Family-run sushi business St Pierres is expected to open its first store in Dunedin, at the corner of Andersons Bay and Bay View Rds, on November 6.
Both the “St Pierres presents Sushi of Japan” and “Bento Bowl by St Pierres” brands would be sold at the store — the latter being available from early next year,
St Pierres co-founder and property director Costa Katsoulis said.
He was expecting a big crowd to attend the opening of the store.
Three hundred packs of sushi would be given away to customers, which was the company’s tradition when opening a new store, he said.
“We’ve had a lot of requests.
“I don’t know why it’s taken us so long to get to Dunedin, because we’ve always had customers always asking us to open in Dunedin.
“So I’m expecting it to be quite busy.”
The first St Pierres store was opened in Wellington in 1974, by the three Katsoulis brothers, and the company now boasts 76 stores nationwide.
Mr Katsoulis said opening their first store in Dunedin was a “major milestone”, and one they had wanted to reach for a long time.
He first visited Dunedin looking at locations about 10 years ago, but could not find the right spot, he said.
“But we just think that we’ve found one now, which is a really great location to be, so we’re excited about that.
“We’re really stoked about the opportunity we’ve found in Andersons Bay.”
The site was in a very popular shopping precinct with a very good residential catchment and nearby schools and sports grounds, and he expected “good demand” from Dunedin’s student community as well.
It was a “major job” to convert the premises into a food operation, which included stripping it out, creating storage for gas bottles, new plumbing and fire and soundproofing.
Between 15 and 20 staff were expected to be employed at the Dunedin store, he said.
