Warehouse plan to speed grocery moves

Stephen Tindall believes his privatisation plan will help him expand The Warehouse Extra grocery offering faster, against growing opposition from Progressive Enterprises.

Privatisation would remove concerns about volatile share prices and could speed the expansion by a third.

He said The Warehouse and its grocery operation were already facing opposition from Progressive, the company owned by Woolworths Australia and whose chains in New Zealand include Woolworths, Foodtown and Countdown.

Tindall has said the failure of the Australian Yellow Sheds, which contributed to share price falls, was a part of his decision to go private.

And he said that one of the challenges facing the Yellow Sheds was aggression from Woolworths, over sites rather than marketing.

"The tactic used in Australia was to question town planning limiting what goods it could stock. The same has occurred in New Zealand," he said.

"Woolworths has approached many of our landlords to raise questions about our town planning. We are very comfortable that we are right, but it's clear that they are using same tactics they did in Australia."

Woolworths was already questioning the next site for The Warehouse Extra in Whangarei and had delayed opening of at least one other store.

"In Whangarei we went through the hoops a few years ago."

Meanwhile, Tindall said talks this week were aimed at a structure that allows "unlocking" of tax credits, which he said would appeal to "mum and dad investors". The credits would probably boost the Tindall-Pacific Equity Partners offer of $5.75 by a further 20 to 25 cents.