Latest / The SME Stream / Foodstuffs' Chris Quin 'It’s very real to me what has happened with food price i

Transcript

Foodstuffs' Chris Quin 'It’s very real to me what has happened with food price i · The SME Stream

0:05
Speaker 1: Again.
0:07
Speaker 2: Hi.
0:07
Speaker 1: I'm Liam Dan, New Zealand Herald Business Editor at Large
0:10
Speaker 1: and welcome to this episode of Money Talks. This is
0:14
Speaker 1: a podcast about money, but we're not going to tell
0:17
Speaker 1: you how to get rich, and we're not going to
0:19
Speaker 1: try and pick the next interest rate move. In this series,
0:22
Speaker 1: I'll be talking to interesting New Zealanders about how money
0:26
Speaker 1: has shaped their lives and what they've learned over the years.
0:30
Speaker 1: For today's podcast, I'm joined by Chris Quinn, CEO of
0:32
Speaker 1: food Stuff's North Island. They run Pack and Save New
0:36
Speaker 1: World and four Square supermarkets. Chris is also the CEO
0:39
Speaker 1: designate of the proposed merger of food Stuffs North Island
0:42
Speaker 1: and South Island Cure. Chris, Welcome to Money.
0:45
Speaker 2: Talks, Thanks Liam, and thanks for having me. Yeah.
0:47
Speaker 1: Look great. Look we'll dive into the usual money talk stuff.
0:50
Speaker 1: But I guess maybe because it is a bit of
0:53
Speaker 1: the elephant in the room, what's up with the Commerce
0:55
Speaker 1: Commission proposal at the moment you're sort of watch and
0:59
Speaker 1: wait at the moment.
1:00
Speaker 3: So we've been in a clearance application process for the
1:03
Speaker 3: Comments Commission since middle December. There is three possible stages
1:08
Speaker 3: in those applications, so they've chosen just last week to
1:11
Speaker 3: go to a third stage, which is a statement of
1:14
Speaker 3: unresolved issues. So they feel that there are still a
1:17
Speaker 3: narrow set of issues that need to be spent more
1:20
Speaker 3: time on. So they've just advised us last week that
1:22
Speaker 3: they need about three months to do that. So that
1:24
Speaker 3: will take us through to the first of October, where
1:27
Speaker 3: will get the next update on their decision around clearance.
1:31
Speaker 3: We've had our shareholders vote ninety nine percent in favor
1:34
Speaker 3: of doing this. We've done our other work, so we're
1:37
Speaker 3: very keen to get on with the benefits of this
1:39
Speaker 3: for our customers, but we need to respect the process
1:42
Speaker 3: and work through it.
1:43
Speaker 2: Yeah.
1:43
Speaker 1: Sure, I mean there's obviously a lot of scrutiny about
1:45
Speaker 1: supermarkets and the feeling that is there enough competition and
1:50
Speaker 1: because we've just been through this inflationary period, prices have
1:53
Speaker 1: been really in the spotlight. How much do you think
1:56
Speaker 1: the average shop is going to notice this? This is
2:00
Speaker 1: it a back end? You know, to what extent is
2:02
Speaker 1: it actually going to have a meaningful impact on one
2:05
Speaker 1: way or the other? Do you think?
2:07
Speaker 2: Yeah?
2:07
Speaker 3: Look, firstly, we get the scrutiny and in the prominence
2:11
Speaker 3: I guess of the sector there's not many organizations that
2:14
Speaker 3: are a New Zealand household deals with two and a
2:16
Speaker 3: half times a week. And we know in a cost
2:19
Speaker 3: of living time where things are tough for a lot
2:20
Speaker 3: of households, you know, our percentage of what makes up
2:23
Speaker 3: weekly household cost is decent. It depends on where the
2:26
Speaker 3: house is at in terms of mortgage or rental or ultricity,
2:29
Speaker 3: in various things. But we're right amongst the top household bills.
2:32
Speaker 3: So we understand and we respect it, and we need
2:34
Speaker 3: to be accountable back to New Zealanders for what's happening
2:37
Speaker 3: in terms of food price, in terms of this merger.
2:39
Speaker 3: You know, we number one thing for New Zealanders right
2:42
Speaker 3: now by far, and choosing where to shop is price.
2:45
Speaker 3: You know, they look around for the deals. It's a
2:47
Speaker 3: very competitive market from the point of view. If you
2:49
Speaker 3: can shop in another store tomorrow, there is nothing binding
2:52
Speaker 3: you to one.
2:52
Speaker 2: Of our stores.
2:54
Speaker 3: There's also, in our view, nothing in the way of
2:56
Speaker 3: anyone entering this market if they see an opportunity. And
2:59
Speaker 3: you know, in a time where we're talking about infrastructure
3:02
Speaker 3: quite a lot, you know the capital required. I don't
3:06
Speaker 3: think many New Zealanders probably understand the size of these businesses.
3:10
Speaker 3: You know, a medium to large supermarket employees hundreds of people,
3:14
Speaker 3: deploys tens of millions of dollars of capital, and in
3:18
Speaker 3: the end we return about four cents in the retail
3:20
Speaker 3: dollar in terms of profit back into the business. So
3:23
Speaker 3: we understand the scrutiny. That's why we've been quite transparent
3:26
Speaker 3: about price versus price increases and cost increases. And while
3:31
Speaker 3: we're proposing this merger because it's the biggest thing we
3:34
Speaker 3: can see to cut our back end costs, but make
3:37
Speaker 3: no difference to the number of stores in New Zealand,
3:39
Speaker 3: who owns those stores, the level of retail competition. We
3:43
Speaker 3: will still have the same family in the same community
3:45
Speaker 3: own the same store. After the merger. We'll just cost
3:48
Speaker 3: lest as a business to run. That must make a
3:51
Speaker 3: difference over time to the price of products.
3:53
Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, okay, Look, we can come back to a
3:55
Speaker 1: bit of you know, chat about groceries and things. But
3:58
Speaker 1: I want to jump right back now and ask you
4:01
Speaker 1: if you've got a very early memory of money, what's
4:03
Speaker 1: the first memory you have of sort of holding money
4:05
Speaker 1: in your hand and that sort of thing.
4:07
Speaker 3: Look, it's interesting, I don't know that I can remember
4:09
Speaker 3: the first time I held money. I remember post office
4:12
Speaker 3: savings bank pass box at school. I remember the handwritten numbers,
4:15
Speaker 3: which you look back now and think it was never wrong.
