Iconic Tex-Mex fast food restaurant Taco Bell looking for staff in west Auckland

Wednesday, 21 August 2019

The long awaited Tex-Mex restaurant chain, Taco Bell, looks set to open soon with recruitment underway for Auckland staff for jobs starting in mid-September.

Taco Bell's Australasian parent company Restaurant Brands is seeking assistant managers for its first ever store in New Zealand.

Three job ads listed on job website Seek said the company was looking for staff for a store in New Lynn, Auckland.

Taco Bell is launching its first New Zealand store in New Lynn, West Auckland.

This is the first confirmation of the store's location.

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The restaurant will go into a site left vacant in the New Lynn Mall by failed franchise Wagamama.

Restaurant Brands have also applied for a liquor license for the store.

The licence will cover Monday to Friday, 8am-1am.

Taco Bell's entry into the New Zealand market has long been rumoured.

In December 2017, Restaurant Brands teased the possibility that the chain was just months away after a successful launch in Australia.

In early 2018, the company confirmed a new brand would enter the market in the 'not too distant future' however, it declined to say which chain it would be.

In December last year, it was confirmed Taco Bell would be on its way and in July, Restaurant Brands announced that Taco Bell's first two New Zealand stores would open later this year.

The imminent launch was part of an 'aggressively-paced' roll-out of 60 stores across Australia and New Zealand over the next five years, Restaurant Brands' chief executive Russell Creedy said at the time.

Restaurant Brand's New Zealand operations had sales of $420 million in the most recent financial year, driven largely by a strong performance from the KFC brand, Creedy said in a statement to shareholders in July.

Taco Bell sales reached US$72m (NZ$108.2m) for the 2018-2019 financial year, reinforcing Restaurant Brand's confidence in the chain ahead of its Australasian launch, Creedy said.

While the exact location of the new Taco Bell hadn't been announced, the choice of the New Lynn suburb was interesting said Chris Wilkinson, managing director of First Retail Group.

'New Lynn is an interesting area. There are really strong rail connections there and the mall has worked to create quite a contemporary environment.'

But it would be interesting to see how people took to the new fast-food option, he said.

Wilkinson said New Zealand already had a fairly saturated market in terms of dining brands.

'We have lot off international brands but we also have a lot of home brands as well,' he said.

'For Restaurant Brands this will be a continuation of their market. They are trying to get a foot in both camps. So, people interested in a varied diet looking for something lighter as well as their traditional favourites.'

He said the whole fast-food market was rapidly changing.

Restaurant Brands has been contacted for comment.