Foodstuffs and Woolworths make up about 80 percent of the market. Photo: Supplied / Woolworths
The interim managing director of Woolworths New Zealand says according to their research, a "full basket" of groceries in New Zealand is cheaper than in the UK and Australia, if you take off GST.
Woolworths New Zealand's interim managing director Pieter de Wet told Checkpoint New Zealand actually ended up being the cheapest of the three markets.
"The total cost of the basket if you exclude GST ends up being 10 percent cheaper than the others.
"We are by no means saying that GST should or shouldn't be there, all we are trying to do is make sure the that consumers understand what the realities are of what makes up the price of the product."
He said New Zealand had some of the best grocery retailers in New Zealand.
"What's also happened over the last few years is a significant growth in the rest of the market, so obviously everybody knows that Costco is coming to the market, Chemist Warehouse is coming to the market, they play in some of the retail segments that we play in."
When asked how Chemist Warehouse was a competitor, Wet said they were a competitor in the sense of non-food items.
"And then one of the other piece that has really evolved over the last few years is just all the different channels that people shop from and we've been very much involved in the convenience space.
"So there is a lot of options for consumers and we see their shopping habits changing based on those options."
Wet said he "absolutely" believed the market was "intensely competitive", while also acknowledging Woolworths and Foodstuffs made up 80 percent of the market.
"What we see is if we are not competitive on prices customers will just simply choose an alternative - that's as simple as it is."
He added that the single biggest contribution to the cost of groceries was the cost needed to pay suppliers.
"I think we all need to work together to get better costs for consumers, and there is a number of instances where we have managed to do that with our suppliers and there is others where I think we can do better."
Wet said Woolworth's had also had conversations with the government around regulations.
"There's a lot of costs longer term and I guess time that gets lost through the process in terms of regulation," he said.
"I'll give an example, a store that we want to put up in Halswell in Canterbury, its taken us now four years and three million dollars to get consent.
"The government has said that want to look at that for us or for new entrants that's its a lot easier to get good stores in good locations for consumers at lower costs."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
