The supermarket pricing inquiry has wrapped up for the day.
Market disruptor Aldi is set to headline tomorrow's inquiry, with Metcash– controllers of the IGA franchise– and the company behind Foodworks also due to give evidence.
Qld supermarket inquiry: Retail giants to face grilling over price gouging
Steven Miles has launched into Woolworths and the reported $24 million payout offered to the supermarket giant's outgoing CEO Brad Banducci.
Australia’s supermarket giants are set to face a grilling as Premier Steven Miles’ crusade against price gouging begins in Brisbane.
It comes amid confirmation the chief executives of both Woolworths and Coles will be absent after attending the landmark federal inquiry.
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Inquiry wraps up for today
Length a factor in customer satisfaction
The supermarket pricing inquiry has been discussing the standard “specifications” set up Woolworths when it comes to the fruit and vegetable it accepts.
Chief commercial officer Paul Harker previously mentioned, as an example, there had been variations in place over years with bananas due to climatic conditions.
Bananas are the number one selling product in their stores, as a fun fact.
The inquiry goes on to discuss other matters but inquiry chair Tom Smith has brought the conversation back to Australia’s favourite fruit.
“Is there a criteria set around the length or the size of the banana?” Mr Smith asks.
Woolworths IT blunder has caused 'carnage' top brass confirms
A terrible IT blunder has caused “carnage”, with a Woolworths senior executive apologising to Queenslanders for the stuff up.
Chief commercial officer Paul Harker confirmed a warehouse management system upgrade had frankly caused “carnage”.
“We’re not particularly happy about the situation,” he said.
“We’re working very hard to improve it. We apologise to our customers that we have had issues.
“I might add we’re continuing to take the committed stock from our suppliers, even if we can’t get it out.”
Mr Harker said the backup in product was being donated to ensure it didn’t go to waste.
Woolworths argues middle-road between transparency and cartel conduct
Woolworths believes there can be increased transparency on pricing between the company and suppliers broadly but warned granular level details would be anti-competitive.
Senior counsel assisting Angus Scott KC has been systematically walking through Woolworths’ executives a similar line of questioning as he had with Coles—including profit margins, dealing with suppliers, and accountability.
In a system similar to Coles, Woolworths prices with fruit and vegetable growers are set weekly, with produce aggregators citing their preferred price before the company comes back with a counter-offer and prices are locked in within days.
Mr Scott suggests Woolworths having full view of data compared to suppliers created an “imbalance of bargaining power”.
Mr Harker argued in the “whole of retail no supplier knows what another supplier is actually charging for their goods”.
“That’s going to lead to cartel conduct,” he said.
After a back and forth Mr Harker clarifies that Woolworths was supportive of increased pricing transparency for example between geographic areas.
Miles looks at Banducci's golden handshake
Premier Steven Miles has turned the spotlight on outgoing Woolworths Group chief executive Brad Banducci’s golden handshake.
“It's been reported that your outgoing CEO will take with him a payout of $24 million in shares and a further $6.5 million,” Mr Miles said.
Woolworths Group executives on hand, chief commercial officer Paul Harker, said he didn’t know the answer.
“I don't focus on Brad's remuneration understanding I think it's a little bit now in our public accounts and I'm happy to get that and share it,” he said.
Mr Miles notes the payout was “pretty generous”.
Worker numbers booming despite self-service checkouts
Self-service checkouts haven’t marked the death of the supermarket employee Woolworths’ executive have said, confirming the workforce is larger than ever.
And this is due to the boom in click and collect.
Woolworths Group chief commercial officer Paul Harker said self-service checkouts were very popular with customers.
“We employ more people than we ever have, because as online shopping has grown and… we’ve now got someone going around the store with the cart, doing your shopping for you rather than necessarily checking you out at the front of the store,” he said.
In other Woolworths' related news
A technical fault has left thousands of Queenslanders short on their weekly shop.
Shoppers were fronted with rows of empty shelves at Woolworths supermarkets across the South East as the retail giant battled widespread warehousing and operational issues.
“Orders to some of our Queensland stores have been delayed due to operational issues at one of our distribution centres in Brisbane,” a company spokesperson said.
Read the full story by Kate Stephenson here: Why Woolworths shelves across South East Queensland have been left empty?
MP ejected from inquiry after Beef Week picture furore
Coming back to the Coles session briefly, Opposition agriculture spokesman Tony Perrett was booted for an hour for piping up in the inquiry.
Politicians have an uncanny ability to speak over each other so it’s not easy to discern what Mr Perrett said just before he was disciplined by the inquiry’s chair Tom Smith (Bundaberg, ALP).
It did come just after the Opposition MPs moved to table a document which was a photo of Premier Steven Miles and students from St Joseph’s Wandal at a Coles-sponsored cooking booth at Beef Week.
Woolworths' executives step up to inquiry register as Coles packs away groceries for the day
The Coles-section of the supermarket pricing inquiry has wrapped up.
Woolworths' executives are up next after a short lunch break.
The inquiry returns at 1pm.
Don't judge a fruit by it's cover, it's the juice that counts
Coles chucks out 1.49 per cent of produce at its distribution centres for failing to meet quality and cosmetic requirements.
Mt Ommaney MP Jess Pugh (Labor) has been pushing the company’s executives over its practices when it comes to tough cosmetic standards which means volumes of fruit and vegetables don’t make it past the farm gate.
Ms Pugh has defended “ugly produce”, referring to rejected fruits and vegetables as “not ugly” and “perfectly edible and absolutely delicious”.
Coles chief operating officer Matt Swindell accepts there are “two parts of the supply chain” which need to be fixed—which is at the farm gate with Coles specifications and in the home.
Mr Swindells notes 20 per cent of produce purchased by customers end up in the bin anyway.
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