Supermarket bosses to face grilling at Senate inquiry public hearing
Next week will be ‘super Tuesday’ for the supermarkets sector, when Woolworths boss Brad Banducci and Coles CEO Leah Weckert will face a grilling from the Greens-led Senate inquiry into the industry.
The heat around the Senate inquiry into supermarkets will ratchet up significantly in coming days as some of the nation’s most powerful food and grocery bosses, including from the major heavyweights Woolworths and Coles, appear before a public hearing to be grilled by Senators.
German discounter Aldi, supermarket and liquor wholesaler Metcash and Dan Murphy’s owner Endeavour Group will kick off the week of appearances on Thursday, while on ‘super Tuesday’ next week Woolworths boss Brad Banducci and Coles boss Leah Weckert will finally have their turns to defend their supermarkets as they face hours of questions from the Greens-led inquiry.
The Senate inquiry, which has already heard from farmers, food and grocery suppliers and farming industry groups at its initial round of public hearings, will next Tuesday have its most anticipated guests yet appearing at public hearings in Canberra - with the whole day set aside to interrogate the Woolworths and Coles bosses.
Unlike recent public hearings held by the Senate inquiry into supermarkets which has typically hosted a handful of witnesses on a day, the inquiry will only have two people attend on Tuesday - Mr Banducci and Ms Weckert - who will both have just short of three hours each of questions, comments and quite possibly ‘gotcha’ moments from Senators.
Mr Banducci will be up first on the morning of the 16th with him scheduled to begin giving his testimony and answering questions from 9am, a small 15-minute break in the midmorning and then through to the lunch break at 12.15pm. He will be followed by Ms Weckert of Coles who is due to appear before the Senate inquiry from 1pm to close at 4.15pm with a similar 15-minute break halfway through.
It is expected to be a fiery and prickly day of testimony as the Senators grill both supermarket bosses about the market power of the majors, Coles and Woolworths, with earlier evidence from farmers and suppliers raising a number of concerns for some Senators on the inquiry committee. Already the Senators have been told by farmers and farming groups of unfair treatment and brutal conditions imposed by the supermarkets, ranging from supply volume deals and pricing to the way the chains can reject perishable food, with warnings that the viability of family owned farms in danger. Although none of the farmers or farming groups appearing before the inquiry named a particular supermarket, nor did they direct specific allegations against Woolworths or Coles.
But before the Senators hurl their questions at Mr Banducci and Ms Weckert next week - with an eye for what plays out in the evening news - they will first hear from smaller players in the $135bn supermarket and liquor sector led by Aldi, Metcash and Endeavour.
Appearing for German discounter Aldi, which has just over a 10 per cent market share, will be its recently appointed chief executive Anna McGrath, who is expected to accentuate the strong competitive bolt it has sent through the sector since it opened its doors in Australia in 2001.
Ms McGrath will also play up the downward pressure Aldi believes it has put on food and grocery prices - a key issue for the Senate inquiry - with the German chain believing its prices to be 15 to 20 per cent below the majors and to have helped Australian households save $3.4bn in 2023 and have added $30bn to the nation’s gross domestic product via its 570 stores and employing 13,500 staff.
Metcash, which sells food, groceries, liquor and hardware through a range of retail banners such as supermarket chains IGA and Ritchies and hardware banner Mitre 10, will be represented before the Senate inquiry by its head of food, Grant Ramage.
Both Aldi and Metcash are signatories to the food and grocery code of conduct which is under a current review by former federal Labor minister Craig Emmerson who has recommended in his interim report that the voluntary code be made mandatory, and large fines for breaches by the supermarket signatories.
The appearance on Thursday too before Senators of Endeavour boss Steve Donohue is a surprise given his retail chains, Dan Murphy’s and BWS, sell liquor, and it is unclear why the Senators have asked to hear from him. Endeavour was demerged from Woolworths in mid-2021, taking with it the liquor chains, wine and spirits businesses, wine auction site Langton’s and more than 350 pubs.
Mr Donohue is expected to stress to the Senators the strong competition in the beverage sector and that while his chains are the single largest combined liquor retail network, this still only constitutes 21 per cent of total available packaged liquor licences and that the vast majority of what it sells to Australian consumers is made by other businesses.
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