Woolworths New Zealand (WWNZ) and the National Retail Group have announced a wholesale agreement that will see Woolworths NZ provide groceries to National Retail Group’s KwikMart membership group. The deal will provide KwikMart members access to a greater product range and more choice.
KwikMart is a new dairy and convenience-oriented retail membership group established by the National Retail Group, which unites dairy and convenience retailers with scale and ranging. It helps them to succeed in a competitive industry facing change. KwikMart enables its members to reorientate what they sell as well as assisting with their operating models, customer experience offerings and a wider access to goods.
Woolworths New Zealand set up its wholesale business, New Zealand Grocery Wholesalers in 2022. Following this agreement with National Retail Group, New Zealand Grocery Wholesalers now has fifteen wholesale customers and is distributing groceries to 25 customer sites.
Steve Sexton, general manager of New Zealand Grocery Wholesalers, says that the new deal is reflective of the company’s growing wholesale business, which is helping to further increase competition in the grocery sector and creating better outcomes for shoppers around New Zealand.
“We’ve built the New Zealand Grocery Wholesalers business from scratch over the past 12 months, and we’re thrilled by how quickly it’s become established in a relatively complex market. We recently implemented a significant IT enhancement that improves our onboarding of new customers and sites like the National Retail Group.
“It’s fantastic to have National Retail Group on board as part of our ongoing work to provide better options for Kiwi shoppers across the board. We’ve already started making deliveries to their site and look forward to working with the KwikMart members around Aotearoa to help ensure a great range of supply for their customers,” says Sexton.
Sandeep Aggarwal, executive director of National Retail Group says “New Zealanders and New Zealand need a thriving dairy and convenience sector that moves beyond selling what we’ve always sold. KwikMart was formed when the restrictions on sales of smoked tobacco was signalled. We have to adapt to survive. In Woolworths New Zealand we have an excellent proactive partner that gives franchise members truly competitive offerings and range of groceries. This can be passed onto our customers so they see us as part of their weekly shop. This ensures a future for the dairy with us going back to grocery and other goods to create a future.”
New Zealand Grocery Wholesalers operates separately from Countdown, SuperValue and FreshChoice, with a different buying team having discussions with suppliers around products, supply and potential wholesale volumes.
“We have more work underway to continue improving our IT infrastructure and supply chain capabilities, and we’re focused on building our capacity to satisfy the demand we’re seeing for better wholesale access,” adds Sexton.
