Supermarket prices: New Grocery Commissioner Pierre van Heerden tasked with helping cut shoppers’ bills

Pierre van Heerden, the new grocery commissioner and former chief executive of Mojo. Photo / Supplied

After being attacked by Christopher Luxon for presiding over a country lacking in mojo, the Government has turned to Mojo - the coffee company, that is - for its first grocery commissioner.

Commerce Minister Duncan Webb has appointed former Mojo chief executive Pierre van Heerden to be the new grocery commissioner, becoming New Zealand’s new grocery regulator.

Van Heerden was between 2021 and 2022 the chief executive of Mojo Coffee. He’s currently the general manager commercial development at Wellington’s Zealandia bird and wildlife sanctuary.

He has also been chief executive of Brancourts Dairy Group, Australia, and Executive general manager of Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing New Zealand for 10 years.

Webb described Van Heerden as an experienced chief executive and board member, with deep knowledge of the grocery industry in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.

“Pierre will join the Commerce Commission’s Board and head this new function as the regulator of New Zealand’s grocery industry,” he said.

“Pierre brings more than 25 years’ experience in the grocery sector, having held roles such as Chair of the Food and Grocery Council of New Zealand and has been recognised as an advocate for consumer value and transparency.

“This will be essential in his role addressing the nature of competition in the grocery sector and the improvements we want to see over time,” Webb said.

The idea of a grocery commissioner came from the recent Commerce Commission market study into the industry which then-Commerce Minister David Clark said showed major supermarkets were earning “excess profits of around $1 million a day, well above what would be expected in a workably competitive market”.

Van Heerden begins his five-year term on July 13.

Webb said a “focus” of the job will be “levelling the playing field and ensuring increased competition in the grocery industry, and for the benefit of Kiwi consumers.”

The Government recently implemented a suite of recommendations from the supermarkets market study, including requiring major grocery retailers to open wholesale offerings to smaller competitors, drawing up a “Grocery Supply Code”, and banning restrictive land covenants that locked up the best supermarket locations.