Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

Major food company Heinz Wattie’s has proposed changes to discontinue some manufacturing operations in New Zealand.

The company, said the proposal would result in the closure of three manufacturing facilities in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. Packing would also cease at the associated frozen lines in King St, Hastings.

The company said about 350 jobs were expected to be affected.

It outlined plans to axe the sale and production of a number of its products and brands, including frozen vegetables and Gregg’s coffee.

It would also no longer produce dips sold under the Mediterranean, Just Hummus and Good Taste Company brands.

Heinz Wattie’s said it would consult with staff on the plan, which it said had come about because of increasingly difficult manufacturing conditions.

‘Huge blow to workers’

E tū Union director Finn O’Dwyer Cunliffe told Checkpoint the proposal was a huge blow to workers and a “grim time”.

“It’s not great – this has been dumped on them this afternoon at very short notice.

“It is a huge blow to workers….it is a tough evening.”

He said some people had worked for Heinz Wattie’s or its subsidiaries for several decades.

The union were given just 45 minutes notice of announcements across various sites, he said.

“It hasn’t been handled in the best way.”

It was a tough time across the country for workers in the industry, O’Dwyer-Cunliffe said, and there’d been many closures.

The union was pushing for more time for feedback on the proposal with Heinz Wattie’s.

“The period they’ve proposed is completely inadequate and I think pretty disrespectful really, on top of pulling workers in on such short notice.”

Last October, Wattie’s announced it would further reduce its fruit and vegetable crops it sourced from its home in Hawke’s Bay, citing an ongoing struggle against cheaper imports.

The month before, it announced it would reduce the production of canned peaches.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Major food company Heinz Wattie’s has proposed changes to discontinue some manufacturing operations in New Zealand.

The company, said the proposal would result in the closure of three manufacturing facilities in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. Packing would also cease at the associated frozen lines in King St, Hastings.

The company said about 350 jobs were expected to be affected.

It outlined plans to axe the sale and production of a number of its products and brands, including frozen vegetables and Gregg’s coffee.

It would also no longer produce dips sold under the Mediterranean, Just Hummus and Good Taste Company brands.

Heinz Wattie’s said it would consult with staff on the plan, which it said had come about because of increasingly difficult manufacturing conditions.

“Globally high inflation and various industry challenges have all placed ongoing pressure on the commercial performance of the business,” the company said.

Suppliers would also be affected with pea and other vegetable growers, specifically 220 growers in Canterbury supplying the Christchurch site, losing their contracts.

“The decision to start this process was not taken lightly,” Heinz Wattie’s Managing Director Andrew Donegan said.

“Numerous alternatives and options were explored before reaching this phase. It is a necessary step to position our company for the future.”

The proposal is subject to a two-week consultation period with staff, union representatives, growers, suppliers, retail partners and other local stakeholders.

Last October, Wattie’s announced it would further reduce its fruit and vegetable crops it sourced from its home in Hawke’s Bay, citing an ongoing struggle against cheaper imports.

The month before, it announced it would reduce the production of canned peaches.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Major food company Wattie’s has proposed changes to discontinue some manufacturing operations in New Zealand.

The company said the proposal would result in the closure of three manufacturing facilities in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. Packing would also cease at the associated frozen lines in King St, Hastings.

The company said about 350 jobs were expected to be affected.

MORE TO COME…

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

About 90 percent of homes in New Zealand are in need of immediate maintenance, with the total cost of the work thought to be $27 billion, research has found.

Centre for Research, Evaluation and Social Assessment (CRESA) – with Building Research Levy backing – is running a project aimed at helping owners keep their homes well cared for in an affordable way.

CRESA’s research director Kay Saville-Smith, told Nine to Noon, the 90 percent figure came from a variety of resources including the latest condition survey done by the centre along with other research it had done.

Saville-Smith said any home that did not operate well, for example, losing heat or getting too warm counted as being in need of maintenance.

The risks associated with an unmaintained home were that it could become damaged during any adverse weather events.

Older homes were likely to be in need of repairs, Saville-Smith said, particularly if the home had not been well maintained on a regular basis.

