Latest / Best of Business / Eric Rush: New World owner-operator voices concerns with National's pledge to split up Foodstuffs

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Eric Rush: New World owner-operator voices concerns with National's pledge to split up Foodstuffs · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio. Now,
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  Speaker 2: Finance Minister, or rather the National Party's finance spokesperson, Nicola Willis,
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  Speaker 2: has changed tack today to attack instead of win over
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  Speaker 2: the supermarket owners to her policy of breaking up foodstuffs.
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  Speaker 2: She's accused the supermarket owners of vitriol aimed at National
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  Speaker 2: Party electorate MPs. Former All Black Eric Rush is a
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  Speaker 2: New World owner-operator.
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  Speaker 1: Hi, Eric. Hello, how are you?
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  Speaker 2: I'm very well, thank you, mate. How do you feel
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  Speaker 2: about Nicola Willis accusing you guys of vitriol?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it's a bit hard to listen to all
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  Speaker 1: of this stuff, you know, and I know she talked
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  Speaker 1: about us having vested interest in all that kind of thing, and, well,
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  Speaker 1: we have got a vested interest, to be honest. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I've been working on this business for 16 years, and
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  Speaker 1: work some long and hard hours, and then some politicians
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  Speaker 1: come along and say they can do it better. Well,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I think I'd rather just rely on the
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  Speaker 1: guys who've been doing it 100 years, you know, rather
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  Speaker 1: than some campaign promises.
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  Speaker 2: She says that splitting you guys up into two distinct
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  Speaker 2: cooperatives won't affect you. You're not going to lose anything.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I don't believe that at all. And that
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  Speaker 1: just goes to show that they have no understanding of
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  Speaker 1: actually how it works. You know, we'll find a way
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  Speaker 1: if we have to, but, you know, it's not going
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  Speaker 1: to be the same. And it's the smaller, it's the
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  Speaker 1: regions that are going to suffer because, you know, I
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  Speaker 1: know the Aroha and Kailu who own Four Square Ruatoria,
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  Speaker 1: they pay the same amount for a can of baked
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  Speaker 1: beans as I do in Whangarei. As Jason with you
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  Speaker 1: here does at Albany Package, we pay the same price
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  Speaker 1: and that's because of the scale. And we share the
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  Speaker 1: cost of our transport across all our stores. Now, if
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  Speaker 1: you were to split that up, those regions are going
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  Speaker 1: to be paying a lot more. And I know she's
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  Speaker 1: said something about keeping the distribution chains intact, but it's
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  Speaker 1: not just distribution. There's IT, there's marketing. All of those
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  Speaker 1: teams will have to double the number. And if you're
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  Speaker 1: doubling the overheads, I can't see how the costs are
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  Speaker 1: going to get cheaper for the customer.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, because isn't it the case that you guys collectively
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  Speaker 2: own some storage? I mean, obviously you do. You collectively
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  Speaker 2: own a whole bunch of warehouses and cool stores and
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  Speaker 2: stuff like that. And somehow you're going to have to
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  Speaker 2: split that down the middle so you will end up
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  Speaker 2: losing in this, won't you?
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  Speaker 1: That's right. You know, if she wants us to be
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  Speaker 1: two separate companies, one or other of the companies is
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  Speaker 1: going to have to go and rebuild that stuff all
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  Speaker 1: over again. Yeah. And, you know, we just opened a multi-million,
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  Speaker 1: we're about to open a multi-million dollar chilled food distribution centre.
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  Speaker 1: And there's plans for other stuff down the road. Well,
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  Speaker 1: that's all getting put on hold because of the uncertainty
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  Speaker 1: that's surrounding everything right now.
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  Speaker 2: Is that the one in Palmerston North?
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  Speaker 1: There's one in Palmerston North that's open. There's a big
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  Speaker 1: chilled distribution centre that's going in next to Landing Drive
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  Speaker 1: at Margarie, at the airport there.
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  Speaker 2: Did you just say, but Eric, are you telling me
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  Speaker 2: that that's already been put on hold now because of this?
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  Speaker 1: Oh, no, no, don't, don't, no. No, I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: That's way above my pay grade. But, you know, the
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  Speaker 1: next project might well be, you know, because of the
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  Speaker 1: uncertainty that's out in the environment at the moment. We
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  Speaker 1: just don't know what's going to happen.
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  Speaker 2: Isn't there some value, though, in having more competition? If
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  Speaker 2: you guys were split down the middle, you'd have 35%,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know what you guys are, let's say you're
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  Speaker 2: about 60% market share, 70%. So 30 to 35, 30
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  Speaker 2: to 35, and Woolworths has about 30, and so you
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  Speaker 2: have three chains at about the equal sizes.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, that brings up another question. Why are they
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  Speaker 1: not doing anything with Woolworths? We're the New Zealand company
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  Speaker 1: that's been... You know, built from the ground up over
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  Speaker 1: 104 years, and they're coming at us, and the Aussie
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  Speaker 1: conglomerate that sends all the profits back to Australia carries
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  Speaker 1: on their merry way. It's just so unnatural, like it's unbelievable.
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  Speaker 2: Have you heard, have you spoken to or heard from
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  Speaker 2: your local National Electorate MP?
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  Speaker 1: No, I've been trying to get a hold of him.
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  Speaker 1: Who is it? A little bit. I think Shane Retty
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  Speaker 1: is our national guy. And there's this new young guy, Lloyd,
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  Speaker 1: who's taken his place. Well, he's up for election in
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  Speaker 1: the next round.
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  Speaker 2: Are you telling me that you're calling them and they're
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  Speaker 2: not taking your call?
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  Speaker 1: Oh, no, no, no. I just haven't heard from them.
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  Speaker 1: I haven't reached out. I know he's a busy man.
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  Speaker 1: He's hard to get a hold of at the best
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  Speaker 1: of times. But I've spoken to him about it and
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  Speaker 1: spoken to Lloyd about it. And... The feedback I got
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  Speaker 1: was that this has never happened, so I don't know
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  Speaker 1: whether she's acting or not, but she can't be acting
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  Speaker 1: off her own bat. But it's the kind of impression
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  Speaker 1: I'm getting from the conversations I'm hearing from other owner-operators. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Now, while I've got you, what do you make of
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  Speaker 2: the All Blacks? Are they looking good?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I've been over there and played against those
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  Speaker 1: boys in their backyard, and it's a tough gig. But
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  Speaker 1: I love what Dave and the guys deal and the
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  Speaker 1: rest of the guys, Jason, are doing with the team.
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  Speaker 1: We're playing with a lot more steel now. And I
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  Speaker 1: think it's actually, yeah, it's going to be a good
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  Speaker 1: thing for us in the long run because we know
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  Speaker 1: what the standard is now. You know, those guys have
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  Speaker 1: set a really high standard, so we know what to
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  Speaker 1: get to. But more importantly, the Taniwhas have got the
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  Speaker 1: ran for their shield here. That's the big one. Shut up.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, thank you very much, Eric. You look after yourself, eh?
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  Speaker 1: No worries, thanks for having us on.
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  Speaker 2: You're more than welcome. Eric Rush, new world owner, operator,
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  Speaker 2: and of course, former All Black.