RETAIL TRADE – AUSTRALIA

Aldi hits new high in supermarket wars

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Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 18-May-17

The latest Supermarket Currency report from Roy Morgan Research shows that Australia’s grocery buyers spent $90.3 billion at supermarkets during the 12 months to March 2017. Of that, $32.2 billion was spent at Woolworths (35.7 per cent of the market, down from 36.3 per cent in the year to September 2016) and $30.0 billion at Coles (33.2 per cent, unchanged). Aldi claimed $11.9 billion of grocery buyers’ expenditure during the year (13.2 per cent, up from 12.5 per cent), stretching its lead over IGA, which fell to $8.4 billion (9.3 per cent, down from 9.8 per cent). The combined share of other supermarkets rose from 8.1 per cent to 8.6 per cent, or $7.8 billion.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, COLES SUPERMARKETS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, WOOLWORTHS SUPERMARKETS, ALDI STORES SUPERMARKETS PTY LTD, IGA

Amazon effect puts IPOs under a cloud

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Original article by Sue Mitchell
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 : 16-May-17

The pending arrival of Amazon in Australia, along with reduced consumer spending, has made it less likely that three proposed IPOs in the retail sector will proceed. The IPOs in question are Retail Apparel Group, Quick Service Restaurant Holdings and Officeworks, with their combined value being put at $A2.4 billion. The lead managers behind Officeworks, which is a unit of Wesfarmers, have valued its IPO at between $A1.124 billion and $A1.5 billion, but the consensus of fund managers is that $A1.2 billion is as much as they would be willing to pay.

CORPORATES
AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, RETAIL APPAREL GROUP PTY LTD, QUICK SERVICE RESTAURANTS HOLDINGS PTY LTD, OFFICEWORKS SUPERSTORES PTY LTD, WESFARMERS LIMITED – ASX WES, ARCHER CAPITAL PTY LTD, NAVIS CAPITAL PARTNERS LIMITED, YARRA CAPITAL GROUP PTY LTD, ARNHEM INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, MACQUARIE CAPITAL PTY LTD, JP MORGAN AUSTRALIA LIMITED, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD, BENNELONG AUSTRALIAN EQUITY PARTNERS PTY LTD, BINGO INDUSTRIES LIMITED – ASX BIN, ZIP INDUSTRIES AUSTRALIA, TAROCASH PTY LTD, YD PTY LTD, JOHNNY BIGG, CONNOR

Media companies next in line to feel full force of Amazon’s arrival

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Original article by Max Mason
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 12 : 27-Apr-17

Andrew McLeod of Morgan Stanley says Australian media groups as well as retailers are likely to be affected by Amazon’s entry into the domestic market. He says retailers accounted for 20-30 per of overall advertising expenditure in 2016, and competition from Amazon may prompt local retailers to reduce their ad spend. McLeod adds that retailers are among the biggest source of ad revenue for TV networks, and the "Amazon effect" could prompt some retailers to shift more of their ad spend from traditional media to online.

CORPORATES
MORGAN STANLEY AUSTRALIA LIMITED, AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, JB HI-FI LIMITED – ASX JBH, MYER HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX MYR, DAVID JONES LIMITED, WOOLWORTHS LIMITED – ASX WOW, COLES SUPERMARKETS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, ALDI STORES SUPERMARKETS PTY LTD, AMAZON PRIME VIDEO, AMAZON WEB SERVICES LLC, AUDIBLE TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED

‘Fast and vast’ Amazon on its way

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Original article by Eli Greenblat
The Australian – Page: 17 & 20 : 20-Apr-17

US-based e-commerce group Amazon will expand its presence in Australia over the next several years, with a focus on low prices, fast deliver times and a wide range of merchandise. A new report from Morgan Stanley notes that Amazon already boasts annual sales of $A1bn in Australia, while some retail analysts believe that local retailers’ earnings could be slashed by around 50 per cent if Amazon opts to offer a full service in Australia. Amazon has commenced the process of recruiting a local CEO, while it is also scouting potential locations for distribution warehouses.

CORPORATES
AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, MORGAN STANLEY AUSTRALIA LIMITED, JB HI-FI LIMITED – ASX JBH, MYER HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX MYR, HARVEY NORMAN HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX HVN, WESFARMERS LIMITED – ASX WES, COLES SUPERMARKETS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, KMART AUSTRALIA LIMITED, TARGET AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, BUNNINGS GROUP LIMITED, WOOLWORTHS LIMITED – ASX WOW, FLINDERS INVESTMENT PARTNERS

Kikki.k’s penalty rate secret exposed

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 7 : 13-Apr-17

The Fair Work Commission recently approved a new enterprise bargaining agreement for stationery retailer kikki.K. The EBA includes provision for a reduction in Sunday and public holiday penalty rates. However, employees say that they are not paid penalty rates at present, as they are employed as casual staff via labour hire firm Employment Innovations rather than directly by kikki.K. Some employees also say they were not involved in negotiations for the new EBA and only managerial staff were allowed to vote on it.