She said while new builds were less likely to need immediate maintenance, they were not always suitable for the conditions and environment of where they had been built.

Old weatherboard homes for example with wooden window frames, were pretty straightforward to maintain, Saville-Smith said, but for many houses things were not so simple.

“Homeowners, particularly as they age, get less and less willing and sometimes less capable of some of the work.”

Over the years, there had been many design periods which used lots of different sorts of cladding and roof tiles, she said, and every different type of cladding on a home moved in a different way.

“The main thing consumers can do when choosing homes and designs is to understand and think about these things.

“You want a resilient home not one that just looks a bit flash.”

She said it was also important for homeowners to remember low maintenance did not mean no maintenance.

AUT Professor of Construction Management John Tookey, said a lot of general maintenance which needed to be done on homes was relatively small including clearing gutters, touching up paint, checking for gutter cracks and treating surfaces.

He said problems arose “when the outside gets inside.”

“If you don’t maintain, issues can become serious,” he said.

At this stage, Saville-Smith said she did not have data on how much people were paying to keep their homes maintained but they were working with housing providers to get a better idea of this.

She said CRESA wanted to work with designers and housing providers as well as the building industry on how to build better, more resilient homes.

Tookey said the biggest barrier for homeowners with maintaining their houses was finances. Everything from mowing grass to trimming trees came at a cost if someone was being hired to do it.

The next thing it came down to was skills and an ageing population, he said.

“We’ve become increasingly a victim of our sedentary lifestyle.”

His advice for homeowners who did not have access to a lot of funds was to “focus on the small stuff”.

That included using treatments on wood and touching up the house with paint.

He said by the time a problem was big enough to get someone in to fix it, it was going to be expensive.

“Deal with small problems before they become big problems and have a regular budget for maintenance.”

Tookey said it was good to try and set up one day each month where you can do maintenance around your home.

Coming into winter, Tookey said it was good to prepare your home by making sure there were curtains to keep in the heat, along with insulation under the floor and in the roof. He suggested purchasing a dehumidifier to take the moisture out of the air was also good.

Saville-Smith envisioned a checklist of home maintenance for a number of different styles of homes which could be given to homeowners.

She hoped the project would be able to get out the door within 18 months.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

What will the war in the Middle East mean for the average Kiwi’s finances? How far are fuel prices going to rise? What will happen to interest rates?

And what does it all mean for the price of food – haven’t we had enough increases there, already?

A special episode of the No Stupid Questions podcast out on Wednesday aims to answer these questions – and more.

If you have any questions of your own, send them to questions@rnz.co.nz

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Worried KiwiSaver members are asking: is this time different?

Markets have been volatile this week as they digest the impact of the war in the Middle East.

But some investors have been concerned the warnings of economic disruption could mean more pain to come for their KiwiSaver balances.

One woman who wrote to RNZ said she was 64 and worrying about her KiwiSaver balance falling.

“I am out of work due to illness and have no other income or support from the government … I am really counting on this money. I’m worried not much will be left.”

KiwiSaver managers say – as ever – the volatility is the price that investors pay for the returns they get on the other side, and for most people, sticking with their investment strategy is the best plan of action.

ASB chief investment officer Frank Jasper said the bank was fielding some inquiries.

“People obviously seeing headlines, especially [Monday] seeing some pretty dramatic market moves and asking questions around what’s going on.”

Jasper said, while riding it out was usually the best course of action, a downturn in markets could sometimes highlight a personality mismatch for investors.

“We do all of this risk profiling when we go into KiwiSaver and we get asked about our attitude to risk.

“And then we live through these experiences and they are visceral experiences, that really test your genuine attitude towards risk.

“I think for some people, it’s a learning opportunity … And they realise ‘when I actually experience it, I realise that it does affect me a bit more than I thought’ … every time there’s a dramatic market move, despite the fact the long-term evidence suggests the world gets through it and we do recover, there’s a scenario you can paint where things get worse.

“Sometimes people will lean heavily on that ‘things will get worse’ scenario. Sometimes they will be right, but most of the time the world returns to normal and things are okay.”

He said, since 2009, the S&P500 had fallen more than 5 percent 32 times and continued to record all-time highs through that period. “It’s just a feature of the market.”

