Market study into the grocery sector

As part of our study we have looked at a range of things including:

• how retailers deal with their suppliers such as manufacturers, producers, farmers and growers
• competition at the supplier level of the grocery market
• who consumers buy groceries from and who supplies those retailers
• competition between retailers when selling groceries to consumers
• what retailers charge consumers for groceries and how they decide on their prices, as well as the associated levels of service, product ranges and quality of groceries.

The full terms of reference for the study can be found here.

We published our draft report on 29 July 2021. Our preliminary finding is that competition is not working well for consumers in the retail grocery sector. If competition was more effective, retailers would face stronger pressures to deliver the right prices, quality and range to satisfy a diverse range of consumer preferences.

We have developed a spectrum of options for recommendations to improve competition in the retail grocery sector based on our preliminary findings.

You can read our full media statement here.

The executive summary, our full draft report, external reports we commissioned for the study, and infographics on the draft findings, options for recommendations and themes from our consumer survey conducted in March can be found under the documents tab below.

Submissions on our draft report can also be found under the documents tab below.

On 24 September 2021, the Government extended the timeframe for the market study. We are now required to publish our final report by 8 March 2022. After that it is up to the Government to decide how to respond.

Media briefing live stream

We held a media briefing on our Market study into the retail grocery sector draft report on Thursday 29 July which was publicly available through live stream.

To watch the presentation click on the link below.

Confidential information

We understand that some of the information stakeholders may want to share with us could be commercially sensitive and highly confidential. Anyone who has information relevant to the study can ask us to keep their identity and/or the information provided confidential and we can discuss any available protections with them.

If confidentiality is a concern, it should be raised when people first contact us so we can discuss their concerns as early as possible.

Further information about how we handle confidential information is covered in the following factsheet.

Contact us

We will be seeking feedback from interested stakeholders throughout the study.

Keep up-to-date with the study by subscribing to our mailing list.

If you need to contact the market studies team, please email marketstudies@comcom.govt.nz

More information

Information relating to our study, including our statement of process paper, preliminary issues paper, submissions, media releases, our draft report, external reports and a timeline for our current and planned consultation steps are available through the links below.