-freshchoice","tag-kaikohe","tag-local","tag-looking","tag-management","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-northlander","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-over","tag-owneroperator","tag-patrick","tag-rebranded","tag-replace","tag-supermarket","tag-taking","tag-the","tag-to","tag-up","tag-where","tag-with","tag-woolworths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}