Foodstuffs says National's election proposal to split Foodstuffs in two raises "important questions" about the time, cost and disruption it would take to implement the major changes.
Yesterday, National announced it wanted to split Foodstuffs, separating Pak'nSave from New World and Four Square, in a bid to create a third major supermarket chain and increase competition.
The party says the move could lower grocery prices and save households money, but any break-up would first need to go through a process with the Commerce Commission. Experts say the benefits are not guaranteed.
At the same time Labour revealed it's campaigning on making price gouging illegal for essential services, while the Greens recently launched the idea of a publicly-owned supermarket chain.
If returned to govern, the party says it will divvy up grocery giant Foodstuffs – with Pak'nSave a separate entity. (Source: 1News)
In response to yesterday's news, a Foodstuffs spokesperson said National's announcement "would have significant implications for our co-operatives".
"Every one of the more than 500 locally owned and operated supermarkets that make up the two Foodstuffs co-operatives would be affected," they said.
"Our immediate focus is supporting our owner-operators, our 3000 supply chain and support centre team members, and the many New Zealand businesses that work with us, all of whom are hearing proposals that could fundamentally change the co-operatives they own, work for and support, and the businesses they have spent years building in communities throughout New Zealand.
"We also recognise that New Zealanders will want to understand what these changes would mean for them.
"Any proposal of this scale raises important questions about how long a major restructure would take to implement, the level of disruption involved, the costs of making those changes, and whether those costs and disruptions would ultimately deliver meaningful savings at the checkout.
It said these were "significant issues that deserve careful consideration".
"We will take the time to thoroughly review the proposal and its implications before providing further comment."
Some experts said the move could boost competition in a highly concentrated market, while critics warn breaking up the company could reduce efficiencies and may not lead to lower prices for shoppers.
Speaking to Breakfast, Grocery Action Group chairperson Sue Chetwin said the group had been calling for a restructure of the country's supermarkets, hailing the move as largely good news.
Grocery action group chairperson Sue Chetwin told Breakfast National’s supermarket separation proposal was largely good news. (Source: Breakfast)
"Look, it's not going to be an easy process, but you know, congratulations to Nicola Willis and the team that have come up with this plan," she said.
Asked about how long this could take to implement, she said "I think it would probably take maybe a year, possibly slightly longer than that to get it going".
"But I think once Foodstuffs realises that the writing is on the wall, and they possibly should realise that now, then things could happen quite fast.
"I mean obviously it would take a National government to get back in again. But as I said, I think that other parties will think that this is a good idea," she said.
NZ First has previously spoken of a similar plan, but it did not find favour with ACT.
Chetwin added: "Let's face it, unless there is a restructure, [or] a forced divestment, we are not going to see another player come into this country".
"I've noticed some business commentators talking about the chilling effect, but the chilling effect on consumers has been that over a period of decades.
"Woolworths and Foodstuffs have behaved very poorly in terms of imposing land covenants, which they've now been banned from doing land banking regularly in the courts, for price gouging and treating consumers poorly. The ultimate thing being that we're paying some of the highest prices on the planet for our food."
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