He said it typically took 47 days for the market to recover from a shock.

‘And then within 12 months, about 68 percent of the time, the market is higher than it was 12 months ago.”

He said persistently negative markets would usually come only when a shock become a macroeconomic crisis.

But Jasper said it was a good opportunity for people to think about whether their fund was a match for their emotional ability to cope with risk, not just their investment time horizon.

“It’s very easy to think you are relaxed if there are drawdowns or relaxed if there are shocks in the markets. It’s only living through these experiences you get to actually genuinely test what your attitude to risk is. For some people, they will experience this and go ‘you know what? I don’t sleep well at night and I’m genuinely uncomfortable about this’.

“For those people, it may be very rational to think about a different risk profile over time. But for others they’ll go ‘I’ve got 20 years left, I know these things happen. I’m okay with it’.

“If you think about any other thing in our life, if the big screen TV was on special we’d be really happy about it. Or if you could dine at your favourite restaurant bit cheaper than normal, you’d be really happy about it. The minute shares go on sale, they fall a bit, we get the chance to buy more shares in good companies that we can own for the next 120 years, we kind of get nervous about it. It’s strange behaviour in the financial markets we don’t see in any other parts of our lives.”

ANZ, the country’s biggest KiwiSaver provider, said it had been contacted by a small number of people who wanted to switch to a more conservative fund.

“In April 2025, during another recent period of market volatility, we also noticed an increase in customers contacting us to switch into more conservative funds. However, the numbers were again low – a couple of hundred – and a fraction of what we saw in March 2020.

“We think this is a reflection of how ANZ Investments, alongside other KiwiSaver providers and industry participants, have made conscious efforts to remind KiwiSaver members to stay the course.”

At Milford, head of KiwiSaver Murray Harris said it had not received many calls or questions but was telling members that markets moved up and down and this was no different.

He said investors who stuck to their goals would do better than those who tried to time the markets and switch funds to avoid a downturn, because they would often turn out to have moved at the wrong time. That could mean locking in losses and missing out on the recovery.

Morningstar NZ spokesperson Greg Bunkall said the impact on funds would depend on the performance of equity markets from now.

“To date, the KiwiSaver balanced and growth indexes Morningstar uses to track KiwiSaver funds are flat, and that doesn’t include the bounce back [Tuesday] morning.”

So what can you do if you’re worried?

You should be in a KiwiSaver fund that matches your risk profile.

If you have a long time until you need your money, you can afford to take some more risk and should get through this disruption – and others – by not paying too much attention to your KiwiSaver balance.

If you need the money soon, you should already be in a conservative fund that hopefully isn’t moving around too much.

If you’ve realised you’ve got your settings wildly wrong, and you need money now, you’ll probably need to move your investments, even if it means locking in losses.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Nelson’s mayor says smaller centres are rattled by a warning from Air New Zealand it may have make changes to where it flies and how often.

The national carrier has suspended the earnings guidance it issued less than two weeks ago because of what it said was unprecedented volatility in jet fuel markets.

The airline expects a meaningful impact on its second half earnings.

Air New Zealand said it had put in place initial fare changes, but said it may need to hike prices and adjust its network and schedule “as required”.

Nelson mayor Nick Smith said there was a “huge amount of nervousness in regional New Zealand” over the possibility of Air New Zealand reviewing services.

“We get that they’re under enormous financial pressure with the big loss they announced a couple of weeks ago, as well as the heightened fuel prices, the hope will be that they maintain the set of destinations across New Zealand they do, albeit understanding the frequency of some of those services may be reduced,” he said.

“I’m advocating very strongly on behalf of Nelson, as other mayors will be doing, that if we are to rebuild the tourism industry, we don’t want to have it excessively focused on the Queenstowns and the Rotoruas that are already busy.”

Smith said he was due to meet with Air New Zealand in the next couple of weeks.

“I hope there will be some consultation with mayors and regional leaders as they try and work through how they can be economically viable while at the same time maintain these vital services to regions like Nelson.”

The Nelson mayor said flights were “so important” to regional New Zealand.

“The loss of an air service can have a body blow impact on regional centres,” he said.

