‘Enough is enough’ says Coles owner

Top Australian businessman Richard Goyder has urged the federal government to stop attacking his company’s growth and support it instead.

Mr Goyder is chief executive of Wesfarmers, the Perth-based conglomerate that owns the Coles supermarket chain.

In a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Sydney, he said the government had already launched several investigations into Coles and that enough is enough.

The latest is an indication by both the government and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to investigate whether Coles and Woolworths have abused their market power.

"We've had any number of fuel price inquiries, we've recently had a Senate inquiry into the price of milk, believe it or not, and a subsequent ACCC investigation," Mr Goyder said.

"And fortunately they've come out and said that there's an overwhelming consumer benefit in what Coles has done – and importantly we've done nothing illegally."

Mr Goyder went on to also attack major suppliers, who have criticised Coles and Woolworths for filling their shelves with their own brand products, crowding out branded goods.

"I weep for our suppliers and their poor market position vis-a-vis Coles, and I weep for Heinz, finding it an unfriendly country to do business in given they have a very strong market share in a number of businesses," he said. "I don't understand why people want to put constraints on Coles."

Mr Goyder took a dim view of the "excessive red tape" for businesses in Australia and said there was too much focus on how much people were paid rather than what was needed to increase the nation's wealth.

"Sometimes I think there's too much narrative on the allocation of wealth and not enough on its creation," he said. "A vibrant business sector needs bright people, properly incentivised, a supporting infrastructure and policy settings which enable us to get on with things."

Slicing Costs
Coles and Woolworths are said to be resisting Goodman Fielder's attempts to slash the price of bread distribution in Australia.

Concerns expressed by Coles and Woolworths come as Mr Delaney prepares to outline plans to merge Goodman Fielder's Australian baking and home ingredients businesses, cull products and brands, and restructure the manufacturing and supply chain operations.

Goodman Fielder has been in talks with the two supermarket chains about reducing supply chain costs by delivering bread to their distribution centres rather than to supermarkets.

"I don't ever see it going through our DC's [distribution centres] – never say never, but I don't see it like that," Coles director of merchandise John Durkan is reported to have said.

Goodman Fielder has also cut delivery costs in New Zealand, resulting in complaints by contractors.