News Release
9 May 2001

Botany Town Centre Opens With a Retail Boom

Botany Town Centre opened with a double whammy! Sales for many retailers were double the forecast and opening traffic to East Auckland’s new Botany Town Centre was beyond all expectations.

Botany Town Centre manager, Gale Wieland, said the massive number of shoppers that turned out to celebrate the hand-over from builders Mainzeal New Zealand to developers AMP Henderson Global Investors Ltd was a huge vote of confidence for the new town centre.

“This is a bumper start for Botany Town Centre, and we were overwhelmed with the response. People have been arriving from well beyond our intended demographic areas,” said Wieland.

She added that food retailers battled to cope with demand -– a temporary situation that will be alleviated when the food courts and fast food outlets open up prior to the official opening ceremony in July.

“Our traffic attendants from the Bucklands Beach Lions Club did a fantastic job, considering the huge demand for parking bays – to the extent that we had people parking in the paddocks across the road.

“We have been quite simply delighted with the response and customer feedback to the streetscape design has confirmed that we are onto a winning concept,” said Wieland.

The owner/operator of the Botany Town Centre New World, Jason Witehira, said he had expected approximately 16,000 people between 1 – 5 May, but instead more than 22,000 shoppers had passed through the store’s doors.

“Business was fantastic, huge, in fact I can say that we were way ahead of budget, and customer feedback has been extremely positive. I am very excited about the future of Botany Town Centre.

The branch manager of the ‘next generation’ Whitcoulls outlet at Botany Town Centre, Amita Weerakoon, said business was absolutely fantastic with the store notching up 300% of targeted sales.

“I was optimistic about Botany Town Centre from the start because it represents the future of retailing, but I was frankly blown away by the numbers of shoppers.

“I believe we can expect a bright future here, and although things will settle down now after the hand-over ceremony, the crowds we saw last week confirm that the area has the population to support this centre,” said Weerakoon.

The owner of Life Pharmacy Botany Downs, Clair Connor, was equally as thrilled.

“We had double the customers we were expecting, all in keeping with the predicted shopper profile. It’s everything I expected and more.”

The owner of Botany Town Centre’s Robert Harris, Biram Kumar, said trading conditions were well beyond their expectations.

“We did double the business we expected to. I am really excited about our future here,” said Kumar.

Organised like a local community with its own lanes, park areas, a Town Square, Conservatory and Market Square, Botany Town Centre will have more than 140 stores when it officially opens in July.

This includes 13 large format stores plus the biggest Farmers in New Zealand and a state-of-the-art New World. The size of many of the outlets means that Botany Town Centre has more retail space than any other shopping centre in the country.

AMP Henderson Global Investors Ltd is the developer of the $185 million Botany Town Centre.

Ends

Issued for Botany Town Centre by Pead PR

For further information please contact:
Gale Wieland Deborah Pead / Theresa Platon
Botany Town Centre Manager Pead PR
09 272 3881 09 918 5550 /52

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