Latest / Best of Business / Mike's Minute: Paddock to Pantry shows competitive settings are working

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Mike's Minute: Paddock to Pantry shows competitive settings are working · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Question. Has paddock to pantry just confirmed what most of
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  Speaker 2: us who think the whole blow up the supermarket game
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  Speaker 2: is stupid were in fact right? So the most open
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  Speaker 2: display of pandering to the lowest common denominator I have
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  Speaker 2: seen in years is virtually every party promising to take
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  Speaker 2: you to the promised aisle of cheap food. The only
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  Speaker 2: one left with common sense in an adult approach is ACT,
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  Speaker 2: who see this for what it is. Paddock to pantry.
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  Speaker 2: is a New Zealand operation, right? That has largely been online.
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  Speaker 2: They've got some bricks and mortar operations, but they're now
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  Speaker 2: on a major expansion path. $ 25 million over the next
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  Speaker 2: five years. Their sales are up almost 200% in a year.
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  Speaker 2: They're aiming to be the third biggest player in the
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  Speaker 2: supermarket game. Let me quote them. Let me quote them.
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  Speaker 2: Changes to supermarket competition settings provided the foundation for independent
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  Speaker 2: operators to compete with the big chains. The groundwork has
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  Speaker 2: already been done. Through the changes to competition settings, those
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  Speaker 2: reforms have opened the door for independent operators like us
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  Speaker 2: to compete, and we have demonstrated the model works. I'm
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  Speaker 2: not sure what else you need to hear. The argument
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  Speaker 2: from those of us who've kept our heads on this
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  Speaker 2: matter is comparatively simple. Right or wrong, a market of
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  Speaker 2: 5 million spread over tricky territory makes a lot of
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  Speaker 2: players in a high-volume business hard work. That's why Aldi
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  Speaker 2: isn't here. That's why even though all he is in Australia,
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  Speaker 2: they still bitch and moan about prices and lack of competition.
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  Speaker 2: So desperate to placate those who still don't know why
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  Speaker 2: butter's expensive, an increasing number of alarmist ideas are rolled
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  Speaker 2: out in an election campaign designed to get you vote,
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  Speaker 2: but ultimately to let you down when you wake up
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  Speaker 2: to the fact it's all a futile con. Paddock to
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  Speaker 2: Pantry is aiming to set up in largely provincial areas
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  Speaker 2: with a lack of competition. Ask yourself why. This is
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  Speaker 2: the market working. This is the gaps being filled. This
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  Speaker 2: is the local operator who is backing themselves to play
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  Speaker 2: in a real-life free market. The free market is working.
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  Speaker 2: They are proof. You might, if you're a local, want
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  Speaker 2: to support them when they arrive. It will be way
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  Speaker 2: more productive than waiting for Willis or Hipkins or Swarbrick
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  Speaker 2: to get you cheaper oranges.
• 2:19
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