General News
6 November, 2026
Food fight
CAIRNS is getting a new supermarket brand – and it’s not Aldi.
Family-owned Fresh & Save Food Warehouse is earmarked for DFO Cairns in the area vacated by TJ Maxx and other space once occupied by Cotton-On, VIP Furniture, factorie and Tarro Cash at the western end of the property.
It is one of the major investments and upgrades the new owners of the shopping centre – Griffith Group – are planning at the centre, which it bought earlier this year for $36.65 million.
A Griffith spokeswoman said planning was progressing for DFO Cairns, “with the intention to revitalise the centre by expanding its retail, convenience, lifestyle and entertainment offering”.
“Stage one construction starts Friday 30 October with a 4950sqm Fresh & Save supermarket, Choice Discount Variety and Café 63 to join the mix,” she said.
“Additional tenants are under negotiation and will be announced once finalised.
“Further construction stages and programing are still being developed. Further updates will be shared as timings are confirmed.”
Work is underway, with a new wall erected in the northern end of the centre, and carparks blocked off at the northern sections and off Brown St.
Fresh & Save has also been announced as the anchor tenant for Mackay Airport’s Milton Precinct, with preliminary work already underway and the new supermarket expected to open in mid-2027.
Cairns marks another expansion for the Australian-owned business, which opened its first Fresh & Save in Maryborough in 2017 and now operates nine stores across Queensland and New South Wales.
The company backs its credentials in a supermarket landscape dominated by Woolworths and Coles.
Fresh & Save says it doesn’t answer to “any big corporate headquarters”, while its mascot – ‘Bill Small’ – is described as “the daring duck taking on the big supermarkets”.