4:19
Speaker 3: So you know, maybe technology hasn't helped us that much.
4:22
Speaker 3: And I do remember it wasn't money, but it was
4:25
Speaker 3: sort of trading in business. So when I was at
4:27
Speaker 3: intermediate school, we're talking seventies, late seventies here. You know
4:31
Speaker 3: how fads go through, so it's trading various things. Marbles
4:34
Speaker 3: was the big currency at the time.
4:36
Speaker 1: Marbles comes and goes in cycles, didn't it.
4:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, And morning break and lunchtime was you were straight
4:41
Speaker 3: to the courtyard to play marbles games with all your mates,
4:45
Speaker 3: and I remember that sort.
4:46
Speaker 2: Of It taught you a lot of the basics.
4:48
Speaker 3: So if you set up a game, you had to
4:49
Speaker 3: be the most attractive game to marketing help. You had
4:52
Speaker 3: to rig the odds as much as you could.
4:54
Speaker 2: So you did well.
4:55
Speaker 3: I even remember building a basic wood sort of pinball machine,
5:00
Speaker 3: and you know, probably five years later, found bags and
5:02
Speaker 3: bags of marbles at home and thought what was that about.
5:04
Speaker 1: So you're quite good at the trading and the you know,
5:06
Speaker 1: you deal for what were they called again? There was
5:10
Speaker 1: the sort of silvery one.
5:11
Speaker 2: Yes, there was here.
5:12
Speaker 3: There was the sort of ball bearing type ones, and
5:14
Speaker 3: there was the big ones and small ones. And it's
5:16
Speaker 3: funny you reflect on it. It taught you marketing, customers, trade,
5:20
Speaker 3: you know, sort of how to grow. What it didn't
5:23
Speaker 3: teach you was marbles would have no venue beyond that time.
5:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, but did you did you grow up in a
5:27
Speaker 1: family where money was discussed and where you you know,
5:32
Speaker 1: it was sort of business and things was a part
5:34
Speaker 1: of life.
5:35
Speaker 3: Looks it's interesting my parents, you know, I lost relatively young,
5:41
Speaker 3: so they were fifty and sixty. I was twenty one
5:43
Speaker 3: when my father passed. But they were you know, white collar,
5:48
Speaker 3: normal New Zealand. So my dad was a health inspector.
5:51
Speaker 3: We lived in Auckland, Hawks Bay, then Lower Hut. He
5:54
Speaker 3: moved from being sort of frontline to teaching them by correspondence,
5:57
Speaker 3: my mum. After you know, the three of us, I'm
6:00
Speaker 3: the oldest. After you know, school started for all of us.
6:03
Speaker 3: Kids started a job at insurance company offers, so, you know, money.
6:07
Speaker 3: They were very community minded people. They had a great
6:10
Speaker 3: set of friends. I don't remember money being a pressure,
6:14
Speaker 3: but I never remember feeling like we were in any
6:17
Speaker 3: way wealthy, you know. I remember Dad sort of thought
6:20
Speaker 3: he'd really made it when he got an eight year
6:22
Speaker 3: old Commodore.
6:23
Speaker 2: You know, that was sort of that was the big time.
6:25
Speaker 1: And in those days, getting new cars were sort of
6:27
Speaker 1: out of the question.
6:28
Speaker 3: And those yeah, that was not imaginable. But they taught
6:32
Speaker 3: good values. They were never you know, I got the
6:35
Speaker 3: sense they were careful, but not under pressure day to day.
6:39
Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you remember much about the supermarkets or going
6:43
Speaker 1: down to four square or something in those days? I
6:45
Speaker 1: just before we were on here, we were talking about
6:47
Speaker 1: that nineteen ninety four receipt that they found and how
6:50
Speaker 1: food prices have changed since then. But when you think
6:54
Speaker 1: back to the differences with the say the late seventies,
6:58
Speaker 1: walking around those they sort of little super values and
7:01
Speaker 1: all squares and things. You know, what do you see
7:05
Speaker 1: as the big big differences and what do you recall
7:07
Speaker 1: from from that era?
7:08
Speaker 3: Look, I remember, you know, if you said where was
7:10
Speaker 3: home and when you grow up, I'd say Lower Huart
7:12
Speaker 3: because we moved there sort of late primary school. So
7:15
Speaker 3: that's sort of my best memories. So I remember a
7:19
Speaker 3: new New World opening and Lower Hut opposite where Queen's
7:21
Speaker 3: Gate is now and that was the big deal. The
7:24
Speaker 3: Pack and Save opening and Patoni. You know, these things
7:26
Speaker 3: were big moments in terms of in your community. You
7:29
Speaker 3: sort of notice them and people talked about it. I
7:31
Speaker 3: don't think I was entrusted with the household shopping at
7:34
Speaker 3: any point.
7:35
Speaker 2: So, but my.
7:36
Speaker 3: First after school job that paid any money was in
7:40
Speaker 3: a paint and wallpaper retail shop called each See where
7:43
Speaker 3: he and sons and Queen's Drive and Lower Hut. The
7:46
Speaker 3: college I went to had Wednesday afternoons off and Saturday
7:48
Speaker 3: mornings on classes because the borders there was no retail
7:51
Speaker 3: on the weekend, right, so Wednesday was when you got
7:54
Speaker 3: a haircut or bought a new shirt or whatever you
7:56
Speaker 3: needed to do. So I do remember working in that shop,
8:00
Speaker 3: paying two dollars fifty an hour, and you know, labeling
8:04
Speaker 3: paint cans, occasionally been trusted to advise a customer on something,
8:08
Speaker 3: doing deliveries, and then went on my uncle and aunt
8:12
Speaker 3: in a funny.
8:12
Speaker 2: Twist of fate, thirty years later.
8:14
Speaker 3: Owned The New World and Walk withorth Oh well, my
8:17
Speaker 3: university holidays four years in a row I worked there.
8:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you first started getting just a little bit
8:23
Speaker 1: of money, like from the paint shop job and things
8:25
Speaker 1: were the things that you were passionate about that you
8:27
Speaker 1: were saving up for. Were you savor or you spend
8:29
Speaker 1: it all?
8:30
Speaker 3: I was I was closer to spender than savor. Yeah, yeah,
8:33
Speaker 3: you know, and classic key we teenage boy. It was
8:36
Speaker 3: about cars and for me, you know, my mates we
8:39
Speaker 3: were tramping in camp. You know, we lived close to
8:41
Speaker 3: the towers, so I've had a full part of New Zealand.
