Woolworths New Zealand’s Interim Managing Director Pieter de Wet has issued a statement in response to today’s Commerce Commission update.
“We know New Zealanders are facing cost of living pressures and our absolute priority is delivering great products, great prices and a fantastic shopping experience for our customers as well as building a meaningful wholesale business.
“To do that, we work with over 1,400 local and international suppliers. We’re proud of our positive relationships with suppliers who consistently rank us as the best grocery retailer to do business with – including in today’s survey, and our own research.
“If we don’t get it right with our suppliers, we can’t get it right for our customers either. There’s always room for improvement, and we’re talking to our suppliers all the time so we can keep doing better.
“We support the Grocery Supply Code because we feel that consistent rules hold everyone to the same high standard and help businesses of all sizes to grow and succeed.
“Wholesale is a new and fast-evolving area for us. We’re building the best offering possible for the wider grocery industry and kiwi shoppers. In just three years we’ve developed a business which provides grocery products to more than 100 retail sites and we have over 60 customers using our service to provide more choices for shoppers. We’re working closely with suppliers and wholesale customers to further improve and develop our wholesale business.
“We’ll now take the time to read the draft documents issued by the Commerce Commission in detail and will work constructively with the Commission through the submission process,” he states.
The Review of the Grocery Supply Code Draft Report, Decisions and Reasons and draft grocery supply code are available on our website here.
The Wholesale Supply Inquiry Preliminary Findings Paper is available on our website here.
In addition, in November 2024, we undertook an anonymous survey of suppliers in partnership with The Research Agency (TRA). The survey aimed to gain more understanding of grocery suppliers, the environment they operate within, the impact of the Grocery Supply Code and their experience supplying wholesale groceries. An aggregated report prepared by TRA can be found on our website.
Making a submission
We invite interested parties to submit their views on either the Review of the Grocery Supply Code Draft Report Decisions and Reasons or the Wholesale Supply Inquiry Preliminary Findings Paper by 5pm Friday 18 July 2025.
Submission documents can be emailed to grocery.regulation@comcom.govt.nz. Please include “Submission on Wholesale Supply Inquiry Preliminary Findings paper” or “Submission on Grocery Supply Code Review Draft Report” in the subject line of your email depending on the paper you are making a submission on.
Alternatively, we have set up feedback forms for those interested parties who do want to provide a submission document.
- The Review of the Grocery Supply Code feedback form is accessible here.
- The Wholesale Supply Inquiry Preliminary Findings Paper feedback form is accessible here.
We intend to publish all submissions on our website, unless you indicate to us that your submission, or parts of it, are confidential. When providing a submission that is not labelled as confidential, please confirm in the cover email that you are happy for that submission to be published on our website. If it is necessary to include confidential material in a submission, the information should be clearly marked, and both confidential and public versions of the submission should be provided and clearly labelled.
A two-week cross-submission period will follow shortly after submissions close.
