Botany Pak’nSave owner Russ Wilkinson wants each of the more than 40,000 shoppers who visit the supermarket each week to have a positive experience as well as access to the cheapest food in New Zealand.
He and his hard-working team of 250 staff are excited to be celebrating the supermarket’s 30th anniversary.
“The marketplace has changed immensely since it opened but the function is the same,” Wilkinson told the Times.
“Pak’nSave has always been here for the cheapest food in New Zealand and that’s something we’ve been able to maintain.
“From its inception, the purpose was to provide the cheapest food prices and provide a one-stop-shop that filled every pantry and the whole basket.”
Wilkinson has strong ties to east Auckland as a standout athlete during his time as a pupil at Pakuranga’s Saint Kentigern College.
He played in its top hockey, basketball, volleyball and rugby teams and was on the senior rowing eight, as well as senior swimming champion.
After leaving school Wilkinson got his first supermarket job and did a training programme with Pak’nSave parent company Foodstuffs.
He went on to own his own stores first in Kerikeri and then Mount Roskill.
It was at the latter business that he first employed staff member Diana Rong, who’s now his store manager at Botany Pak’nSave.
“I was very fortunate to be able to employ Diana as a checkout supervisor,” Wilkinson says.
“She was ambitious and wanted to go further. She became delicatessen manager and bakery manager and learned how all the departments worked.
“Four years later, in 2014, the opportunity for this store came up, so we sold Mount Roskill and moved into Botany Pak’nSave.
“Diana became store manager and from there we haven’t stopped running.”
Botany Pak’nSave previously underwent a refurbishment in 2018-2019 and has now got new equipment and layout.
“We’ve had all our racking redone,” Wilkison says.
“Gone is the gaudy green and in is the new grey, but the good thing is it allowed us to open the aisles slightly and give a bit more room to make everything more uniform.
“We’ve been able to open it up and make it a lot more customer-friendly and usable.
“The core layout may not change but how we present the product, that’s driven by customer demand.”
At the heart of what Wilkinson does is a desire to instill a positive culture in his team to enable them to deliver a great experience for their customers.
“We’ve got a lot of staff who have been here for more than 20 years,” he says.
“One of the boys down front has worked for me for 42 years, so we have a very sound culture and a very strong retention culture.
“That’s always been a big part of me, and it goes back to my sporting days as a team player and team leader.
“It’s always about how ‘we’ function. You’ve always got a function as a leader, but you need to know how to pull the team along and what parts of the team need oiling, what parts need support, and what parts need pushing.”
Pak’nSave itself will next year celebrate its 40th anniversary as a brand in this country.