8:44
Speaker 3: We were doing that pretty regularly. So you bought, you know,
8:46
Speaker 3: a new pair of boots or a new pack or
8:49
Speaker 3: you know, and then cars when the time came. My
8:51
Speaker 3: first car I think cost five hundred dollars. So let's
8:54
Speaker 3: you know, keeping them perspective during what it was. It
8:57
Speaker 3: was a reno ten, which is sort of embarrassed.
8:59
Speaker 1: What do you YEA often a disaster, isn't it?
9:03
Speaker 2: Pretty much? Yeah? I learned a lot about fixing them.
9:05
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah that at school were academic and do you
9:09
Speaker 1: think you sort of at that time had an idea
9:11
Speaker 1: that business might be for you.
9:14
Speaker 2: Yeah.
9:14
Speaker 3: If I look back, you know, I was sort of
9:16
Speaker 3: focused on more business topics, so maths, accounting, economics dropped
9:22
Speaker 3: the sciences towards the end, you know, probably physics through
9:24
Speaker 3: the sixth form. Remember what do they call that now
9:27
Speaker 3: year twelve, which is I reflect because both my kids
9:31
Speaker 3: went technology and science ones and ecotronics engineer ones are
9:35
Speaker 3: clinical embriologists, so they thought business was a bad idea.
9:39
Speaker 3: But you know, I think, you know, focused on business
9:42
Speaker 3: and university. I did accounting in law, but went into
9:46
Speaker 3: an accounting role as my first full time job.
9:50
Speaker 1: And you think, you know, some of those jobs, part
9:52
Speaker 1: time jobs that you had, did that sort of help
9:54
Speaker 1: make you think about Look.
9:55
Speaker 3: I think what they taught me, particularly working from uncle
9:58
Speaker 3: and aunt, was how to work hard, you know, and
10:00
Speaker 3: the value of hard work and the hard work supported
10:03
Speaker 3: success of their business. And also you know, this was
10:07
Speaker 3: in Walkworth at the time. That was a small sleepy
10:09
Speaker 3: you know, well outside of Auckland Town. It would get
10:12
Speaker 3: very busy in summer because there was the beaches. But
10:16
Speaker 3: it taught you about community, It taught you about people
10:19
Speaker 3: and stuff. I learned about standards.
10:21
Speaker 2: You know.
10:21
Speaker 3: My uncle was very store had to be clean front
10:24
Speaker 3: and back. You know, you looked after things, and even
10:28
Speaker 3: in a very very small way. You know, retol crime
10:30
Speaker 3: was a thing then and you know, I saw him
10:33
Speaker 3: deal with those incidents, so he learned a lot about
10:35
Speaker 3: hard work and a lot about community.
10:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, losing your parents so young, it's a
10:40
Speaker 1: pretty big shock, especially at twenty one. Yeah, did that
10:43
Speaker 1: sort of change your outlook on life generally?
10:46
Speaker 2: Yeah?
10:46
Speaker 3: I think it built some independence pretty quick. You know,
10:49
Speaker 3: you sort of go, hey, you kind of have to
10:51
Speaker 3: go and make this for yourself, younger siblings to.
10:55
Speaker 2: Keep an eye on.
10:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, so I think in a sad way,
11:00
Speaker 3: did you know, you sort of pull yourself up and
11:02
Speaker 3: so you've got to get on with it.
11:03
Speaker 2: Yeah.
11:04
Speaker 1: Yeah. So coming out of university, did you go, you know,
11:07
Speaker 1: straight into a job or did you travel or anything.
11:09
Speaker 3: I was in my fifth year of study. I wasn't
11:12
Speaker 3: wasn't bad. I was trying to do two to g.
11:15
Speaker 1: Right.
11:18
Speaker 2: I went part time.
11:19
Speaker 3: Because I just got to a point where you go, actually,
11:21
Speaker 3: I'd rather have a job and start creating a career.
11:23
Speaker 3: And there was good opportunity at the time to do
11:26
Speaker 3: that sort of dual learning where you were in a
11:28
Speaker 3: job but also going to university, you know.
11:30
Speaker 2: Two or three hours a week, so that that worked
11:33
Speaker 2: really well.
11:33
Speaker 3: And the first company I worked for was Ici Paint,
11:36
Speaker 3: so it was in their paint manufacturing plant and Gracefield
11:39
Speaker 3: and low Hut. And it was a great job because
11:42
Speaker 3: it taught you the basics of business raw materials, manufacturing,
11:45
Speaker 3: cost processing, quality, wholesaling, retailing, end to end view of business.
11:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know you've got It's gone on to
11:54
Speaker 1: be a very successful career. Was there a point at
11:56
Speaker 1: which you feel like, you know, you made a bit
11:58
Speaker 1: of a leap up you've gone into the workplace. When
12:02
Speaker 1: did you feel like, well, oh, okay, actually now this
12:04
Speaker 1: is getting pretty serious and start managing people and things
12:07
Speaker 1: like that.
12:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I think that was mid to late twenties.
12:12
Speaker 3: I look back in on you often. Sometimes you get
12:14
Speaker 3: asked to speak to groups and say, you know, how
12:15
Speaker 3: did your career come about? And I always find it,
12:17
Speaker 3: you know, sort of how. Don't know that I've got
12:19
Speaker 3: that much to teach people, But I do remember at
12:22
Speaker 3: school in sixth form, I was shoulder tapped by one
12:25
Speaker 3: of the senior teachers saying are you coming back next year?
12:28
Speaker 3: And if you are, would you be up for being
12:30
Speaker 3: head day boy at the school. You look back now
12:32
Speaker 3: and go, that was a head hunt, right, There was
12:35
Speaker 3: no offer and no money, but you know, you reflect
12:39
Speaker 3: and go wonder how that came about, and then people,
12:43
Speaker 3: you know, people say, what do you think makes up
12:45
Speaker 3: your ability to have a career. One first thing is
12:47
Speaker 3: what you've learned at university will not be what you do,
12:51
Speaker 3: but it does teach you to think, It teaches you
12:54
Speaker 3: to learn, and it teaches you to work hard.
12:57
Speaker 2: But then you know.
