Supermarket plagued with rats set to close for 48 hours

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from Dunedin News

By reporter Hamish McNeilly:

A Dunedin supermarket that has been plagued with rats is set to close for 48 hours.

Staff and the union of Countdown Dunedin South store were told on Friday afternoon.

Woolworths New Zealand, which operates the store, confirmed the recent capture of four more rodents has forced the store to close.

Woolworths New Zealand director of stores Jason Stockill said: "Our local community will be aware that we’ve been working to address a rodent issue at Countdown Dunedin South for the last couple of months."

Food safety was the company’s “absolute priority”, with the supermarket giant working closely with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), and pest control contractor Rentokil.

“We believed we had addressed the issue, as there had been no evidence of rodent activity since January 28.
Unfortunately we have caught four rodents over the last few days so it is clear we have more work to do.”


NZ Food Safety and Rentokil confirmed the rodents were not nesting in the store, but appeared to be coming in from outside.

The Dunedin City Council was also involved in surveying neighbouring areas, in what the supermarket chain called “a coordinated response”.

“Having a safe and hygienic store is incredibly important to us and we would like to apologise to our customers for any distress and inconvenience this update causes,” Stockill said.

“We will reopen when we are confident these additional measures have been implemented. We anticipate this will be on Monday morning.”