Chris Quin: Foodstuffs North Island CEO on the potential action from the Government to diversify the sector

Calls for certainty from the supermarket sector as Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis weighs more action.  

She's introduced fast track consenting to encourage new players into the market. 

Willis says she's looking carefully at the idea of breaking up the duopoly.  

Foodstuffs North Island Chief Executive Chris Quin told Mike Hosking the future of their business needs clarity on what regulations will be put in place.  

He says the individual owners are scratching their heads wondering what's going to happen.  

Quin also believes the amount of competition already in the market may be higher than people realise. 

He says 30% of the retail grocery market is third players in Auckland and 18% nationwide.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nikola will a supermarket vand wagon back in town yesterday
with news in an express lane. She said all this before,
of course, and yet there still isn't actually an express lane.
But by the end of the year the laws will
be passed to create one. And once again she couldn't
end her dissertation without yet another finger wag threatening a
regulatory breakup. Chris Quinn Food Stufs North Island CEOs back
with us.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning, Good morning, MIKEE.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Do you welcome the red tape stuff? She seems to
have yet again reiterated that there's too much red tape.
We need to get on with business. Is that fair?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Look, that is fair, and that was the feedback from
the industries as we looked at this. We said, if
you really want to work on the cost of doing
business and that results in prices, then these sort of
changes faster, consenting the zone reforms, getting the red tape
out of the way so that any operator in the
industry can enter the industry or operate cheaper. That is

(00:47):
a good thing.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Ah. So do you think she meant you operating more
and faster or do you think she's thinking of other people?
And if you guys start moving faster in her new
express lane. She might not be overly happy with it.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Look, I think this is about making sure the market
itself and the cost of doing business in the New
Zealand market and any industry actually, but in this one
in particular. That will encourage competition, that will make it
cheaper for any operator to deliver great food price value
to New Zealand, and so overall in terms of the
government supporting this industry to perform better and to live

(01:22):
a better value, they are good moves.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
The elder little non appearance. What does that tell us
about the market and how the world sees our market?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Look, I think it tells us that we're a small country.
We're physically the same size as Japan, but only with
five and a half million people. I think it tells
us that in Auckland, for example, thirty percent of the
retail grocery market is already in the hands of many
innovative and different third players, and across the country it's
about eighteen percent on average. So you know, the state

(01:51):
of competition today might be a little bit different than
maybe people recognize.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Ye are you between a rock and a hard place?
Because I see, I don't want to appear to be
necessarily on your side. But the more I've looked at this,
the more I've come to the conclusion there is no
scandal at the end of the day. I mean, she
talked about Costco yesterday. Costco's not her answer. The market
is open to people who want to open up stores.
They just don't all THEI in Little didn't even want
to participate. I mean, how much harder does somebody like

(02:15):
her want to look to find nothing?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Look what we would welcome as regulatory certainty because that
enables us to be efficient, to set up our model
and to get going, and to be as cheap as
we can, which means we can get the best value
on shelf. The size of this market is definitely a
challenge for the number of players that may be able
to invest the quite large capital that goes into these businesses.

(02:40):
And the reality is, particularly of these moves now, there
is very little in anyone's way. If they choose to
come and invest and compete, they can.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Do you think she will blow the market up once
she gets this mystery report at some point in the future.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
We've been clear, we don't see a positive business case
for investment. We I do think that getting the job
done in terms of the analysis will be helpful because
there are facts that need to be carefully thought about,
and the fact that the market today has a corporate
organization and a cooperative organization and they're very different in
how they work. And you know, on behalf of the

(03:15):
families that own our stores individually, you know they are
still scratching their heads, going, well, what actually is the
government looking at doing to our businesses? And the sooner
we can get to certainty on that so they can
invest trading their communities and deliver great value, the better.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
All Right, appreciate it. Chris Quinn, who's from food Stuffs
of course.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
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