Kaufland seeks staff for retail assault

German supermarket giant Kauf­land has unveiled ambitious plans for when it invades Australia’s grocery sector.

German supermarket giant Kauf­land has unveiled ambitious plans for when it invades Australia’s grocery sector.

Kaufland lifted the veil on its ambitious expansion plans by advertising for executives, including a head of business intelligence and property developers based in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, as it joins with Aldi, Costco and a looming Amazon as disrupters in the nation’s $90 billion grocery sector.

Kaufland, which The Australian reported last week has been given nearly $50 million by its parent to begin amassing a portfolio of supermarket sites and warehouses in Australia, is now forming management ranks that will include key executives charged with sharpening the chain’s competitive thrust into the Australian food and grocery market.

The grab to fill new property roles across all east coast capitals, including professionals with skills in zoning, lobbying, environmental issues and pre-construction management, points to Kaufland following the highly successful path set down by Aldi, which set up chains on the east coast before heading west to South Australia and Western Australia.

Kaufland is a subsidiary of the Schwarz Group, the world’s fourth-largest retailer, and it has settled on Australia as its newest international market at a time when fellow German supermarket discounter Aldi has grabbed about 10 per cent market share and US warehouse group Costco is reaping more than $1.5 billion in annual sales.

buy right - Share of the 89bn spent at supermarkets

And there is plenty room for growth. The power of discounters in Australia is much weaker than in overseas markets where they can control up to one-third of the food and grocery sector. Compared with the about 10 per cent market share in Australia, hard discounters led by Aldi, Lidl and Kaufland have almost 17 per cent market share in Ireland, 20 per cent in Britain, 33 per cent in Denmark and 34 per cent in Germany.

But with Kaufland cashed up and looking to grab a slice of the grocery sector and millions of Australians’ shopping outlay, the market power of these hard discounters in Australia is projected to rise. In the meantime, the world’s biggest retailer, Amazon, has secured a site for its maiden fulfilment centre in Australia, which it will use as a base to break into a number of retail categories, such as food, groceries, consumer electronics and general merchandise.

The troika of Aldi, Kaufland and Amazon will put further pressure on Woolworths and Coles, which have already seen their market shares whittled away.

Now Kaufland is ratcheting up the pressure by starting to gather key executives and managers that will help build up and expand its supermarket chain, with fresh job ads on online classifieds site Seek calling for new senior staff to join the business.

The key role is a head of business intelligence, who will work at the sharp end of the Kaufland offer, designing, augmenting and executing its competitive offer in the $90 billion grocery sector.

“Due to ongoing growth and expansion we have an attractive opportunity for an experienced Business Intelligence Professional to continue their career with us and grow with the company,’’ the new Kaufland job ad reads.

“This strategic role will ensure that we have the business intelligence insight to succeed in our newest market — Australia.

“This role represents a senior position for Kaufland Australia and will set up and manage the entire Business Intelligence Department as well as form meaningful relationships with local and international departments.”

Kaufland is looking for a leader to help it set up, implement and interpret market research studies, and provide analysis on assortment and shopper behaviour to help the category manager develop and grow corresponding categories.

Kaufland is also amassing a team of up to five property developers to help it search for and obtain new sites, which will also include negotiating with local councils, communicating with local residents, managing environmental issues, overseeing legal agreements, organising zoning and managing pre-construction work.

The Seek ads reveal that Kaufland is looking for property developers in Melbourne, Sydney’s Parramatta and western suburbs, Brisbane and Adelaide — suggesting these capital cities will be the first in Australia to develop Kaufland stores.

Earlier this month, Kaufland paid $25m for the Le Cornu site on Anzac Highway in Forestville, an iconic property on the Adelaide CBD’s fringe.

Kaufland operates more than 1230 stores in Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, and Slovakia, employing more than 150,000 employees.