Chris Quinn: Foodstuffs North Island Chief Executive on Government supermarket announcement

The Government has said all options are on the table as Finance Minister Nicola Willis issues a six-week request for information. 

Willis threatened to break up the current supermarket players, floating the idea of restructuring the two existing supermarket chains.

Foodstuffs North Island Chief Executive Chris Quinn talks to Mike Hosking about the announcement. 

LISTEN ABOVE. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, I hope you weren't expecting much. Because Nikola Willis
interrupted our Sunday to deliver another finger wagging for the
supermarket sector. We ended up with a six week request
for information and a threat again of breaking up the
current players. Food Staff's North Island boss Chris Quinn's back
with us.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Chris morning, Good morning Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Is there any convincing from your industry's point of view
the government that they might be on the wrong path
or as this is a lost cause.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Look, we believe that we can be listened to. You know,
this announcement came out of the blue and came as
a real shock to the three hundred and fifty local
family grosser families that own the stores and the food
stuffs North Island Cooperative and many of them have worked
for many years to get their businesses and to be successful.
And you know the sort of question England has spoke
to a lot of them yesterday. You know, what is

(00:44):
the government tending to do? Are they intended to take
their business away? So we certainly will be constructively engaged
in this because it came as a real surprise.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
What does she want to do? And do you believe
that she will actually break your industry up.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Look. My understanding from what we've seen yesterday is that
there is a desire to see competition improved for the
benefit of consumers, and there's been some definition put by
the Minister of Finance to what she believes that means
and what should be done. I guess the thing we
would point out is that the cost of food in
New Zealand, nineteen cents of every dollar is made up
of what we do, what the supermarkets do. The rest

(01:23):
is the cost of the goods and various other things.
And I think, you know, the focus on food price
for New Zealand household is critical and really important, and
I think it needs a good look at the whole
system to do that. The other thing we'd say is,
you know, since nineteen twenty two, the reason we've been
our cooperative that gathers up big in small stores together
is because you get a scale advantage and you lower

(01:45):
the cost for each store, particularly for our smaller stores
and regional locations. You know, it allows us to be
in places that probably wouldn't be affordable as a smaller
or single business because they can benefit from the scale
of the organization. In a pretty small country.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
See the twenty four billion. She tripped herself up to
a degree. I thought she talked about a twenty four
billion dollar industry, which is more than the dairy and
the tourism sector put together, and she wants somebody to
come in at scale and take ten percent of that
in the marketplace. Does she not think that a two
billion dollars of business was going begging somebody somewhere would
have looked at that and gone, I'll have a piece

(02:20):
of that, thank you. Well.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
I think one of the facts that has agreed is
it about fifteen percent and growing of the market's already
not in the hands of Wolworths or of the two cooperatives,
because there are three players today with the two cooperatives,
and that has been growing over time. And in a
country like New Zealand, with its cultural mix and its
size and diversity, it won't look like necessarily the same

(02:44):
as the existing players. There'll be new, innovative players doing
different things. And that's exactly the competition.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
We see exactly the Seymour line that this is a
government breaking up businesses, and for a government that's also
looking to bring in money from the this is a
bad message isn't. It's a bad look.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Look, we're just focused on making sure that we're do
everything we can about value for New Zealanders and about
keeping the scale of our business efficient so that we
can do a great job of values. That's the focus
that we're trying to focus on. And look, it's been
five years of various studies and examinations. That takes a
lot of resource and a lot of tension off the

(03:21):
things that we'd really like to be doing for customers.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
All Right, appreciate it, Chris Chris Quinn, who's the Foodstuff's
North Island CEO.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks that'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.