Woolworths (New Zealand supermarket chain)

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Woolworths is an Australian owned New Zealand full service supermarket chain and subsidiary of Woolworths New Zealand, itself a subsidiary of Australia's Woolworths Group. Previously known as Countdown, the business is currently in the process of rebranding all stores as Woolworths. Before its reintroduction, the original 'Woolworths' brand was phased out in the late 2000s. In 1963, Milne & Choyce, Farmers Trading Company and Woolworths formed a joint venture to establish New Zealand's first shopping mall in New Lynn, Auckland. All three companies established anchor stores in the new mall. Woolworths opened the first supermarket in Hastings in 1965. Woolworths acquired the Self Help grocery chain in the early 1970s and began to rebrand these as Woolworths in 1973.

L. D. Nathan, the owner of the Super Value supermarket chain, purchased Woolworths for $12 million in 1979. L. D. Nathan acquired 70 McKenzies general merchandise stores in 1980, rebranding the stores as Woolworths. The general merchandise stores were rebranded as DEKA in 1988. In 2001, Woolworths began operating mini supermarkets at 17 Gull New Zealand stores.

Progressive Enterprises, the owner of Foodtown, Countdown, SuperValue and FreshChoice, made a bid to purchase Woolworths New Zealand in May 2001. The merger application was cleared by the Commerce Commission but then withdrawn following court action by rival Foodstuffs. Progressive made another application for the merger in October 2001. Australia's Woolworths Group also expressed interest in acquiring the company. Progressive Enterprises launched its onecard loyalty card in 2003, based on the Foodtown loyalty card launched in 1994. In October 2006, Woolworths began operating fuel discount vouchers for Z Energy and Gull New Zealand. In 2008 Progressive Enterprises approached its 943 New Zealand suppliers (which Woolworths calls "Trade Partners") to use electronic commerce or EDI to integrate supply chain orders (such as Purchase Orders and Invoices) in the same way that Woolworths does in Australia.

In September 2009, it was announced that the Woolworths brand would almost cease to exist as most of the stores would be rebranded as Countdown over a five year period. By August 2010, the Woolworths brand had ceased to exist in the South Island. On 14 November 2011, the Meadowlands store in Howick, Auckland was rebranded as Countdown, marking the official end of the Woolworths brand. The 21 Woolworths mini supermarkets at Gull petrol stations were taken over by Night 'n Day from June 2011. Woolworths Bayfair in Mount Maunganui continued to operate under the Woolworths brand. A new Countdown supermarket opened in Bayfair in December 2018.

In July 2023, it was announced that all Countdown stores would be reverting to the Woolworths brand as part of a $400 million transformation. The Countdown store in Bethlehem, a suburb of Tauranga, which originally opened in 2003, reopened on 17 August 2023 after renovations. This store became the first to be rebranded as Woolworths. In early February 2024 Woolworths replaced its loyalty schemes Onecard and Onecard Visa with Everyday Rewards. Consumer NZ head of research and advocacy Gemma Rasmussen expressed concern that Everyday Rewards and other supermarket loyalty schemes were not as cheap as they were marketed to be and said that they discouraged competition. During its launch, customers were awarded points upon account creation, and points were able to be gifted to other people. Some customers exploited this by creating several fake accounts and gifting their main account.