Smith said Nelson was a busy airport.

“But even for us, maintaining the frequency and range of destinations is just so important for the future of the Nelson region.”

Timaru mayor Nigel Bowen told RNZ that as a smaller centre, Timaru valued its connection into Wellington.

“We have significant concerns when global events affect fuel prices,” he said.

“We have historically a good working relationship with Air New Zealand and would expect, with any potential changes, that we are brought into the conversation.”

Taupō mayor John Funnell said he would encourage Air New Zealand to keep its services there.

“The airport has been working with Air New Zealand to remind them that it is a popular destination,” he said.

In its market statement the national carrier said the difference in the crack spread price – the margin charged by refineries – had jumped from US$22 barrel to as high as US$115.

Airlines are charged for the Brent Crude price of a barrel of oil – hovering around $US100 – and the crack spread price.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday, with the benchmark Brent Crude down 6 percent to around US$87 a barrel, after rising above $115 on Monday (NZ time).

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

One of the country’s most prominent buyers’ agencies has complained to the Real Estate Authority about a rise in “property flippers” making six-figures from unwitting vendors.

Earlier, Cotality told RNZ that the number of contemporaneous sales had lifted significantly last year after a sharp fall in 2023.

“There was a lift in these types of transactions last year, almost double 2024, and even more than what we saw through the Covid boom times,” head of research Nick Goodall said.

In a contemporaneous settlement, a property flipper often makes an offer with a long settlement period, and then finds another buyer to purchase the property the same day they have to settle, making money on the transaction.

iFindProperty co-founder Maree Tassell said there was noticeably more of the activity happening.

“It’s quite common that there are some deals out there where people are making over $100,000-plus on contemporaneous settlements, getting a property under contract. The poor old vendor, and even often the vendor’s agents will think ‘oh this is a real purchaser’. This is what’s really pissing me off.

“You’re getting these people come along, they get the property under contract, they act like they are the buyer. They tie a property up to say 20 days’ due diligence and then they’re immediately sending it out to their database and putting a big margin on it trying to onsell the property… they will pretend they’re bringing a builder through or pretend they’re bringing a valuer through and it will be a potential buyer. It’s quite deceptive to the vendors and quite deceptive sometimes to the agents.”

She said people saw it as a quick way to make money.

“And you get a whole lot of people creating mentoring services… they’re charging people money to come and learn how to make money in property.

“It’s all very sexy and it’s called no money down deals so they’re teaching people who know [not much] about property and don’t have the money to buy property just basically how to tie property contacts up and sell the contract. There’s no protection for the consumer, there’s no protection often for the vendor. They don’t know what’s happening.”

Property law expert Joanna Pidgeon said traders who were finding properties, buying them personally and then onselling were excluded from having to comply with the Real Estate Agents Act because they were self representing.

“Companies that sell property owned by the company directly to consumers are not required to hold a real estate licence issued by REA. However, a company that engages a contractor or sales agent who does not hold an active real estate licence to act as their representative on property sales may be engaged in unlicensed trading.

“People who buy directly from property traders who are not licensed do not have the same protections as when buying from a licensed real estate agent. This is particularly important as there is a conflict of interest when a trader is onselling directly. A purchaser should be seeking advice in relation to this, and should have their deposit held in a trust account pending the vendor becoming the registered owner of the property. We have seen some purchasers lose their deposits when traders have got into financial difficulty and the deposit has been released but the vendor unable to settle to enable the onsale.”

Tassell said she had meetings with both the Real Estate Institute and Real Estate Authority about the issue, which were positive.

The Real Estate Authority said it received a range of inquiries about property related activity and whether activity is within its regulatory scope. “We are not able to comment on any recent enquiries while our enquiries are ongoing, particularly out of fairness to the parties and to preserve the integrity of the process.”

Tassell said her business would make it clear if it were onselling, “We have a clause saying we’re licensed buyers’ agents. We’re not buying the property. We’re looking for someone to buy it. It’s total transparency with the vendor, it’s total transparency with the vendor’s agent. And then with our clients, the purchasers, it’s total transparency what they pay us. We’re not putting $150,000 between contracts and just laughing all the way to the bank.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Air New Zealand has suspended its earning guidance amid what it calls unprecedented volatility in global jet fuel markets.

