MediterraneanFood Warehouse online Shopping

The Mediterranean Food warehouse has its beginnings in the 1950s with the immigration and later marriage of Antonio Cuccurullo to Teresa Ruocco.

Antonio like so many migrants from the south of Italy coming to settle in Wellington found himself living and working in the seafood industry with its strong roots in Island bay. Tony found his niche in the seafood industry running Wellington fisheries in Cuba St with his partner camillo Amitrano for 42 years until his retirement in 1990.

Tony's sons Gino & Joe Cuccurullo took over the business in 1990 and have made several changes over the years reflecting the changing retail enviromet and the dominance of the Supermarket chains .

In 1994 the brothers closed the Retail business in Cuba St and moved to a processing and distribution facility in the industrial area of Rongotai.

After operating for 2 years at the site the brothers decided to increase the range of products they were supplying to the Wellington restaurants and cafe scene which was their main group of customers.

After some brief research they new exactly the direction thay wanted to progress and so renamed their business Wellington Fisheries & Gourmet Supplies, and so begun the the exciting phase of their business journey. With the increase of awareness and demand of the Mediterranean diet they began importing the food they had grown up with and taken for granted, like pasta olives Olive Oils Tomato products etc.

The boys recount stories of school days in the 60's and seventies where you would find in their lunch box much to the disgust of their Anglo Saxon friends strange smelling cheeses and weird types of pickles in Oil,

Wellington and New Zealand was in an era of becoming a more cosmopolitan place to live like Melbourne had become over 40 years earlier.

As awareness of their business grew they felt the need to move premises again to a more high profile site and a sight where the public could come and see the wonderful array of products they now had sourced from around the world.

On September 1st 1999 they relocated to their new premises to the corner of Constable St & Daniel St Newtown the former Warehouse of the Wiggins family Textile importing business who had relocated their Warehousing to Auckland and Christchurch .

A Name change was again required due to the lessening role of the Fresh Fish in the Business activities, The new Company was to become the Mediterranean Food Warehouse with a sister co in Gasson St Christchurch and a retail warehouse in Tuam St Christchurch

The Boys have enjoyed the success of constantly reinvesting in the Business and take much pride in bringing to new Zealand the many amazing and diverse products from the Mediterranean.

Many Wellingtonians have enjoyed the Shopping experience at the MFW and now will enjoy it even more so with the opening of their Woodfired Pizzeria & caffe which opened on the 10 of December 2001.

In September 2002 MFW opened in Nelson and in August 2003 MFW opened a Wood fired Pizzeria takeaway in Days bay Wellington, Auckland will be next

As for the future the Cucccurullo brothers are going to catch their breath and look toward opening more MFW around the country