12:57
Speaker 3: Once I moved from a company called I Tell, a
13:00
Speaker 3: small tech company only seventy people that ended up through
13:03
Speaker 3: the late eighties and all of the economic things that
13:05
Speaker 3: were going on closing in New Zealand, and I was
13:08
Speaker 3: part of the team that sold the distribution rights for
13:10
Speaker 3: the product to Telecom. Telecom was five telecoms at the
13:14
Speaker 3: time before it merged, and that worked out pretty well.
13:18
Speaker 3: And I joined the sales and marketing group in Telecom
13:21
Speaker 3: Wellington Limited. But at the time there were no competitors,
13:23
Speaker 3: but I knew they were coming because we'd been selling
13:25
Speaker 3: tech to enable them.
13:27
Speaker 2: So you started getting involved with people and sales.
13:31
Speaker 3: And I have a vivid memory of in the Mitail Times,
13:36
Speaker 3: a European GM who was someone in the audience at
13:39
Speaker 3: a team catch up was complaining that the salespeople earned
13:41
Speaker 3: more money than he did, and he said, well, you're
13:44
Speaker 3: welcome to try, but you go to a low base,
13:46
Speaker 3: you take the risk on commission and if you failed
13:48
Speaker 3: two quarters in a row, you lose the job. And
13:51
Speaker 3: just reminded me reporting is one thing, creating the results
13:54
Speaker 3: as another.
14:01
Speaker 1: You've actually held a lot of director's roles and chairman
14:05
Speaker 1: roles as well. You know, how do you find that
14:07
Speaker 1: role and also how did you make the leap into
14:10
Speaker 1: getting involved with being on boards as well.
14:13
Speaker 3: The first board things was ice House, so Telecom was
14:16
Speaker 3: a partner of ice House. One of the things we
14:18
Speaker 3: regularly did was put a director on and someone I
14:22
Speaker 3: still work without. In the in the startup community, a
14:25
Speaker 3: lot gy called Rod Snodgrass sort of was it. He
14:27
Speaker 3: came to me and said, I'm going to step down,
14:29
Speaker 3: would you like to do it? I was fascinated by
14:32
Speaker 3: what startup meant and what innovation and tech investing in
14:35
Speaker 3: New Zealand looked like. I don't think I knew anything
14:38
Speaker 3: about being a director at the time, and it's been
14:40
Speaker 3: great actually, And I would firmly recommend senior leaders to
14:43
Speaker 3: hold a board position while you hold an executive position,
14:46
Speaker 3: because in a funny way, you get to see yourself.
14:49
Speaker 3: So around the board you see what a management team
14:52
Speaker 3: show up like and the good and the.
14:53
Speaker 2: Bad of that.
14:54
Speaker 1: Sometimes sides of the fence look at myself.
14:56
Speaker 3: Of now board and going yeah, I can see why
14:58
Speaker 3: I frustrate them some days. And also as an executive,
15:03
Speaker 3: as a senior leader, you go, I think I understand
15:06
Speaker 3: what a board need from me. I think the key
15:09
Speaker 3: about boards is, you know, nose and hands out, enable
15:13
Speaker 3: the leadership team to be accountable and support them to deliver,
15:16
Speaker 3: but be their critical friend. And you learn a lot
15:19
Speaker 3: about where boards should start and stop and where leadership
15:22
Speaker 3: needs to step in. So it's been really developmental.
15:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what are the ones that people might know
15:27
Speaker 1: that you're involved with at the moment.
15:29
Speaker 3: So I've been on the board of Loyalty in New Zealand,
15:31
Speaker 3: although there is a change coming with that which we've
15:33
Speaker 3: just announced. I'm on the board of New Zealand Initiative
15:36
Speaker 3: and I chair the board at the Giltrap Group. Has
15:39
Speaker 3: been an incredibly big year with a very sad passing
15:41
Speaker 3: of Sir Colin Yeah, a New Zealand business legend. Yeah,
15:46
Speaker 3: you know, and I know when people say you've taken
15:49
Speaker 3: over from Colin. You go, no, no, no, no one
15:51
Speaker 3: can take over from Colin. You know, I'm just loving
15:55
Speaker 3: supporting the two sons that own the business and being
16:00
Speaker 3: part of that industry, which is a fantastic intersection of
16:02
Speaker 3: passion and business for me.
16:03
Speaker 1: So you're quite passionate about cars, aren't you. And you're
16:06
Speaker 1: talking about the racing earlier.
16:07
Speaker 3: The thing that keeps you permanently poor. Yeah, but it is,
16:11
Speaker 3: you know, it's a passion and so it's a privilege
16:14
Speaker 3: to be part of a really cool New Zealand business
16:16
Speaker 3: like that that is growing and grown and grind.
16:18
Speaker 1: Yeah. What do you drive now? Do you drive something
16:20
Speaker 1: that you're.
16:21
Speaker 2: A Volkswagen to rig?
16:22
Speaker 3: You know, you know, something that can put mountain bikes
16:27
Speaker 3: on the back of cantire trailer.
16:29
Speaker 2: It's sort of you know, it's a perfect thing for me.
16:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, sure, I've got a few quick fire questions.
16:34
Speaker 1: We always ask, what's the poorest you ever been?
16:37
Speaker 2: Oh?
16:38
Speaker 3: I think it was the day I moved into my
16:40
Speaker 3: first house, which was on the western hills of Lower
16:42
Speaker 3: hut was back when you could buy a house for
16:47
Speaker 3: you know, I think it was one hundred and five
16:48
Speaker 3: thousand dollars, brand new house. Built by Fletcher Building on
16:52
Speaker 3: a small piece of land on the western hills above
16:54
Speaker 3: Lower Hut. I put the five thousand dollars on a
16:56
Speaker 3: credit card because I didn't have it, and you know,
17:00
Speaker 3: you looked at it and went, gosh, that mortgagees. I
17:02
Speaker 3: could never imagine paying it.
17:03
Speaker 1: Off, right, So good to get the start and lived.
17:08
Speaker 3: In it for a year with you know, the driveway,
17:10
Speaker 3: no landscaping, because anything you had to do you had
17:13
Speaker 3: to do yourself. You couldn't afford to pay someone. So
17:15
Speaker 3: that was probably the moment where you went, well, this
17:17
Speaker 3: is you know, going to have to take this on.
17:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, when you were feeling that poor, you know,
17:22
Speaker 1: did that affect your choices and the way you were spending?
17:24
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking about the supermarket shop probably.
17:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's almost embarrassing them that I can't recall what
17:31
Speaker 3: supermarket shop felt like so much. Then obviously I was
17:34
Speaker 3: doing it. I was living, you know, in the in
17:35
Speaker 3: the place on my own, just before I got married.