The airline expects a meaningful impact on its second half earnings.

After implementing initial fare changes, it says it may need to take further price action and adjust its network if the conflict leads to continued high jet fuel costs.

Air New Zealand shares had fallen nearly 8 percent on Monday.

Oil prices are up about 8 percent to US$99.90 a barrel, after climbing to a high of US$119.50 a barrel overnight, its biggest-ever absolute price jump in a single day.

Reuters reports that some jet fuel prices have doubled since the start of the conflict putting pressure on carriers already having to reroute to avoid the Middle East conflict and cater to thousands of stranded passengers trying to leave the region.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

SuperGold Card holders are finding it difficult to cash-in on weekly supermarket discounts with a mish-mash of locations, leaving some regions missing out entirely with patchy coverage in others.

Age Concern chief executive Kevin Lamb called it an example of “grey washing”.

For example, the SuperGold Card was accepted at grocery stores in most central business districts, but not in Gisborne, Marlborough Nelson, Tasman, West Coast districts nor the densely populated Auckland CBD, with a fast-growing resident senior population of more than 2000 people.

“It is portraying themselves as supporting older people, but doing what I would call the bare minimum in order to achieve that,” Lamb said.

“If you’re going to say that SuperGold Card gets a discount in our stores, why wouldn’t you do that for every store? Not just cherry pick a handful of stores around the country and have such a lack of consistency about where those stores are located.”

Monopoly concerns

Monopoly Watch analyst Tex Edwards said confusing or difficult to get information on the availability of SuperGold Card discounts at leading supermarkets was another example of unchecked monopolistic behaviour.

“What’s being exhibited here with the leverage of the senior gold cards, is a concept called geographic monopolisation in several regions of the country, where you don’t have any brand choice, you just have to go to the Woolworths, or you just have to go to the Foodstuffs banner of either New World or Pak’nSave and Four Square.”

Edwards singled out Wellington, where lobbyists worked on behalf of supermarket chains to maintain the duopoly.

He said it was not surprising that Wellington region had the best coverage of supermarkets offering the SuperGold Card discount in the country, with New World offering it at 100 percent of its stores, and 63 percent at Woolworths.

“The monopolies have these people called the lobbyists, and they run round Wellington and busy telling government officials that they’re doing everything right, and they’re being sensible citizens of New Zealand, and they’re doing all this good stuff, except competing on price and competing on any real initiative,” Edwards said.

Conflicting information

Co-op Foodstuffs, which supplied New World, said there was no comprehensive list of store locations offering the SuperGold Card discount as individual stores were privately owned and operated.

“The discount isn’t offered in our South Island stores. In the North Island, it’s up to individual store owners to decide whether to offer it, so there isn’t a single, comprehensive list of participating stores,” Foodstuffs said in a statement to RNZ.

But internet searches of New World stores offering SuperGold Card incorrectly indicated the card was widely accepted in South Island locations – which was not the case.

Likewise, telephone calls to New World stores also resulted in conflicting information, together with incomplete information online about the terms and conditions at stores honouring the card, such as minimum purchases.

New World’s online location finder did link to a standardised template for each store, but none of them contained information about SuperGold, though other services were mentioned.

Woolworths said it offered the discount in about a third of its stores broadly located nationwide, but that was also somewhat misleading as the discount was not evenly distributed throughout the country, with some regions seeing near 100 percent coverage, while others offered nothing at all.

A list of participating Woolworths stores on the SuperGold app was also out of date with four stores no longer operating.

Commerce Commission response

Grocery Commissioner Pierre van Heerden said supermarkets were not obligated to offer a SuperGold discount at any of its stores, though they needed to deliver on their promises to do so.

“However, we would reiterate that any discounts offered need to be clear and accurate and should not mislead consumers.

“Supermarkets need to follow through where discounts are offered.

“Any exceptions to discounts, including eligible locations, need to be clearly communicated to avoid misleading consumers,” he said.

“We would encourage people to report a concern to the Commission if they think one of the laws we enforce has been breached.

