Media Release

SMALL businesses and communities in Perth are among the victims across Australia of a retail grocery market share concentration unseen anywhere in the world, said KAP Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter, after the consumer watchdog cleared the way for Coles to buy three IGA supermarkets in Western Australia.

“The ACCC really is a joke; here they are green lighting the further centralisation of market power.

“Australia’s supermarket duopoly is warping the market and oppressing both farmers and consumers,” said Mr Katter.

Mr Katter said we need to preserve what little competition Australia has left so that farmers, consumers and small businesses can get a ‘fair go’.

“It’s vitally important to head off the untrammelled greed of the supermarket giants.

“Would there be a single person in this country that thinks the two supermarket giants should have nearly 90 per cent of the market?

“The facts, however, are quite simple. The AC Neilson series tracked a growth from 50.5 per cent market share in 1991 to 72 per cent in 2002.

"Whilst the Australian Bureau Statistics had the two giants on 68 per cent and also showed an annual growth in market share of 12 per cent.

“There is no doubt that their 2% annual growth has continued, with their intrusion into the petrol retailing market giving them 24-hour outlets Australia-wide.

“Anyone that has seriously followed this issue knows that to leave the farmers at the mercy of this concentration of market power is simply cruel – but for the ACCC to allow today, further growth is absolutely extraordinary,” Mr Katter said.

It is understood that the three IGA supermarkets are expected to be rebranded under the Coles name in early 2015.