Confidence in Trade Depot
A giant new home improvement store in the Waikato is so confident in what it has to offer it believes Aucklanders will drive down to shop there.
Trade Depot on Airport Rd and Raynes Rd in the Titanium Business Park near Hamilton Airport and Mystery Creek boasts2km of display featuring bathroom, kitchens and appliances, a massive warehouse of a further 26,000 square metres – enough stock for 500 shipping containers – and parking for 150 cars and trailers.
Trade Depot has been planning the building for four years.
John Christie, director of Trade Depot, says Hamilton was chosen because it is so centrally located and booming and Trade Depot is already supplying to more than 1000 new homes being built in the next year. He expects the new store to attract customers from far afield because ‘‘there is nothing like this.’’
As well as the sheer scale of the store, Christie says it aims to offer more high-end products and new ranges to be released throughout this year.
The store will also have an appliance repair centre where Christie says most brands will be serviced while you wait: ‘‘That’s part of our new environmental plan which also includes ... recycling and waste reduction.’’
A Trade Depot Cafe will open at the site about June.
Trade Depot general manager Scott Riley says it sells about 150,000 large appliances a year nationally, putting it in the top three distributors of appliances in the country. He says its bathroom items are used to renovate more than 35,000 bathrooms a year.
Trade Depot is also promoting its own home brand, Vogue.
Christie says there are a lot of great stores in New Zealand, ‘‘but we started wanting to do something extra to bring better products at amazing prices.
‘‘With products, we’re always asking ‘why is that so expensive? and how low can we sell it for to get massive volumes?’ We were tired of seeing low prices overseas and not in New Zealand.’’
‘‘We have a group of wners that all work for the company. We’re all Kiwis and want to keep it Kiwi.
‘‘Amongst us we have strong experience and passion for nice homes, lower costs, technology and websites, international sourcing and the engineering/science of the products we sell.’’