“We are unable comment further without undertaking a more thorough assessment of the matter and, if warranted, through undertaking an investigation,” he said.

Woolworths response

Woolworths’ website indicates a third of its total 185 grocery stores offered the 5 percent discount on any given Tuesday, but just 23 percent of its Auckland region’s stores offered the discount, and not at any of the five stores located within a 20-minute walk of the Auckland CBD.

“Whilst we may not offer the discount in all Auckland CBD stores, we do offer it broadly across the country,” Woolworths director of retail Jason Stockill said.

However, a list of Woolworths stores that accepted the SuperGold card were not broadly located according to data available on supermarket websites, and many of its North Island stores were located near competing New World supermarkets that also offered SuperGold discounts.

“We are aware that some select competitor stores run a SuperGold discount programme. We are not aware of this being directly matched store to store by us or our competitors,” Stockill said.

Still, the following table indicates the regions where Woolworths and New World’s SuperGold Card discounts are matched store-to-store:

• Gisborne District: Woolworths 0 percent offers 0/1 stores – New World 0/0 stores 0 percent offers
• West Coast: Woolworths 0 percent 0/1 – New World 0/3 0 percent offers in the South Island
• Nelson: Woolworths 0 percent 0/6 – New World 0/2 0 percent offers in the South Island
• Tasman: Woolworths 0 percent 0/1 stores – New World 0/1 stores 0 percent offers in the South Island
• Taranaki: Woolworths 20 percent 1/5 stores – New World 60 percent 3/5 stores matched 0
• Auckland: Woolworths 23 percent 14/ 62 stores – New World 61 percent 19/31 matched 11
• Waikato: Woolworths 26 percent 5/19 stores – New World 44 percent 7/16 matched 3
• Southland: Woolworths 33 percent 1/3 stores – New World 0/3 0 percent offers in the South Island
• Hawke’s Bay: Woolworths 50 percent or 2 of 4 stores – New World 80 percent 4/5 matched 2
• Otago: Woolworths 56 percent or 5 of 9 stores – New World 0/11 0 percent offers in the South Island
• Manawatu-Wanganui: Woolworths 60 percent 6 of 10 stores – New World 36 percent 4/11 matched 3
• Wellington: Woolworths 63 percent or 12 of 19 stores – New World 100 percent 21/21 matched 8
• Marlborough: Woolworths 67 percent 2/3 stores – New World 0/2 0 percent offers in the South Island
• Northland: Woolworths 71 percent 5/7 stores – New World 80 percent 4/5 matched 3
• Bay of Plenty: Woolworths 83 percent 10/12 stores – New World 67 percent at 6/9 – matched 5
• Canterbury: Woolworths 95 percent -19/20 stores – New World 0/20 0 percent offers in the South Island

Privately-owned Pak’nSave supermarkets do not offer a SuperGold Card discount, though some Four Square supermarkets do. Woolworths-owned Fresh Choice honoured the card at selected locations.

SuperGold Card discounts difficult to access

The SuperGold card was designed to help offset the high cost of living, which statistically hit New Zealand’s seniors harder than other groups.

Lamb said many of the SuperGold advertised on the app or website were beyond the reach of all but the most wealthy retirees.

“I think as well, it’s often the the interfaces are designed for those people who are extremely efficient at using online technology, and that doesn’t apply to a portion of the older population,” he said.

“There are still somewhere in the region of 20 to 25 percent of the older population who don’t have any access to any online resource.

“So creating an app or creating a website is meaningless for those people, and those people do tend to be the ones who are the most vulnerable.”

In any case, using the SuperGold Card App to figuring out which supermarkets did or did not offer the discount was impossible, with no sense as to the rationale behind the selection of stores.

Auckland CBD and other centres miss out

Stockill said Woolworths considered a number of factors when deciding which stores would be included the programme, including demand.

“We are always looking at options to provide additional value to our customers. We know the SuperGold discount program is very valued in the stores we offer it in and we would love to extend this to all stores,” Stockill said.

“However, the truth is that this programme is costly and whilst we would love to roll this out more broadly, we do need to carefully balance this expense with our ongoing investment into lower prices, services and shopping experiences for all our customers.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand