The supermarkets will also face greater scrutiny under federal government plans to overhaul Australia’s merger laws. Under the changes, the sector will be asked to meet a new set of thresholds in which it will have to tell the ACCC of any intention to merge or acquire another business, which will be reported on a public register.
The ACCC will investigate any merger involving a large business with a turnover of more than $500 million buying a smaller business or assets with a domestic turnover of more than $10 million.
Clayton Utz competition partner Kirsten Webb said the removal of a concentration-based threshold and reliance on monetary thresholds was an improvement for businesses. “Monetary thresholds are substantially more objective and will make notification obligations more certain,” Webb said.
Coles chief Leah Weckert says the supermarket giant aims to deliver genuine discounts.Credit: Eamon Gallagher
However, the requirement that all acquisitions over 20 per cent by private companies where one party has a turnover of more than $200 million be reported to the ACCC was “problematic.”
“Requiring large private companies to notify small minority stakes where there are no competitive overlaps is at odds with claims of a ‘more targeted’ regime,” Webb said.
‘Competitive season’
On Tuesday, Australia’s second-largest supermarket unveiled an expanded range of more than 400 Christmas food and drink products as it looks to cater to a growing proportion of Australians who are celebrating end-of-year festivities at home.
Shoppers are expected to spread their Christmas spending across more retailers and over a longer period of time as they manage budgets more carefully.
“They’re really spending a lot of time researching and being very thoughtful about where they go,” said Weckert. “It’s going to be a very competitive Christmas season.”
Australians were buying more items with longer shelf lives, such as puddings and pies, early and taking advantage of major shopping events such as Black Friday to purchase gifts, she said.
A survey of 800 customers found that a third of customers had already begun budgeting and buying for Christmas.
Coles has been increasing its own-brand, exclusive and private label ranges over the past year in a bid to attract customers flocking to Aldi for its good-quality products at lower prices. Home-brand products are selling twice as quickly as branded items, and represent about a third of Coles’ total sales.
“I would say Christmas and Easter are a couple of the times when own-brand really comes to life because we bring out so many limited edition products,” said Weckert.
Choice’s most recent quarterly supermarket survey found Aldi was the cheapest supermarket for a basket of 14 common grocery items.