Govt takes a stick to supermarkets

Govt takes a stick to supermarkets
Forced store divestment is still being actively considered. (Image: Getty)
Pattrick Smellie
New Zealand’s two main supermarket owners have until the end of the year to open up their wholesale businesses to competitors or have it done to them, the commerce minister David Clark has announced.The government’s response to the Commerce Commission’s report on grocery sector reform, released this afternoon, goes both further and faster than the competition watchdog recommended in its February report, which was widely panned as too timid for a sector it found was not competitive enough.Key decisions are to:Reject giving the...

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