Wānaka Mediterranean Market’s owner, grocery wholesaler Bidfood NZ, has confirmed the business’s wholesale side will close at the end of this month, with the retail side to close by the New Year.

Bidfood NZ CEO Phil Struckmann told the Wānaka App he advised the market’s 30 staff of the decision on Friday (November 10).

Last week Phil said Bidfood was consulting with Wānaka Mediterranean Market staff on a proposal to close the business of 23 years, and the consultation period would finish on Friday.

On Monday (November 11) he told the Wānaka App that Bidfood was “not in a position to change our proposal”.

“It hasn’t been an easy decision,” Phil said.

“We bought the business in 2006; it’s very much been a part of Bidfood and we don’t take this lightly.”

The closure proposal followed “a lengthy and exhaustive analysis”, he said.

Phil said he put the proposal to the Wānaka staff members in “good faith” asking them if they had local knowledge which could change the picture, he said.

“I personally took on every bit of feedback … but didn’t see anything that would work.”

The reason for the closure was that the business was “between a rock and a hard place”, he said.

“We’re getting too big for that site but can’t afford to move anywhere else.”

He said the lease at 6/22 Ardmore had two years left, and while the landlord indicated the business could get a longer lease Phil said it couldn’t grow on that site.

“Relocating is way too expensive.”

The retail side of the business will remain open “through December”, Phil said, and after Christmas and New Year it will “clear the stock and close the doors”.

Its wholesale operation will close sooner, on December 1, after which Bidfood’s Queenstown branch will provide deliveries to Wānaka.

He said the decision to close the retail arm after Christmas was to “give staff the best possible option to find a new job”.

He said Bidfood has also offered staff the opportunity to relocate to work in other branches, and for those who can’t “there’s a compensation process to go through”.

Bidfood had offered staff compensation “over and above what’s in their contract”, he said.

The Wānaka Mediterranean Market has operated in Wānaka since 2001.

PHOTO: Wānaka App