Ernie Newman: Grocery Policy Expert on the Government seeking advice, on breaking up the supermarket duopoly

A grocery sector expert says he's pleasantly surprised by Nicola Willis's plans for the sector.

The Economic Growth Minister has confirmed she's seeking advice on potentially breaking up the supermarket duopoly.

That could include separating the retail and wholesale arms of Foodstuffs and Woolworths.

Ernie Newman says told Andrew Dickens he was sceptical before the announcement but is impressed by what he's heard.

He says Nicola Willis has come across as a "minister on a mission" and she's done her homework.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So was this an announcement of an announcement? I don't know.
This is of course, Nichola willis wanting to do something
about supermarkets, so she's looking at a third entrance into
the grocery sector to break up the duopoly. But there's
no third entrant in say it in a cost of fortune.
She's also suggested maybe breaking up the groups, and she's
also suggested separating retail from wholesale, so she set up

(00:22):
a six week process requesting information from the sector and
grocery policy expert Ernie Newman joins it, good morning to
you again, Ernie, Ryan, I had stickens here. I'm afraid.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Oh sorry, I'll beg your pardon.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
I don't know. Ryan's back in a couple of weeks.
Don't you worry about that? Is this whole thing? Words?
Or will something happen?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, I've had to eat my words to be quiet, Horus,
because I was a bit skeptical going into the announcement yesterday.
But Ellan and Nichola Willison has come through as a
minister on a mission, and I've been enormously impressed with
her language and her determination and the homework she's done.
You know, she's almost taking her political career in something here.
So I'm feeling a lot more optimistic than I was

(01:03):
twenty four hours ago.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
But come on, Honestly, if she tries to break up
a supermarket chain, if she tries to take the fresh
values off and make them in other hands, the supermarkets
who have got a lot of thing, they're going to
fight this tooth and nail.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Of course, they will, just like Telecom dies back in
the day. But you know, the Telecom breakup happened largely
because there was a lot of public anger about their
bullying behavior, and there was political agreement that something needed
to be done. But I think we're on the trek
here for you know, pretty much political agreement to the

(01:38):
main parties at least that this has to be fixed,
and has to be fixed thoroughly.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Cold. So also, the hunt for a third entrant is
that desperate because really it's going to cost so much money.
There's no property there. They're going to buy the property,
they're going to buy the chain for supply. Is that
a reality?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Think it is not in not in the present situation,
because you know, you've got a you've got a marketplace
here that is populated by bullies, and nobody has done
anything up until now to really hold them to account.
But I think now that we have the determination from
no one less than the Finance Minister and her party
to deal with this situation. You know, to start up

(02:21):
in New Zealand is not that huge. We're a lot
of big country and I think if international operators can
see a fair deal and an even playing field when
they get here, the amount of money involved is not great.
It also doesn't have to be international, you know, we
we do have the potential for something local.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Absolutely Okay, Ernie, I thank you so much for more.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
From Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
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