Chris Quinn: Foodstuffs North Island Managing Director says consumers should look for 'better value' as grocery prises soar

The latest Stats NZ figures says food prices in our 15 main cities have increased five-percent in the past year -- with grocery prices rising much faster than restaurant and takeaway prices. 

But Foodstuffs says prices in its stores have only increased 3.4 percent. 

Foodstuffs North Island Managing Director Chris Quin told Mike Hosking that much of that rise is being driven by beef, lamb and butter. 

Quinn says consumers can get good value with frozen chickens, leg roasts and many winter vegetables. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The battle of the dueling numbers in the food space.
So Stats New Zealand, you would be well aware, on
Friday came out with a food price index up five
percent and you go, oh my god, five percent, but
food Stuff go wait a minute, it's actually three point four.
So what's going on here? Chris Quinn, food Stuff's Northhireland
man is with us morning, Good morning, Mike. So what's
the magic here? Does Stats say five? You say three
point four? You're not including restaurants and takeaways? Is that right?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
It's not including restaurants and takeaways, and obviously that is
only food Stuff's stores. So we've been working hard to
try and limit the impact of these increases. It's mainly
across dairy, beef and land, which are our exported products
that are doing very very well on global markets. And
obviously what we're trying to do is is somewhat ameliorate
the effect on our New Zealand consumers.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
You saw that, all would have seen the headlines again,
oh my god, it's five percent. Does that frustrate you?
Given if you break it down in a moderately sensible
sort of way, it's not the end of the world.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Look, there's no doubt this has an impact on New
Zealand household So, you know, a five percent increase year
on year. We have had a much better period down
in the twos and threes and those sort of numbers,
But for households this will be felt alongside every other
household cost. The key is it's the middle of winter.
We are you know, we have export pressure on some products.
So what we're trying to help our customers with is

(01:15):
understand where you can find value now in this time
of winter, where to go shopping and what products to
look for so that household budgets can be somewhat supported.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
How much up against it are you in the sense
everyone going ah, yeah, of course they'd say that this
is a supermarket. We hate supermarkets. That's your problem, isn't
it its image?

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Look, it's you know, there are a number of people
who have that story. That's probably why we share this information.
We're just trying to say, can we just look at
the facts and most importantly, instead of all of the rhetoric,
let's focus on where New Zealanders right now can get
the best value, which is in frozen chickens, leg gross
hookey phillts, you know, and some of the winter vegetables
that you would expect this time of year.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
If you do your number at three point four, so
it's still above inflation. But if you strip out the
stuff that we know about, the butter and the dairy
and the you know, the beef and stuff, what does
it come down to? Do you know it must be
below inflation, mustn't it?

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Look, we don't have a number calculated with all that
stripped out, but there's no doubt beef, lamb and butter
we're all up over thirty percent. Yeah, and you know
that's where the real impact is.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
The difficulty I suppose that. I mean the advantages You
can shop around this, can't you? As I think we
probably talked about before. You don't have to buy butter
or beef or lamb. You can buy other stuff that
makes life cheaper.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
No, that's right. And you know, if you look at
right now, it's potatoes and capsicans, it's cougettes and onions, mandarin.
Those sort of things are the things where value sits
at this time a year. And probably the complexity right
now is you're not only dealing with seasons, You're dealing
with what's going on globally with the pressure on some
of those fantastic New Zealand export products, but just reflects
a reality back into New Zealand consumers.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Do you reckon people know that deep down, or they
don't know it, they know it but don't want to
accept it, or they just don't know it at all.
That's genuinely a surprise to them.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Still, look, I think people would prefer not to have
to work to try and make the budget come together.
But you know, when the pressure is coming from all
of the utilities, bills and all of the other things
that people are facing, and food as well. This does
you know our job is to try and help our
customers as much as possible, to make sure they understand
where the value is and try and guide them through

(03:16):
this as best we can.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Chris appreciate it. Chris Quinn out of food stuffs this morning.
By the way, I can tell you that non alcoholic
beverages that's coke four point four percent. Ups are stopped
buying it, cigarettes four point eight percent, so give up.
Petrols down, diesels down, diesels down seven point two domestic
herefeas are down, so not everything's gone up, which is good.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
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