Foodstuffs defends competition record as critics call claims ‘laughable’

Friday, 26 June 2026

Foodstuffs North Island chief executive Chris Quin told an Auckland conference this week that the supermarket operator was losing market share to smaller competitors.

His comments have drawn scorn from consumer advocates, particularly given he also noted the company’s home brand, Pams, is now a $2 billion business.

Speaking at the Primary Industries New Zealand Summit, Quin told an audience of mostly farmers the country’s grocery market had “become more competitive”.

He said the grocery industry’s market share was now about 77% held by Foodstuffs and Woolworths, and that around 5% had shifted to dozens of smaller suppliers.

He said that while 5% might not sound significant in trading terms, it represented about $1 billion of groceries, saying that spend had shifted to retailers such as Costco, Chemist Warehouse, Farro and other newer players that were competing strongly for consumer dollars.

“Competition is coming from every direction,” Quin said. “The rise of ethnic supermarkets, premium retailers, big box operators, hardware chains selling 10-30% of the range that we sell, online meal providers, international entrants; so many of them so much bigger than us … Our nearest competitor is eight times bigger than us, and Costco is 50 times bigger.”

Quin added New Zealanders had “more choice than they've ever had before”.

That assertion contrasts with recent findings from the Commerce Commission, whose annual grocery report put the duopoly’s market share at 82% - just 2% lower than six years ago - and said there had been little observable change in core competition metrics.

Consumer New Zealand called the comments “laughable” while the man behind anti-competition think-tank Monopoly Watch, Tex Edwards, said it was “absolute bullshit”.

Quin also said 73% of everything Foodstuffs sold was made in NZ, adding that shoppers today were spending “much more carefully” and intentionally.

Read more:

• $70b export race: NZ agri-sector rides high returns but clouds are gathering

• Three things struggling hospitality industry wants from next Government

• Fashioning the future: Willis calls for skills, innovation and scale

But Consumer NZ head of research and advocacy Gemma Rasmussen said Foodstuffs was rapidly growing its business off the back of the high cost of living with more Kiwis turning to home brand products that were often the cheaper option.

Rasmussen said it was reasonable for consumers to buy home‑brand products, which she described as good‑quality options at good prices. But she warned that if supermarkets pushed private‑label ranges too aggressively, it would further strengthen their market power and entrench the imbalance already present in the sector.

Those worse affected were grocery suppliers, and their diminishing bargaining power. With Foodstuffs and Woolworths having extensive pricing data, and control over everything, it put suppliers at an unfair disadvantage, Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen said it was in the supermarkets’ best interests to make their home brands more dominant.

“They know exactly what a non-private label brand is going to be priced at, and then they can price [their product] 15 cents cheaper, because they know that what will get people across the line.

She said the Commerce Commission had raised concerns about private‑label products in its 2022 industry report, noting that because retailers could earn higher margins on those lines, they effectively captured both the upstream and downstream margins — “clipping the ticket twice” as both supplier and retailer.

Consumer research has found 71% of people are buying more budget and home brand products, a 4% increase from 2025, and the watchdog found this concerning given the lack of competition among home brands.

“Home brands have been creeping along quietly, but aggressively for quite some time, and shoppers are seeing less selection as products like Pams become more prominent,” Rasmussen said.

“People are really cost-conscious and that means home-brand products are doing incredibly well.

She said about 44% of respondents had noticed more home‑brand products on supermarket shelves than a year ago, and that among those who had, around 15% felt home‑brand items were the cheaper option.

“It was an overwhelming response in the supermarket survey, and it shows just how dominant home brand is in terms of grocery shopping habits.”

Globally home brands and private label products were in most cases a good offering. The problem in New Zealand, however, was the concentration and lack of competition to keep prices at best value, Rasmussen said.

Home brands were driving supermarkets’ profitability, she said.

“What we have observed with the duopoly, particularly since the market study was released, is they will play by the rules, but they will fight tooth and nail to keep their profits and to keep that market dominance, and this is how they're doing it.”

She said food prices were high worldwide because of pressures such as fuel costs and climate volatility, but that New Zealand shoppers still lacked certainty about whether the prices they paid at the checkout were fair or whether mark‑ups were excessive.

That sentiment was echoed by anti monopolist Edwards, who said home brand dominance was “actually quite clever.

“They're pretending it's a brand, but it's actually just vertical integration and the distribution monopoly moving up the value chain and taking out suppliers, and you'll find that suppliers get really pissed off with it.

“The story that they're trying to spin and pretend is that there's competition inside the store on their own brands versus other brands.”

Little change in supermarket competition

Foodstuffs’ North and South Island chains generate annual revenue of between $13 billion and $15 billion and holds $5.17 billion worth of assets.

Foodstuffs sees 5.3 million customer transactions each week.

“It is a staggering market share that they enjoy, and for Chris Quin to be talking about losing market share … is astounding,” Rasmussen said.

Earlier this month the Commerce Commission released its third annual grocery report, which says there has been “little observable change” in competition in the country’s $28b grocery sector.

Foodstuffs and Woolworths still hold 82% of the market, just 2% down from levels recorded in 2020, when the Government began its market study to investigate whether competition was working well.

The report breaks down that Auckland remains the most competitive region, where 71% of the market is held by the duopoly.

Nelson, Tasman, and Marlborough districts, along with the west coast of the South Island, were found to be the least competitive region, where the duopoly dominated 92% of the market.

Foodstuffs North Island and South Island were found to be strongly profitable, according to the report. Ranking second to the top for highest earnings before interest and tax for supermarkets globally, ahead of Woolworths Australia, Coles, Walmart, Tesco, and Sainsbury's.

Commerce Commission head of groceries Alice Hulme said there had not been much improvement in competition for shoppers, but there had been some improvement in metrics, with Auckland now deemed more competitive than previously, and health and beauty, cleaning products and pet food categories also now more competitive.