Manish Thakkar left India in 2001 for a better life for his family. He found it in Hamilton, Chris Gardner writes.
When Manish Thakkar says retail crime is rampant in the country, he talks from experience.
Supermarket owners, from left, Rupali Thakkar, Aarti Patel, Rakesh Patel and Manish Thakkar, at the Fresh In Fresh Out supermarket in Hamilton.
In February last year, Thakkar was the victim of an aggravated robbery by two masked and one motorbike helmeted robber at his superette in Hamilton.
“It was horrible,” he remembered. He had a gun pointed at him and was left battered and bruised. “They took cash and cigarettes.”
Despite this, last month Thakkar opened New Zealand’s largest independent supermarket, Fresh In Fresh Out (FIFO) at Grandview Mall in Nawton, with his second wife Rupali Thakkar and business partners Rakesh and Aarti Patel.
There to do the honours was Act Party leader David Seymour who said the owners were “heroes” taking huge risks for their community.
“Some people think that the Government can fix it all,” Seymour said.
“That’s only half true. We can do some things, we can make the streets safe, but the truth is if you want to solve the problem the real solutions start with business, they come from community, they come from people making a difference in their own lives, as are these entrepreneurs taking on that supermarket duopoly the way they are today, that’s what makes a real difference, that’s what’s important.”
ACT Party leader David Seymour was heckled at the opening of the FIFO Supermarket in Hamilton.
The owners have spent $2 million reimagining the former Countdown supermarket that closed eight months ago due to problems with the buildings cool store and ongoing retail crime.
Thakkar is part of a group of Waikato retailers who hope to stay connected with Police minister Mark Mitchell to agitate for a government crackdown on crime.
Hamilton East MP Ryan Hamilton, who was also at the opening, said it took courage for Thakkar to step up and fill the gap in Nawton.
Houston Technology founder Alan Chew was first to the till with a banana, describing FIFO as “great news for the community.”
Thakkar left an engineering role in Gujarat, India to emigrate to Hamilton in 2001 with his first wife Nishma and children to accept a role as a maintenance engineer at Ulrich Aluminium.
A lack of New Zealand experience saw Thakkar turn to retail in 2009.
“Migrant engineers and doctors need to get jobs,” he said. “Because they don’t have any New Zealand experience, they struggle to get jobs.”
When they had saved enough the Thakkars opened two dairies in Hamilton, and one in Cambridge, Waihou, Waiuku, and Waharoa.
The dairies were sold in 2017 to fund the opening of SuperValue Parkwood in Gordonton Road, Hamilton.
The opening of the Hamilton supermarket seven years later follows the opening of a smaller FIFO Supermarket in Mount Eden, Auckland, selling Indian products.
The supermarket has created 20 full time positions, and there is more work on the horizon for the community.
Thakkar reckons around 600 people attended the opening of the supermarket.
How was business on the opening weekend?
“Very good. Even busier than our expectations. Even on a weekend when people do not have enough money the supermarket was really doing well. Our goal is not to make money, big profits, we want to serve the community.”
Crowds at FIFO
