The owner of Rangiora’s New World supermarket bids farewell to the grocery trade, signalling the end of an era for the Brown family who have owned and operated Rangiora New World for more than 30 years.
New owners James and Karen Backhouse are taking over the business. The Backhouses are coming from New World Wigram.
The walls of Rangiora New World proudly display the long history of the Brown family and its retail outlets in both Belfast and Rangiora, and the walls along the corridor to Robin’s office is like stepping back in time.
A series of photos when his father Ken had a store in Belfast in partnership with his cousin Eric - Brown Bros which opened in 1967 - show a side of lamb for $2.99, a full leg for $1.80, and loin chops for 45c a pound.
Robin started working in the grocery trade for his parents in 1985.
‘‘I had been travelling overseas, and came home. I was trained as a meat inspector with the Ministry of Agriculture and went back to it.
‘‘I wasn’t really enjoying it that much. Vicki and I were together having been married in 1984, and mum and dad were thinking about retiring.
‘‘I ended up working for them, and then I bought them out.’’
Robin’s parents came to Rangiora from Brown Bros Belfast - a landmark in the Christchurch suburb.
Ken set up shop in Victoria St, next door to the Rangiora RSA, and which is now a church.
The Brown family traded on the site for five years, before the growth of Rangiora saw Foodstuffs, New Worlds parent company, look to expand on a new site.
In October 1982 New World Rangiora moved to its present site in Good St, Rangiora.
‘‘It has been extended a couple of times with major extensions in 1995 and 2011-12.’’
A wall was pushed out in the final expansion, with the Waimakariri District Council selling a strip of its car park to accommodate the expanded building.
Robin says his father continued to work for him for several years when the supermarket carted its own produce from the market, which Ken enjoyed attending.
Things have changed with Foodstuffs now buying on behalf and distributing product to supermarkets.
Robin says supermarkets signalled the end of the corner grocers in the mid 1960s and 70s, and when self-service stores took over it was not long before Rangiora had a Keystore, then a Woolworths, and a Supervalue.
When Progressive took over Woolworths it was rebranded to a Countdown, and a new Countdown was built in Rangiora east.
‘‘They both traded for a while, before the Countdown where Bunnings once was, was closed.
‘‘Then Pak'nSave arrived.’’
But Robin was never daunted.
‘‘We had survived before, and I was confident we would survive again in the face of increased competition.’’
He says the fantastic centre site of Rangiora New World, and the increase in population in Rangiora from 8500 to over 20,000, both proved invaluable. Despite a couple of tough years through ‘‘cutting our cloth and our costs, we got back to profitability’’.
Robin says over the years computerisation and automation at the checkouts have been the greatest change.
He recalls the days of checkout operators remembering prices before prices were stuck on to products with a gun.
They were replaced with a four-digit code linked to a computer in the background.
‘‘Then came automation of the front end, and an inventory system so we knew how much product was on site.
‘‘This allowed the business to grow in volume, without adding huge amounts of extra costs.
‘‘The other big thing was logistics and how goods are supplied to us. Some Foodstuff trucks have three temperature zones - ambient, chilled and frozen.’’
Robin says many staff have been extremely loyal.
‘‘We have been lucky in having good loyal staff, and we have a great relationship with Rangiora High School. A lot of students come along and fill those hard to fill shifts,’’ he says.
Increased hours had added to the need for staff, going from Monday to Friday, than adding Saturday morning, then all day Saturday and then Sunday, and closing at 6pm.
Today it is a seven-day-a-week business, closing at 9pm every night.
Robin intends to do a lot of travel with his wife, Vicki, in his retirement.
‘‘We love travelling.’’
Fishing, a bit of tramping ‘‘while the body holds together’’, watching cricket, ‘‘especially test cricket’’, and doing volunteer work all beckon.
‘‘I love cricket and rugby, particularly club rugby, and am involved with the Saracens Club. We have been a big supporter of sports clubs in our catchment.’’
