Industry News

Mark Kenny August 05, 2012 AdelaideNow SOUTH Australian consumers pay at least 20c more for some beer, soft drink and bottled water because of container deposit legislation, research shows. The higher prices are being used as an argument against a national container deposit scheme which could be agreed to by state and federal governments this month. Beverages companies say a national scheme would be costly to run and would send prices higher for ordinary families. However, new research conducted by the Boomerang Alliance – a peak body of environment groups committed to reducing waste – suggests that three of the six main beverage companies are using SA and NT container deposit schemes to charge more for popular brands such as Coca Cola, Coke Zero, and Mount Franklin water. The study compared 20 common bottles for sale online by Coles in Adelaide, Darwin, Perth and Sydney and found the drinks cost…

Larissa Ham August 6, 2012 The Age Steve Wright, executive director of the Franchise Council of Australia said that while he noted the internet could pose a concern for franchisees, it was more likely to open up new avenues for selling. YOU spend thousands of dollars on a franchise, only to discover your franchisor is about to sell the same products or services online. How would you feel? Worried no doubt. It’s an issue the sector is grappling with, as franchisors seek to move with the times without stepping on their franchisees’ interests. ”Franchising’s a classic one because over time the idea of a geographical territory could become superfluous,” said the deputy chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Dr Michael Schaper. ”What happens when you’ve got a commodity you need to physically distribute but you don’t need a face-to-face presence … what happens to the franchisees? ”Even if…

Aug 03, 2012 CSNews CHICAGO — As convenience retailers look to a future with smaller stores and a rapidly changing consumer, challenges and opportunities abound, Renee Sang, senior director, Global Customer Innovation Network, at Accenture, said in the AWMA C-Metrics Convenience Industry Outlook Forum’s opening session. “Retailers are saying their store footprints are going to get smaller,” she said, noting the challenges this portends for operators as they manage product assortment to maximize profit from those small store spaces. At the same time, she said consumers are increasingly becoming tech savvy and using applications (apps) on their smartphones to make buying decisions, both through price and product comparisons and by following recommendations of friends in their social network that can be accessed simply by using the phone to scan a barcode. Today’s consumer, Sang explained, is always online, so it is possible to leverage that trend to engage them to…

Terry McCrann July 24, 2012 Herald Sun WOOLWORTHS CEO Grant O’Brien has challenged his political and regulatory masters to look to the future and not to the past, in their approach to his company, to supermarkets and the retail industry overall. In doing so he has also very directly challenged himself on the same basis, as he has to grow Woolies into that uncertain and increasingly volatile future. That’d be a tough ask at the best of times for a company with $55 billion of sales in the latest year — well over $2000 for every single Australian, easily the biggest in Australia and more than double those of Telstra. Just to grow at a pretty modest 5-6 per cent a year requires Woolies to add the equivalent of a Myer, Australia’s biggest pure department store chain, to its sales base every year. And these are not the best of…

July 24, 2012 The Age Online shopping is expected to make up 6.3 per cent of total retail sales by the end of the year as more than half of Australian consumers purchase goods on the web, a survey shows. The PwC and Frost and Sullivan Global Retail and Consumer report shows a record 53 per cent of Australian consumers aged above 15 years are now buying online. Online shopping growth was likely to be stimulated by the entry of more online retailers, manufacturers communicating directly with consumers, more product expansion and the growth of mobile commerce. The report predicted clothing, footwear, jewellery and fashion accessories would enjoy the most growth over the next five years. PwC Global retail & consumer advisory leader Stuart Harker said online shopping was now mainstream and Australian retailers were under significant pressure to reset their business models. “Like retailers in the US and UK…