Paul and Christiena Joyce took over ownership of the store in July, after a history of supermarket ownership.
Mr Joyce said they knew they wanted to buy a business and looked at coffee shops, motels, pubs and paint shops before they decided owning a supermarket was something they could do together.
"Before supermarkets, we were running a holiday park in the Whangarei heads and the owner wanted to buy another business and have us run it, we thought we should just do it ourselves," he said.
Previously owning Four Square Reefton, Raeward fresh Tower Junction and New World Temuka alongside their children Ayla, 17, and Dean, 15, the family were excited to "build something that is part of the local story".
"People here have a real eye for quality, they value genuine connection and supporting local excellence, our job is to make sure the store reflects that," Mr Joyce said.
"Small improvements [in store] have been paying off, moving the locations of different items and organising shelves seems to have good effects," he said.
Mrs Joyce said despite the long hours, the work was enjoyable.
"It’s a bit of a learning curve with how seasonal it is.
"There’s so much to learn when you go into a new store, you’d think one New World is similar to the next but all the processes are slightly different on how you do things," she said.
In their spare time the couple enjoy playing golf, rock climbing and walking and biking local tracks.
Mrs Joyce said building staff morale was an important part of running a business.
"We’ve got some really lovely staff, it’s a very multicultural workplace with a really strong base of locals, two members of staff have worked at the store since it opened 27 years ago," she said.
