PHOTO
The final touches are being put on Coffee Culture Sumner’s refurbished site ahead of its reopening next month, 30 years after it first opened.
The café will reopen on April 15, following a VIP preview of the newly renovated space on April 12.
Said Coffee Culture director and chief operating officer Sacha Coburn: “We feel very excited to be back in the Sumner community, it’s been hard for us to be closed the last few years.
“We’ve got some new features in there, but all of the things we hope the Sumner community will remember.”
The Sumner café – the first in what is now a national chain – closed in March 2023 while the adjoining Hollywood Cinema underwent a major redevelopment.
The cinema was closed in October 2022 by its owners, Sumner locals Hamish and Karen Doig, who bought it from long-time owner Lang Masters. It reopened in June last year as a branch of luxury cinema chain Silky Otter.
Coffee Culture now operates 20 stores nationwide – 16 of them in Christchurch.
The cafe’s renovations on Marriner St started about four weeks ago, although the design planning has been ongoing for the past six months.
The refurbishment has been overseen by the chain’s founder, Chris Houston.
Said Coburn: “It’s really special to have our birthplace store back open.”
An all-weather outdoor area and an expanded seating area are some of the new features of the cafe.
Coffee Culture has hired 10 staff for the store, including new manager Amber Ayrton, a Sumner local.
- It will be open from 6.30am-6pm, Monday to Friday and 7am-6pm on weekends. It will be open later during the summer months.