CORPORATES
KIKKI.K PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, EMPLOYMENT INNOVATIONS PTY LTD, HRO INITIATIVES, EI ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES, TDM ASSET MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, FIRST SUPER PTY LTD, DAVID JONES LIMITED

Retailers start cutting Sunday penalty rates

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 10-Apr-17

The Fair Work Commission recently approved a new workplace agreement for kikki.K employees that includes provision for changes to Sunday and public holiday penalty rates in the retail industrial award. FWC deputy president Geoff Bull conceded that the stationery retailer’s employees could be adversely affected by this clause. However, he found that kikki.K’s commitment to increase employees’ base hourly rates by at least 5.7 per cent more than the award rate for 2015-16 meant the agreement complies with the "better off overall test".

CORPORATES
KIKKI.K PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, RETAIL AND FAST FOOD WORKERS UNION, THE AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP

Amazon set to benefit from Australians’ love affair with online shopping

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Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 30-Mar-17

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey has found that 44.2% of Australians aged +14 (just over 8.7 million people) bought one or more products via the internet in any given four-week period during the year to December 2016. This compares with 36.4%, or nearly 7 million people, in 2013. Some 3.9 million people bought items from the Entertainment and Leisure category in any given four weeks in 2016, followed by Fashion (2.3 million), Food and Beverages (2.1 million) and Reading Material (2 million). Meanwhile, analysis using Roy Morgan’s Technology Adoption Segments reveals that 51.9% of all online shoppers fall under the umbrella of either Technology Early Adopters or Professional Technology Mainstream, the two most digitally inclined segments of the population.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED

DJ’s relocation triggers staff exodus

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Original article by Sue Mitchell
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 19 : 3-Mar-17

David Jones’s decision to relocate its headquarters from Sydney to Melbourne is expected to create up to 600 jobs in the latter city. However, the number of staff, particularly in the areas of marketing and finance, that have agreed to move from Sydney to Melbourne is said to be quite a deal less than what South African parent company Woolworths Holdings had forecast, meaning it may need to poach staff from other Melbourne-based retailers such as Myer, Cotton On and Kathmandu.

CORPORATES
DAVID JONES LIMITED, WOOLWORTHS HOLDINGS LIMITED, MYER HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX MYR, COTTON ON, KATHMANDU HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX KMD, PREMIER INVESTMENTS LIMITED – ASX PMV, COUNTRY ROAD LIMITED

Coles to reduce pay time for suppliers to 14 days

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Original article by Fleur Anderson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 2 : 3-Mar-17

Small Business & Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell will shortly make recommendations on sanctions for large companies that do not pay suppliers promptly. Meanwhile, Coles has committed to reducing its payment terms for many smaller suppliers from an average of 30 days to no more than 14 days. Coles MD John Durkan stresses that the new policy, which takes effect from mid-2017, is being introduced independently of Carnell’s review of payment terms.

CORPORATES
COLES SUPERMARKETS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. OFFICE OF THE AUSTRALIAN SMALL BUSINESS AND FAMILY ENTERPRISE OMBUDSMAN, RED KELLY’S GOURMET FOODS PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND SCIENCE, MARKET INVOICE

Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards 2016: Australia’s most service-oriented retailers announced

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Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 28-Feb-17

The winners of the 14 retail categories in the Roy Morgan 2016 Customer Satisfaction Awards include a mix of first-timers and veterans. Jeanswest (Clothing Store of the Year), Guzman y Gomez (Quick Service Restaurant of the Year) and First Choice Liquor (Liquor Store of the Year) were among the first-time winners. Meanwhile, among the repeat champions were Rebel Sport (Sports Store of the Year), ALDI (Supermarket of the Year) and The Good Guys (Furniture/Electrical Store of the Year), celebrating their third, fourth and fifth victories respectively.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, JEANSWEST CORPORATION PTY LTD, GUZMAN Y GOMEZ PTY LTD, FIRST CHOICE LIQUOR SUPERSTORE, REBEL SPORT LIMITED, ALDI STORES SUPERMARKETS PTY LTD, THE GOOD GUYS, SUPER CHEAP AUTO, MUFFIN BREAK, MYER HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX MYR, TARGET AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, THE REJECT SHOP LIMITED – ASX TRS, HOME TIMBER AND HARDWARE, SOUL PATTINSON, SPENDLESS SHOES PTY LTD