Store Opening / Change of Ownership Team Lead

Ko wai mātou – About us   

Kia ora. We’re Foodies. You know Gilmours, New World, PAK’nSAVE, and Four Square, right? That’s us!

With more than 320 stores and over 27,000 Foodies across Te Ika-a-Māui, Foodstuffs North Island is a co-operative proudly owned by our Members. Our purpose is simple – making sure New Zealanders get more out of life, and we’re driven by our aspiration to be one of New Zealand’s most customer-driven and productive retailers.

Our Retail Operations & Transformation team are laser-focused on critical metrics—driving SAP support, efficiency of in-store operations, checkout performance and play a key role with new store openings & ownership changes across all three banners.

Te Tūranga – About the role

 We're looking for a highly organised and operationally-minded leader to join our Retail Operations team as a Store Opening & Change of Ownership (COO) Team Lead.

In this role, you'll lead and coordinate the successful delivery of store openings, major refurbishments, and Change of Ownership transitions across our Foodstuffs North Island store network. Working closely with Operators, Store Leadership Teams, Retail Operations, Membership, Property and Programme teams, you'll play a critical role in ensuring stores are operationally ready from Day One and set up for long-term success.

No two days are the same. One week you could be supporting a new store opening, the next helping a store transition to new ownership or coordinating readiness activities across multiple projects. You'll be the operational glue that keeps everything moving smoothly while proactively identifying risks, solving problems, and ensuring a seamless transition into business as usual.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate Store Opening & COO support activity across allocated projects.


• Support end-to-end delivery of store openings, refurbishments and ownership transitions.


• Ensure operational readiness standards, checklists and go-live processes are consistently applied.


• Partner closely with Operators, incoming owners and Store Leadership teams to drive successful outcomes.


• Act as a key escalation point for operational issues, risks and delivery challenges.


• Coach and support Store Opening & COO team members.


• Provide clear communication, updates and insights to stakeholders.


• Contribute to continuous improvement by identifying opportunities to improve readiness, reduce rework and enhance store performance post-launch.

He kōrero mōu – About you

You're an experienced retail operations professional who thrives in fast-paced environments and enjoys bringing people together to deliver successful outcomes.

You'll bring:

• 3-5 years' experience in retail operations, store support, deployment or large-scale operational change environments.


• Hands-on experience supporting store openings, refurbishments or ownership transitions.


• Strong leadership capability with experience coordinating teams and coaching others.


• Excellent stakeholder management skills and the ability to build credibility with Operators, Store Managers and cross-functional teams.


• Confidence managing multiple priorities and tight timeframes.


• A practical, solutions-focused approach with strong operational judgement.


• Experience working with structured processes, playbooks and readiness frameworks.


• Exposure to project management methodologies would be an advantage.

Ngā painga - What we offer   

We’re committed to providing awesome experiences for our people, including offering a range of benefits

• Free carparking - we’ve got over 1,000 carparks including EV plugs


• Southern Cross plans for you and your family


• Onsite café with subsidised meals, mini mart, 5% discount at our retail stores


• Flexible working options, a day off on your birthday, lots of fun on site activities


• Inhouse learning and development programmes and courses, flu vaccinations, and social network groups (we call them Tribes).

Experience awesome. Achieve awesome. Be awesomely you.

We’re proud to have a focus on Diversity & Inclusion here at Foodies and welcome courageous behaviour, encourage togetherness, inspire our people to be their best selves in our Foodies whānau.

We encourage you to apply with all your awesomeness and welcome your diverse background, including any disability, additional health and mental health needs, and/or neurodiversity.

If you require accessibility support to ensure you can fairly access our recruitment process, please reach out to  [email protected].  Accessibility support could include interview location, sign language interpreter, assistive technology.