New Wellington petrol station offers radically cheaper fuel

A new player is entering Wellington's fuel market, offering motorists 91 petrol at up to 30c cheaper per litre than competitors.

But Wellingtonians will have to wait until early next year for New Zealand-owned Waitomo to set up shop.

Motorists in Wellington are hurting at the pump, but Waitomo has a new offering more than 20c cheaper - even cheaper than in Auckland.

"It's quite interesting when a 70-year-old business is a market disruptor, and it's a Kiwi business," says managing director Jimmy Ormsby.

He's at the helm of the company his grandfather founded in Te Kuiti in 1947, and he keeps prices down by bulk-buying fuel and running a no-frills operation.

"There's no canopy or convenience store operation or anything like that. We've very much got a simple model: you come in and you serve yourself."

Mr Ormsby just got consent for the central Wellington site on Hutt Rd, and he's expecting the grand opening sometime in the first quarter of 2019.

"I'd love to see some queues out to the road."

He doesn't care how his competitors will respond, but Consumer NZ says this will be the case study to see if a new player can push down prices across the board.

"Everybody says that we should have a competitive market, and that will bring prices down and this will show whether that does actually work or not," says CEO Sue Chetwin.

But if you thought Wellingtonians and those further South had it rough, spare a thought for Great Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf, where petrol is currently $3.40 a litre - and is expected to reach $4 by Christmas.

In Australia, they're experiencing a four-and-a-half-year high of AU$1.70 (NZ$1.84). The last time petrol was that price in New Zealand was in August 2016.

Newshub.