17:38
Speaker 3: Later about you know, six nine months after I bought
17:40
Speaker 3: the house.
17:41
Speaker 1: But of a blur, isn't it.
17:43
Speaker 3: It was sort of you know, probably at other things
17:45
Speaker 3: on your mind as priorities. This was at a time
17:47
Speaker 3: where interest rates were in the teens. Yeah, so you know.
17:50
Speaker 2: I certainly felt that probably most Yeah.
17:53
Speaker 1: That's right. How about flipping it around, what's the most
17:56
Speaker 1: indulgent purchase you've ever made?
17:58
Speaker 3: Oh, look, it would be its probably a car thing,
18:01
Speaker 3: you know, a sports car for fun. You know, my
18:04
Speaker 3: son did a reasonable amount of motorsport and that's a
18:07
Speaker 3: that's a passion that you know, coll admiration for people
18:09
Speaker 3: that go all the way on the investment in that.
18:11
Speaker 3: It's you know, of all the sports, it's the most
18:13
Speaker 3: hardest to solve economically.
18:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it would probably myself.
18:17
Speaker 1: Like a business, just to survive, you.
18:19
Speaker 3: Need a lot of support, yeah, and just complete aside.
18:22
Speaker 3: But New Zealand is punching so far above its weight
18:24
Speaker 3: and isn't it. And particularly given the lack of economic
18:27
Speaker 3: power we have. You know, you look at the big
18:30
Speaker 3: players in the world. They're coming with the billions of
18:32
Speaker 3: large countries. We should be really proud of us.
18:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And so do you can you work
18:37
Speaker 1: on engines and fixed cars.
18:40
Speaker 3: Time is probably the biggest barrier, but I can. And
18:43
Speaker 3: what I love about doing it now versus doing it
18:45
Speaker 3: when you're young. You needed to fix it that night
18:47
Speaker 3: because you drive it tomorrow. One that's not driven every day.
18:52
Speaker 3: You can do it a little slower and have a
18:54
Speaker 3: little more fun.
18:55
Speaker 2: Yeah.
18:55
Speaker 1: Sure.
18:56
Speaker 2: One.
18:56
Speaker 1: We've been asking and so Christopher Luxan on the campaign
18:59
Speaker 1: trail was asked about what he spent on supermarket shopping.
19:02
Speaker 1: You probably saw the story and I think he kind
19:05
Speaker 1: of misread the question a bit to be honest that
19:07
Speaker 1: he said sixty dollars because he's down in Wellington and
19:09
Speaker 1: basically topping up on coffee and things. But what does
19:12
Speaker 1: your supermarket shop look like? Are you a big supermarket shopper?
19:15
Speaker 3: Look, I go, I'm in stores very often, but not
19:20
Speaker 3: you know, doing a household shop. You know that generally
19:23
Speaker 3: is sort of mid twes to three hundred a week
19:25
Speaker 3: from what I see, and that's you know, supermarkets is
19:28
Speaker 3: part of what goes into the house. But very conscious
19:31
Speaker 3: that the you know, it's very real to me what
19:34
Speaker 3: has happened with food price inflation, what's happened with supply
19:37
Speaker 3: costs to us, and what's happened with our pricing. We've
19:40
Speaker 3: tried to be really transparent about that because we feel
19:43
Speaker 3: that accountability to New Zealand households. We get we sit
19:46
Speaker 3: high on this spend list. We've got to show them
19:48
Speaker 3: we're doing all we can to suppress the impact of
19:50
Speaker 3: what's going on.
19:51
Speaker 1: I mean, it was it was a shock in the
19:53
Speaker 1: sense that New Zealand or the world, we hadn't really
19:55
Speaker 1: had that kind of inflation for decades and then suddenly
19:59
Speaker 1: it hits, and you know, I guess I sort of
20:03
Speaker 1: underestimated how much people hate it. They you know, that
20:07
Speaker 1: the pain of it, that there was a lot of
20:08
Speaker 1: anger and all that sort of stuff. Did you guys
20:10
Speaker 1: feel that, I mean, it's sort of I would say,
20:13
Speaker 1: looking at the economics of it, the food side is
20:16
Speaker 1: coming back down to sort of normal levels of inflation,
20:19
Speaker 1: but there was a real spike there, especially fruit and
20:21
Speaker 1: veggies for a while.
20:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was.
20:23
Speaker 3: And look, you know, so the good news right now
20:25
Speaker 3: is we're down well below one percent for the last
20:28
Speaker 3: three months. You know, our retail price increases sitting at
20:31
Speaker 3: a round point four point five, supply costs increases to
20:35
Speaker 3: us still sitting in the threes three percent or so,
20:37
Speaker 3: and food price inflation somewhere around the same as our
20:40
Speaker 3: retail prices. We've been lower in two and higher and one.
20:43
Speaker 3: But you go back, you know, thirteen fourteen months we
20:46
Speaker 3: were talking about twelves, you know, in terms of percent
20:49
Speaker 3: increase month compared to month a year ago. When you
20:53
Speaker 3: look back at it, you know, COVID threw us into
20:55
Speaker 3: the limelight. There was only two things on the news.
20:58
Speaker 3: There was Covid and so placed to any small thing
21:01
Speaker 3: we did, good or bad, got coverage. And you just
21:04
Speaker 3: got to You've got to accept in return for the
21:06
Speaker 3: privilege to operate in every community, comes comes the scrutiny
21:10
Speaker 3: and the transparency, and it's okay, we need to stand
21:13
Speaker 3: up to it. But if I look at it now,
21:14
Speaker 3: you know, I think in hindsight we're going Actually, the
21:17
Speaker 3: weather events did have an impact on product.
21:19
Speaker 1: You can see it now with the not a surprise
21:21
Speaker 1: really coming down so much right.
21:22
Speaker 3: And globally there's been so many things go on. You know,
21:25
Speaker 3: Coco's up three hundred percent, Olive oils up three hundred percent,
21:28
Speaker 3: and you.
21:28
Speaker 1: Go to the olio.
21:30
Speaker 2: How do we suppress that in New Zealand.
21:32
Speaker 3: You know, in the end, you go, you buy as
21:34
Speaker 3: well as you possibly can, respect your supplies, make sure
21:37
Speaker 3: that it's fair. But you've got to do the job
21:39
Speaker 3: because our customers are expecting us to buy.
