MANNUM Green IGA director John Naylor will look to employ the same principles around community and the delivery of fresh, quality produce when he opens a new Foodland store at Freeling.

Mr Naylor is set to help establish and run the new Freeling supermarket,
which received development approval last month for the space currently occupied by the Food-Works and several smaller businesses on Hanson Street.

Having been approached personally by the site’s owner Carlo Belperio, Mr Naylor said Freeling made sense for such a project.

“With the growth that’s going on there and in the surrounding areas as well, it was a bit of a no-brainer,” he said.

“It’s going to be a brand new build; it will be a full-line supermarket.
It will have fresh fruit and vegetables delivered daily.

“It will have a full-line butcher shop in it, with a service deli; you’ll
be able to buy your hot roast chickens and pork, takeaway type food, as well as all the regular things you get in a supermarket – dairy, frozen, grocery.

“We will have a scratch bakery in it as well.”

Mr Naylor has more than 30 years’ retail experience, and has been behind several “greenfield” supermarket developments, including IGAs at both Morphettville and Wellington Road, Mount Barker, and a Foodland at Felixstow.

He was also behind a major development at Yankalilla that produced a new Foodland and several speciality spaces along its main street, including a baker and hairdresser.

He has been director of the Mannum Green IGA for nine years.

“The secret to all these shops is fresh foods,” Mr Naylor said.

“Anyone can sell baked beans, they are all the same, but what we try and do is excel at the fresh side, with the fruit and veg and bakery.”

Mr Naylor said being a part of a community was important to him.

“Down here at Mannum, I sponsor everything in the town, from the football club, netball club, the bowling club, the tennis club and cricket club – so we look after everybody,” he said.

“And it’s really important we employ the locals, not only as staff members but once we get up and get trading, using the local electrician and plumber. Those people become really important to us.”

Mr Naylor said the Freeling project was full steam ahead, with a slight chance the new Foodland could be ready to trade by the end of the year.