Woolies appoint boss for NZ arm

Woolworths Australia chief executive Michael Luscombe has appointed Peter Smith to run its New Zealand operation as head office plots its move on The Warehouse.

Woolworths wholly owns Progressive Enterprises whose Woolworths, Foodtown and Countdown outlets hold 43 per cent of the New Zealand supermarket sector.

Smith replaces Marty Hamnett who is returning to Australia for family reasons, after just six months running Progressive and fighting and settling a bitter industrial dispute with the National Distribution Union.

Hamnett said that the three-year term of the settlement gave Woolworths time to change its stock control processes that would mean significantly lower costs. He also played a big role bedding down a new system of negotiating prices from suppliers that the Food and Grocery Council confirmed has created tensions in the industry.

Hamnett's previous role at Woolworths Australia was heading the "Big W" chain of general goods stores - Australia's counterpart to The Warehouse - which Woolworths is committed to establishing in New Zealand.

But he declined to discuss his progress in bringing "Big W" to New Zealand or the status of Woolworths Australia's strategy for The Warehouse.

He said that access to large sites needed for Big W was "difficult but not impossible".

Maquarie Investments analyst Arthur Lim said that cost and time delays in finding sites was a factor in Woolworths' strategy in the current Warehouse stand-off. Buying The Warehouse would give Woolworths access to 85 sites either as Red Sheds or converted to Big Ws, he said.

Hamnett declined to discuss what progress was made developing "Big W" in New Zealand.

He criticised media reports that he was being "drummed out of the country".