21:41
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I guess the supplies are now just dealing
21:44
Speaker 1: with the last stuff. Seems to be things like power
21:46
Speaker 1: prices and rates and all that sort of stuff that
21:48
Speaker 1: they have to deal with, right.
21:50
Speaker 3: I think there is room and it's been interesting watching
21:52
Speaker 3: the process in Australia. There is room to make sure
21:55
Speaker 3: that particularly our global supplies are treating New Zealand fairly. Yeah,
21:59
Speaker 3: you know, we've had a lot of scrutiny. You know,
22:01
Speaker 3: our numbers are pretting in trails have been well well
22:04
Speaker 3: sort of laid out.
22:05
Speaker 1: So is that one of the reasons that you would
22:06
Speaker 1: argue for scale.
22:09
Speaker 3: I think scale for buying matters, you know. And if
22:11
Speaker 3: you think about the market in New Zealand, our direct
22:14
Speaker 3: competitor is Australasian, so they bring Australasian scale. The other
22:18
Speaker 3: players that are part of the New Zealand competitive landscape
22:21
Speaker 3: now so Costco, massive global and.
22:23
Speaker 2: Very respected retail. They do a very good job.
22:26
Speaker 3: And other entrants to New Zealand will probably come with
22:29
Speaker 3: global scale. Even new players like the Warehouse Group are national.
22:33
Speaker 3: So when we sit here and go what do we
22:35
Speaker 3: need to do to do better pricing for our customers?
22:38
Speaker 3: That's where the merger comes.
22:39
Speaker 1: From and at the HERA. We've been writing stories about
22:41
Speaker 1: Aldi coming in for about twenty years. Yes, do you
22:44
Speaker 1: think that'll ever happen.
22:46
Speaker 3: It can happen tomorrow. If they want to yeat there.
22:48
Speaker 3: There is no barrier to them coming. They will just
22:51
Speaker 3: I assume assess the opportunity to deploy the capital, because
22:54
Speaker 3: this is a large capital, lower margin game compared to
22:58
Speaker 3: many business models. When you get it running well and
23:01
Speaker 3: when you're very efficient, when you have enough scale, you
23:03
Speaker 3: can get four cents in the dollar return, and that's
23:06
Speaker 3: that can be a fair return and enables you to invest.
23:09
Speaker 3: You know, every time we open a new store, that
23:11
Speaker 3: is tens of millions of dollars of investment.
23:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean you'll know from the telco industry
23:15
Speaker 1: that often it is difficult in the country the size
23:19
Speaker 1: to get beyond say two big players and a third
23:21
Speaker 1: challenger brand kind of thing. There's just issues with the
23:26
Speaker 1: size of the population for some of these.
23:28
Speaker 3: You know, you keep thinking, we're a little bit over
23:30
Speaker 3: five million, the same physical size as Japan. So the
23:34
Speaker 3: case to invest is different here and needs different things.
23:38
Speaker 3: The barriers that make a difference to the cost in
23:41
Speaker 3: new Zealand would be you know, what's the Foreign Direct
23:42
Speaker 3: Investment rules, what's Overseas Investment Act doing for people who
23:46
Speaker 3: might want to come to New Zealand, what's land availability,
23:49
Speaker 3: the RMA, and just basically being a simple country to
23:53
Speaker 3: do business.
23:53
Speaker 1: And this government is talking about changing some things that
23:56
Speaker 1: so maybe.
23:58
Speaker 3: Very positive principles being discussed. We think that makes the
24:02
Speaker 3: biggest difference to getting competition here is to make it
24:04
Speaker 3: simpler for people to come and set up.
24:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, how do you feel about ideas like GST or
24:09
Speaker 1: fruit and veggies? Would that make a difference?
24:10
Speaker 3: You think, Look, I think we love the simplicity of
24:13
Speaker 3: New Zealand's GST system. So you know, firstly, if the
24:17
Speaker 3: government made any government made a change in that area,
24:20
Speaker 3: then it would be transparently passed through, no debate about that. However,
24:24
Speaker 3: the cost to deliver it the you know, you watch
24:27
Speaker 3: the Australian model where you know, if a salad's handmade
24:30
Speaker 3: in store versus bagged, there are GST differences and you
24:33
Speaker 3: sort of go, that's a complexity that is hard for
24:36
Speaker 3: customers to understand, hard for stores to understand to get
24:39
Speaker 3: right all of the time. You know, does it genuinely
24:42
Speaker 3: add the value as opposed to let's look at the
24:45
Speaker 3: core cost drivers of getting fresh produce on shelf and
24:47
Speaker 3: said we can make those better.
24:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were talking earlier about that. You know that
24:51
Speaker 1: the receipt from nineteen ninety four that they had a
24:55
Speaker 1: story on and the different changes and prices are the
24:57
Speaker 1: categories of do you see the change in prices? You know,
25:00
Speaker 1: not just the ups and downs, but are the trends
25:03
Speaker 1: in food pricing that you know? It looked like with
25:05
Speaker 1: that story that processed foods and frozen foods were a
25:10
Speaker 1: lot cheaper now than they used to be in relative terms,
25:12
Speaker 1: sometimes even nominally actually, and it looked sort of like
25:16
Speaker 1: fresh stuff is more expensive. Do you dares sit to
25:19
Speaker 1: see that trend?
25:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, look I saw and I saw your article land
25:23
Speaker 3: that now I know. It made us reflect on a
25:25
Speaker 3: few things because we spotted the same things, which is
25:28
Speaker 3: clearly the costs and fresh produce have risen as fast,
25:32
Speaker 3: if not faster than inflation through that time. You then
25:34
Speaker 3: look at what are the cost drivers, So what's land cost,
25:36
Speaker 3: what is production costs and people cost? And then what
25:39
Speaker 3: are global markets doing in terms of driving price for
25:41
Speaker 3: global products? Whereas the technologies that can be employed in
25:46
Speaker 3: making processed food has a slightly negative tone. Unfortunately, a
25:49
Speaker 3: lot of the product now is amazing quality and taste
25:52
Speaker 3: and amazing nutrition. And one of the great developments through
25:55
Speaker 3: COVID was people were asked to shop once a week
25:58
Speaker 3: and were asked to keep things in animals, so people
26:00
Speaker 3: had a little bit of a hey, I better keep
26:02
Speaker 3: more food in the house just in case. So frozen
26:05
Speaker 3: food in particular has gone through a massive boom and
26:08
Speaker 3: the product quality and the other thing a sort of
26:11
Speaker 3: cool thing that happened was unfortunately hospitality was lockdown, but
26:14
Speaker 3: people learned to get restaurant or pub style food at home.
