Latest / Best of Business / Chris Quin: Foodstuffs North Island CEO on the Commerce Commission blocking proposed North and South Island merger

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Chris Quin: Foodstuffs North Island CEO on the Commerce Commission blocking proposed North and South Island merger · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from newstalks'b Follow this and
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  Speaker 2: And The Commerce Commission has rejected food Stuff's proposal to
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  Speaker 2: merge their North and South Island entities. The report sites
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  Speaker 2: concerns around market competition and the effect on suppliers, reducing
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  Speaker 2: major buyers in New Zealand from three to two. Chris
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  Speaker 2: Quinn's food Stuffs North Island CEO and is with a
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  Speaker 2: skeilder as it stands, Chris, do the North and South
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  Speaker 2: Island food Stuff's arms compete, Not at all.
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  Speaker 3: So they are, you know, we are entirely separate from
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  Speaker 3: a geographic point of view. You know, it's one of
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  Speaker 3: the wonders of New Zealand that the North and South
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  Speaker 3: Island geography is quite separated, and we have you know,
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  Speaker 3: the merger proposal was essentially going to see the same
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  Speaker 3: stores and the same communities owned by the same families
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  Speaker 3: and bringing together the support operation for the retail stores,
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  Speaker 3: which is out of sight of customers and part of
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  Speaker 3: retail competition, bring it together in a more efficient way
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  Speaker 3: so that we could keep delivering value on innovation for
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  Speaker 3: New Zealanders. That's the disappointing thing about today's outcome.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, what do you think of the ComCom decision? Why
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  Speaker 2: do they make it?
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  Speaker 3: Look, we're not clear on the why yet. We've got
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  Speaker 3: a press release we've seen today. We have been told
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  Speaker 3: that we will get the full explanation of the decision
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  Speaker 3: by the twenty third of October. You know, we'll do
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  Speaker 3: the right thing, which is to wait for that and
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  Speaker 3: read it through and properly understand it and understand the
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  Speaker 3: points that are in there. But at this point in time,
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  Speaker 3: we don't understand why we have failed to be successful,
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  Speaker 3: which with what is a pretty known legal test for
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  Speaker 3: these events.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I mean the question is whether or
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  Speaker 2: not going from what the ComCom says as effectively three buyers,
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  Speaker 2: but having those two separate entities become one will mean
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  Speaker 2: that from a suppliers perspective, you as the buyer have
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  Speaker 2: more power or less power than before. And in the
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  Speaker 2: eyes of some going from two one will mean you
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  Speaker 2: have more power when negotiating with supplies.
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  Speaker 3: Right. Yeah, Look, I think the acquisition market argument that
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  Speaker 3: it was mentioned in the press release, and we'll wait
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  Speaker 3: for the detail, but essentially what we have today is
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  Speaker 3: an organization that buys in the North Island and another
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  Speaker 3: organization that buys in the South on it in terms
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  Speaker 3: of the large grocery retailers that sits alongside our competition
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  Speaker 3: war Wors Australia, and what we would have after a
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  Speaker 3: merger is two players in the North and the South
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  Speaker 3: Island each. So our view was it doesn't change the
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  Speaker 3: number of channels available to supplies. For one hundred and
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  Speaker 3: two years, we've been really proud to work alongside a
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  Speaker 3: hip hop New Zealand Supplies and bring them to life
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  Speaker 3: through one story at a time, or ten stores, or
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  Speaker 3: one region or one of our through retail banners. So
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  Speaker 3: all of those things we think we're part of the
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  Speaker 3: reason why we saw benefit in this for our supplier partners.
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  Speaker 2: Is this going to the High Court?
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  Speaker 3: Look, we're going to wait until we get the determination
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  Speaker 3: document from the Commission. We'll properly read it and consider it.
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  Speaker 3: But based on what we know today, we can't see
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  Speaker 3: why we've failed the legal test here and if there
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  Speaker 3: isn't anything new from the process we've been in for
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  Speaker 3: the last ten months, we would likely appeal this.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Chris, appreciate it. That is Chris Quinn for more
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  Speaker 2: from News Talk st B.
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