It will feature an expanded retail offering, a large garden centre, drive-through facilities, a trade yard and a Columbus cafe.<\/p>\n
For local tradespeople, the addition of a dedicated yard is expected to be a game-changer.<\/p>\n
Mitre 10 P\u0101p\u0101moa owners Loretta and Brian Johnstone will open their new Mitre 10 MEGA store at The Sands in spring. Photo \/ Kelly O\u2019Hara<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t service that side of the business at the moment,\u201d Loretta said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo that will be a huge positive for the local trade community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move east reflects the rapid growth of P\u0101p\u0101moa, particularly around The Sands, where future development projections made the decision a logical one.<\/p>\n
\u201cMitre 10 New Zealand has done their future planning, and the growth out that way will continue,\u201d Loretta said. \u201cAs a business model, it made sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spring opening<\/p>\n
Construction of the new store is well underway, with steel pillars being erected and prefabricated concrete walls expected to follow shortly. The Johnstones are aiming for an early spring opening.<\/p>\n
For Loretta and Brian, the project has been a long time coming.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to do this for 10 years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team are very excited. We\u2019ve got such a fabulous team, and it will be really exciting to bring everyone together and create an even stronger team culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
The expansion would also bring significant employment opportunities, with staff numbers expected to grow from about 40 to roughly 85 when the new store opens.<\/p>\n
Despite the scale of the development, Loretta said the focus remained firmly on improving the customer experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur store now is very jam-packed,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith the new space, customers will have a lot more choice, and the shopping experience will be so much nicer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Store design<\/p>\n
She said changing customer habits were also shaping the new store\u2019s design, with more people researching products online before visiting in person.<\/p>\n
The new Mitre 10 MEGA store rising up from the ground at The Sands. Photo \/ Kelly O\u2019Hara<\/p>\n
\u201cThey often come in knowing exactly what they want and go straight to it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The existing Mitre 10 P\u0101p\u0101moa site will close once the new Mega store opens, Loretta said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people are sad to see us go [from our current site]. But when they come and visit [the new site next spring] whether it\u2019s for a coffee or their garden supplies \u2013 they\u2019ll see the difference. There\u2019s just so much more available.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond retail, the business had long played a quiet but active role in the local community, supporting initiatives such as a Rotary golf tournament raising funds for P\u0101p\u0101moa children, and local surf and bowling clubs. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe love supporting the community that supports us,\u201d Loretta said.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, she believed P\u0101p\u0101moa\u2019s continued growth would only strengthen the role of the new store. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big community and still growing fast. We\u2019re really proud of what we\u2019ve built over the past 21 years, and we just hope to keep building on that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It will feature an expanded retail offering, a large garden centre, drive-through facilities, a trade yard and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9055,2840,5159,674,60780,138,3806,10044,2082,78,79911,440,9851,186673,661,32739,23949,3259,63766,117,111,139,69,9769,23282,116573,16487,2735,1120],"class_list":["post-352726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-9055","tag-across","tag-brian","tag-building","tag-builds","tag-business","tag-east","tag-excitement","tag-for","tag-in","tag-johnstone","tag-local","tag-longtime","tag-loretta","tag-major","tag-marking","tag-mega","tag-milestone","tag-mitre","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-owners","tag-ppmoa","tag-sands","tag-shape","tag-store","tag-takes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352726","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=352726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}