26:17
Speaker 3: So the rise of the air fryer, in the flavored
26:20
Speaker 3: chicken pieces and all of that stuff has been quite
26:23
Speaker 3: a change. So when we design a store now, we're
26:25
Speaker 3: designing a lot more frozen retail, so a lot more
26:28
Speaker 3: stand up fridges and a lot more product range and
26:32
Speaker 3: trying to deliver to the value, nutrition and taste profiles
26:35
Speaker 3: that are being got out on new products. So we
26:38
Speaker 3: deliver nearly eight thousand new products a year into our stores.
26:42
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of competition to be on the shelf,
26:44
Speaker 1: so we talk about. I guess the intense sort of
26:47
Speaker 1: focus you get from a consumer point of view, but
26:48
Speaker 1: there's a bit there from the supplier point of view too, right.
26:50
Speaker 1: They're all very competitive and they consider it quite hard
26:54
Speaker 1: work to get on the shelves with you guys. Is
26:56
Speaker 1: that fair?
26:57
Speaker 3: Look you hear that. I speak to one hundred of
27:00
Speaker 3: our supplies a month. We run a regular digital catch
27:02
Speaker 3: up where we get about five hundred attending. Three times
27:05
Speaker 3: a year. We bring them into our place. Six hundred
27:07
Speaker 3: people or so. We just ran a supply survey. We
27:10
Speaker 3: do it every six months, and since we propose the merger,
27:14
Speaker 3: we've tripled the net promoter score from our suppliers for us.
27:17
Speaker 3: So we're sort of going, there's more to do. But
27:19
Speaker 3: when communicating, we're answering any question. There is now a
27:23
Speaker 3: code of conduct in the new grocery industry competition that
27:25
Speaker 3: sets the rules for the playing field. So a lot
27:28
Speaker 3: has changed in that space, and a lot has come forward.
27:31
Speaker 3: The other thing, you know, it's our stores don't get
27:33
Speaker 3: bigger because a supplier comes up with five new products,
27:36
Speaker 3: So every time they do, we have to decide what
27:38
Speaker 3: comes out so it can go In that process. Also,
27:41
Speaker 3: we range based on the data from our customers. And
27:45
Speaker 3: that's the thing we've worked hard on the last three years.
27:47
Speaker 1: And that must be you know, I know with the
27:49
Speaker 1: media that we get that the analytics get pretty good, right,
27:52
Speaker 1: so you must get really good data on what people
27:54
Speaker 1: are buying.
27:54
Speaker 3: In the essention, there's a lot of talk about AI.
27:56
Speaker 3: We've been involved in a process where we've pumped years
27:59
Speaker 3: of product sales data into an AI lead machine and
28:03
Speaker 3: basically it's telling us in every category what products must
28:06
Speaker 3: be on shelf, what products are choices on shelf, and
28:10
Speaker 3: then where the positioning and value needs to be to
28:12
Speaker 3: work for customers.
28:13
Speaker 2: So that's there's a lot.
28:14
Speaker 3: Of science now in the ranging and when we do
28:16
Speaker 3: a review of a category to come up with an outcome,
28:18
Speaker 3: that's what we're using his customer driven data to do it.
28:27
Speaker 1: Back to some of these quick far questions when I
28:30
Speaker 1: keep asking people, regardless of their wealth, is do they
28:32
Speaker 1: still buy a lot of tickets or do they imagine
28:34
Speaker 1: winning lotto?
28:36
Speaker 3: Don't buy tickets to imagine? So that's a free exercise.
28:40
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you get to imagine for free? Yeah yeah yeah?
28:43
Speaker 1: How much do you imagine winning?
28:45
Speaker 2: Not? Not that much?
28:46
Speaker 3: I loved I think was it the fifty million or
28:49
Speaker 3: so went out to seven or eight people. Yeah, I
28:51
Speaker 3: think that's a great app So.
28:52
Speaker 1: Worry that people win, you know, that kind of money.
28:55
Speaker 1: Suddenly it actually up ends their life a bit, doesn't it.
28:58
Speaker 2: Yeah.
28:58
Speaker 3: You do hope that people got the support and advice
29:01
Speaker 3: and the right people around them when that happens, and
29:02
Speaker 3: I really hope they go on to do very well
29:04
Speaker 3: as a result.
29:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a lot of good part of business for supermarkets.
29:08
Speaker 1: I mean, I know they often have a stand look.
29:11
Speaker 3: Like a lot of things that's shifting more and more digital,
29:13
Speaker 3: you know, and supermarkets it's constantly about is that space
29:17
Speaker 3: getting through what customers need. And certainly in many small communities,
29:22
Speaker 3: you know, having lotto is quite important to the community,
29:24
Speaker 3: so you keep it for that. Probably in our largest
29:27
Speaker 3: cities less so, so that'll keep evolving, you know. And
29:31
Speaker 3: Loto grew digitally a lot during COVID because people aren't
29:34
Speaker 3: going to make a trip just for that, So you know,
29:37
Speaker 3: we keep talking to the team at Lotto about that.
29:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. When you think about money now and your career
29:43
Speaker 1: and things, do you do you know, do you think
29:45
Speaker 1: it's been a driver for you making money or is
29:48
Speaker 1: it more of a by product of doing business and
29:51
Speaker 1: what you've been trying to do.
29:53
Speaker 2: It is a byproduct.
29:54
Speaker 3: You don't if any leader is running their business for
29:58
Speaker 3: you know, the scorecard that they have, the money they receive,
30:01
Speaker 3: that's a pretty sad place to be, to be honest,
30:05
Speaker 3: I think it's an enabler. So it is a privilege
30:08
Speaker 3: to be at a point we have choices where you
30:11
Speaker 3: can do things for friends and family and do things
30:13
Speaker 3: that our experiences and matter and not be worried day
30:17
Speaker 3: to day.
30:17
Speaker 2: But also it also frees up some time.
