Very easy for WHS to establish Grocery, once they have Supply & Operational sides mastered.
They already have the retail turf and ready audience.
No wonder Foodstuffs & others were worried, but the way the Politics & Comcom are possibly
looking now, the other big players in the ring may never get the chance to put any more
than a minor finger in the works again moving forward.
If Foodstuffs had been smarter - they had a fairly good opportunity to co-locate new
outlets on exceptional established retail turf, but instead appear to have forfeited the chance
as a significant holder.
The margins in many grocery lines are not as great as our Meddling Politicians often muse
with the Supermarkets - but the Pink Fluffy Dreams are Free too ;)
Vast volumes out through the doors is instead the name of the Grocery Success game.
Anyone can easily fathom this one out in just comparing prices at your suburban corner Four Square
against the Pak & Save or Countdown prices in the city :)
Would WHS want to enter fully fledged Grocery though - given the High Volume / Low Margin
of many aspects of that trade - or just cherry pick off the easy retail parts it liked ?
Why be distracted into an area & tie up working capital on another facet - Grocery in General
where margins arguably could be lower than their other lines, and where the Competition
may be even more inspired to cut each other's margins to shreds with the strong spotlight
focused on the Grocery Sector by Wellington's Clueless Brigade ? ;)
A reluctance by WHS to enter Grocery on anything other than minor select Cherry Picking
should be message enough to Govt & the Politicians that they have got their acclaimed spinning
& claims on the Grocery Sector badly up the tree and they are completely wrong on their counts :)