Woolworths has told the competition watchdog’s supermarket inquiry that it has not engaged in land banking, despite claims from IGA operator Metcash that the major supermarket had done so.

Woolworths managing director of property, Ralph Kemmler, told Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) counsel assisting Naomi Sharp, SC, several times in public hearings today that the supermarket is not land banking.

“Mr. Kemmler, is it your evidence that Woolworths has never, say, in the last 10 years, acquired an interest in land without an intention to develop that land?” Sharp asked.

“As far as I know, yes,” Kemmler replies.

Referring to internal balance sheets from 2023 under a section called “sites held for strategic reasons”, Sharp pressed Kemmler on whether this counted as land banking, to which Kemmler said “I don’t believe so”.

“It says that the properties are held on the balance sheet, and they’re not planned for future development, and that they’re held for strategic reasons … Do you want to give us an example of what that means?” Sharp asked.

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“They’re a combination of company homes, surplus land from developments that we’ve completed that are to be sold or land held pending other developments, and also would include some land that has long term underlying leases that have been developed for other purposes,” says Kemmler.

Sharp is not convinced, asking again what “sites held for strategic reasons” means. “It means that they didn’t fit into the previous buckets,” says Kemmler.

“Well, that sounds like a strange explanation of the word strategic,” she responds.