30:20
Speaker 3: In your mind to think about, so what are we
30:22
Speaker 3: doing in the communities that we have the privilege to
30:25
Speaker 3: earn a return in and be part of rather than
30:27
Speaker 3: take a return from. So our team and how they're
30:32
Speaker 3: looked after ready matters. And that's everything from the way
30:35
Speaker 3: we reward and pay and the way we employ and
30:38
Speaker 3: the way we treat people and our engagement all the
30:40
Speaker 3: way through to our Foodies foundation to look after families
30:43
Speaker 3: when they get into trouble, someone could get sick, someone
30:45
Speaker 3: could have a relationship problem, got an amazing facility there
30:49
Speaker 3: that they can get help within twenty four hours to
30:51
Speaker 3: the tune of five thousand dollars and we do it
30:53
Speaker 3: hundreds of times a year to help our team through
30:55
Speaker 3: to what we do for food into communities and the
30:57
Speaker 3: social supermarket idea which thirty four thousand and families encounting. Yeah,
31:02
Speaker 3: love that it's an all around wrap and that thousands
31:05
Speaker 3: of those families know no longer need the help.
31:07
Speaker 2: That's the key that it makes that difference.
31:09
Speaker 1: When you think about some of that, you know, poverty
31:11
Speaker 1: that's out there and how tupet is out there, I
31:14
Speaker 1: mean and generally through society. What's your view on sort
31:17
Speaker 1: of what the big drivers of wealth versus poverty are?
31:20
Speaker 1: What would you like to see change in the way
31:22
Speaker 1: people think about.
31:24
Speaker 3: I think there's three or four things that matter. You know,
31:27
Speaker 3: health and education do matter. You know, you see where
31:31
Speaker 3: if those systems aren't working best for people, then it
31:33
Speaker 3: doesn't set the platform going forward. I know they're big
31:36
Speaker 3: Gnali problems, but they take as long as they're going
31:39
Speaker 3: to take to fix. And if you don't start and
31:41
Speaker 3: don't start with an intent, they'll still be that far away.
31:43
Speaker 3: I think family and relationships have a huge role, so
31:47
Speaker 3: I think wealth has no effect on that. Actually, I
31:49
Speaker 3: think a great family with good relationships, see people do
31:53
Speaker 3: better over time. So I think every family has a
31:56
Speaker 3: bit of responsibility there, and I think for New Zealander.
31:58
Speaker 2: Is just having some more ass inspiration.
32:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I'm still involved in the startup world,
32:04
Speaker 3: you know, and like to invest in little ways there
32:08
Speaker 3: and like to be close to it because I love
32:09
Speaker 3: the spirit of all of those leaders.
32:11
Speaker 2: We need more of that.
32:13
Speaker 3: We need to celebrate their success, we need to be
32:14
Speaker 3: proud of it, and we need to be okay when
32:17
Speaker 3: they do very very well.
32:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, there's a question I'd actually well I don't
32:21
Speaker 1: usually ask, but I'd love to ask you because I've
32:23
Speaker 1: been thinking about it. You know, the Fitch Ratings people
32:25
Speaker 1: who wrote something a week or two ago and they
32:28
Speaker 1: were just warned that some of the drivers of New
32:30
Speaker 1: Zealand's economy, China and dairy and tourism weren't going to
32:34
Speaker 1: be the growth drivers that they were even you know,
32:36
Speaker 1: they will still be big. And then the question is
32:39
Speaker 1: sort of what next, and so do you I mean,
32:41
Speaker 1: from that startup side of things and the tech side
32:43
Speaker 1: of things, can we generate enough momentum from that to
32:47
Speaker 1: be a big driver of wealth for New Zealand is
32:49
Speaker 1: I know they'll say there is already a billion dollars
32:51
Speaker 1: or something, but you know, can it actually be transformational?
32:55
Speaker 3: It can, And it's about attitude and about approach and
32:58
Speaker 3: about all of society of New Zealand being up for
33:01
Speaker 3: what it means. So, you know, I had the opportunity
33:05
Speaker 3: to go to Ireland last year. It's a bit of
33:07
Speaker 3: a long story because my grandparents came from Island, soide
33:10
Speaker 3: an Irish passport and joined a business visit their New
33:13
Speaker 3: Zealand initiative. You know, five million people sound familiar an Ireland,
33:18
Speaker 3: and you know what they've done around foreign direct investment,
33:21
Speaker 3: around encouraging company investment for the long term through tax system,
33:26
Speaker 3: what they've done around making sure the money they receive
33:28
Speaker 3: from that goes into education, it goes into infrastructure, it
33:31
Speaker 3: goes into facilities. It's a model we can learn from.
33:34
Speaker 3: We went to Switzerland two or three years before that,
33:37
Speaker 3: very different high end, high value brands, but small countries
33:42
Speaker 3: doing very well by focusing their innovation into you know
33:45
Speaker 3: where they can take it global. We have such an
33:48
Speaker 3: amazing agritech sector, we have an amazing entrepreneurial sector. We
33:53
Speaker 3: can we need to get resolved.
33:54
Speaker 1: So just the final question really, But if I was
33:57
Speaker 1: to put you on the spot and say we could
33:58
Speaker 1: make you Prime Minister for a day, you get to
34:01
Speaker 1: focus what will be the one policy that you'd really
34:04
Speaker 1: love to see implemented or change to help drive some
34:07
Speaker 1: of that.
34:08
Speaker 2: Look two things.
34:10
Speaker 3: One, I think it's about welcome, making business an okay
34:13
Speaker 3: thing to be successful in. And I think that you know,
34:16
Speaker 3: we're hearing a lot of principles about that emerging, so
34:18
Speaker 3: very interested to see progress yet on that front making
34:21
Speaker 3: us an easy, simple place to do. We're never going
34:23
Speaker 3: to have scale, We're never going to be big and
34:25
Speaker 3: interesting from our customer based point of view, so we
34:28
Speaker 3: need to be innovative, smart and agile.
34:30
Speaker 2: The other thing that.
34:31
Speaker 3: Is critical, and there is lots of good talk about
34:33
Speaker 3: it is education. Yeah, just lifting our game and education
34:37
Speaker 3: so that we have talent that can do amazing things.
34:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, Chris Quinn, thank you very much, Thank you, Liam, cheers,
34:44
Speaker 1: thanks for listening to this episode of Money Talks. If
34:47
Speaker 1: you want to get in touch, drop me a line
34:49
Speaker 1: at Liam dot Dan at nzme dot co dot nz
34:53
Speaker 1: and you can read more from me at Enzidherld dot
34:56
Speaker 1: co dot nz. Thanks to my producer Ethan Sells and
35:00
Speaker 1: sound engineer lia Ane McDonald. Follow Money Talks on iHeartRadio
35:05
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts, with new episodes available
35:08
Speaker 1: every Thursday.