One of the country’s major supermarket chains is removing cigarettes from its premises outside normal trading hours due to safety concerns.

Countdown director of stores Jason Stockill said the decision was made in light of growing retail crime across the nation.

This step would also ensure the safety of its customers and staff, he said.

The announcement comes a day after the chain’s Pt Chevalier store was ram-raided.

A shopper told the Herald when she went to the store yesterday she had to use a different entrance than the usual Huia Rd facing one.

“It was blocked off to customers because the glass doors had been badly damaged. The staff told me that there had been a ram raid, but as to whether the culprits got inside I didn’t ask.

“They all seemed very upset at the time.”

Police have been approached for a comment.

Stockill said the safety and wellbeing of their team and communities was an “absolute priority”.

“We are continuing to see increasing levels of retail crime across New Zealand, and our stores are no exception.

“We hope this move will go some way towards deterring theft and helping keep our team and customers safe in our stores.”

Stockill said the brand continuously reviewed its health and safety controls to ensure it was doing everything it could to keep everyone safe.

“And we also continue to work with the police and other retailers to develop shared solutions to the challenges we’re all facing.”

In the past few months, the brand had added new measures in its stores to ensure added protection, Stockill said.

This included enhanced team training, push-to-talk radios and CCTV surveillance.

“We are also actively working to add further initiatives in the coming months and investing significantly in preventive measures.”

Last year, former associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall - now the Health Minister - successfully introduced the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill into law, which prohibited the sale of smoked tobacco products to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009.

It also included a restriction on the number of businesses that could sell smoked tobacco products - no more than 600 nationally.

Former Police Minister Stuart Nash, speaking to reporters at a police graduation ceremony in Porirua on February 2, said he would meet with Verrall to discuss how the reduction could be hastened.

A spokesperson for Nash later confirmed the pair had already met and talked about the issue, but they planned to discuss it further.

“I want these businesses to feel safe so I don’t want to promise something I can’t deliver on but what I am going to do is talk to the Minister of Health, Dr Ayesha Verrall, and see if we can somehow speed up the removal of tobacco from these dairies,” Nash said.

“If we can get the tobacco out of these dairies, I think that may solve the problem.”

Ram raids became a very common crime type last year, increasing by more than 500 per cent at one point and leading to various Government interventions, namely through changes to how youth offenders were addressed and extensions to financial support for small business owners.

Nash, who held the police portfolio in 2017, said it was his understanding many people committing ram raids did so to get tobacco products.

“What I heard when I was in this role previously is that the best way is take what these guys are after out of the dairies and I know Minister Verrall’s looking at this but like I say, I’ll have a talk with her.

“I don’t want to promise something I can’t deliver on but if there’s a way to speed that up, I think it’s a way to keep these people safe.”