Foodies' heaven to open in Hamilton

The Pizza Hut building on the corner of Ulster and Mill streets will be demolished this week to make way for gourmet grocery shop Nosh Food Market.

Hamilton's branch of the food store should be open in March, bringing up to 20 new jobs to the city.

After a two-year search for a Hamilton site, Nosh agreed to lease a purpose-built building on the Pizza Hut site.

Nosh co-founder Chris Moore said the Pizza Hut building would be demolished later this week and Downey Construction would soon begin work on the new premises, designed by Hamilton's Noel Jessup Architects.

He was unable to give a budget for the building but said they had been actively looking for a suitable site for the past two years.

Earlier this year, Mr Moore said it had been difficult to find the right-sized space which also met food handling and refrigeration requirements.

When complete, the store would be the sixth in the Nosh Food Market group, which has grown to five stores in Auckland from a concept developed by Mr Moore and his business partner, Clinton Beuvink, in 2006. Simon Gordon is a working director.

All had wide-ranging grocery and retail marketing and management experience and they had seen an opening for an affordable market grocery store to provide the fresh produce and food New Zealanders were increasingly wanting, Mr Beuvink said.

Mr Moore said there was "an opportunity to provide an alternative full service fresh food offer within the region at market pricing" in Waikato.
He said Nosh would give Hamilton shoppers the authenticity and expertise of a traditional butcher, baker, deli and greengrocer at one site. He said the Nosh concept was to provide high-quality food and produce at affordable prices with "qualified, passionate and foodloving people" on hand to give advice to shoppers.

Modern household shoppers were becoming more creative in the kitchen and Nosh had tapped into that trend offering ideas for menus and shopper education on how to prepare ingredients in store.
"Eating in is the new dining out. Buying fresh produce and transforming it at home is how more New Zealanders are enjoying great food," Mr Beuvink said.

The Hamilton Nosh would be modelled on the company's flagship Dominion Rd market in the Auckland suburb of Mt Eden and would be open seven days.
The company would recruit locally to fill most of the 20 staff positions required to run the store.

- © Fairfax NZ News