Supermarket Main Players

Who Owns What

Wesfarmers
Coles, Bi-Lo, Bunnings, Officeworks, Target, Kmart, liquor retailers (1st Choice Liquor Superstore, Liquorland, Vintage Cellars), fuel & convenience outlets (Coles Express), online stores (Coles Online, Pharmacy Direct). Plus other divisions in the areas of coal mining, energy, insurance, chemicals & fertilisers, and industrial & safety products. Acquired Coles Group Ltd for $22 billion in November 2007.

Woolworths
Safeway, Woolworths, Big W, liquor retailers (Woolworths/Safeway Liquor, BWS, Dan Murphy’s), electronics retailers (Dick Smith Electronics, Dick Smith Powerhouse, Tandy Electronics), online stores (Woolworths/Safeway Homestore), Caltex Woolworths/ Safeway (an alliance with Caltex Australia – over 500 outlets), Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group. Plus interests in New Zealand, India and Hong Kong.

IGA
IGA stands for ’Independent Grocers of Australia’. There are over 1000 stores in Australia, which are independently owned, and supplied by IGA Distribution, a division of Metcash.

Metcash
Metcash is primarily a distribution company. They distribute food and other consumer goods to Supa IGA, IGA, IGA X-Press, Friendly Grocer, FoodWorks, 7-eleven, Lucky 7, and independent liquor retailers Cellarbrations, Cheers, IGA Plus Liquor, Liquor Force and Liquor Wise.

Foodworks
Australia’s second largest independent supermarket retailing group, also supplied by Metcash. They operate over 710 stores, 390 under the Foodworks banner.

ALDI
Over 150 stores now operating in Australia. 80% of ALDI’s suppliers are local manufacturers. ALDI Australia’s parent company, ALDI Group, is based in Germany. They operate over 7000 stores across Europe, USA and Australia.

Australia's Supermarket Duopoly

Australia has one of the most concentrated grocery markets internationally. The two top players, Coles and Woolworths/Safeway, account for approximately 75% of supermarket sales in Australia. In Britain, the top twelve supermarkets have less than 60 per cent of the market.

In spite of increasing its revenue by 75% from 2001 to 2006, Woolworths cut its workforce by 27% or 35,592 people over these 5 years. Similarly, in this time period, Coles slashed its workforce, down from 160,000 to 94,000.

Generic “house brands” encourage us to trust that cheap is best with no questions asked. Both supermarket chains have recently introduced a three tiered private label structure. This is likely to mean less choice, with fewer independent brands on the shelves and more produce sourced from overseas.

— Shop at independent grocers and small supermarkets.

— Choose local, independent Australian owned brands, over generic supermarket homebrands.

— If you’re buying a home brand, read the label and look for “Product of Australia’ and ‘Made in Australia’’ over imported.