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The Age has picked up on the Coles Trading Terms issue in today’s paper and online. In an article by Ari Sharp it highlights the tension between Coles and Suppliers and indicated that there are ongoing demands for more terms and the offer of nothing in return. That is except if you count maintaining your listings or reducing your losses as nothing.

Bend Over

The money is being earmarked by the buyers as for “Store Refurbs”, and there is no negotiation, it is take it or leave it.

Have a read of The Age article and comment if you dare!

Tim

Posted under News, Retailers

Well as I have been saying Schweppes was on the market and being spied from Japan. Got the country right but the company wrong. Drinks giant Asahi Breweries has bought the Schweppes business from Cadbury PLC.

This is subject to The Coca Cola Company not using its last offer rights, which it holds for 90 days.  It would be a hard road for the guys from Atlanta to get the business with the ACCC having a close look at the Schweppes bottling arrangements for the Pepsi brand.

The cash sale price of the business is £550 million ($A1.19 billion), which is sightly more than market expectations.

Asahi Breweries

The Age reported that:

BusinessDay believes that unsuccessful bidders included Suntory, the Australian-based Coca-Cola Amatil (which has Coca-Cola as a 30 per cent shareholder) and P&N Beverages.

So I was close but no cigar.

Tim

Posted under Uncategorized

Woo Ho – is the tide turning in Australia.  The lower interest rates and Rudd’s cash injection have definitely had an impact on consumer confidence. As reported in The Age Online today;

“The Westpac/Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index, rose by 7.5 per cent in December to 92.0 index points, and this follows a 4.3 per cent rise in November.”

While 92.0 indicated more pessimists than optimists, the improvement is great news for retailers in the Christmas/New Year season.

Tim

Posted under News

Frank additions yesterday from Coles CEO – Ian Mcleod as reported in The Age;

“If you’ve got a CEO (Brian Quinn) that ends up in jail and you end up firing your merchandise director (Peter Scott) for corruption, it’s a bit tricky for people to actually have belief in the leadership,” he said.

What about an MD with no retail experience and a mustache (John Fletcher), a director who is a major supplier (Sol Lew) and no wonder there have been some issues at Battlestar Galactica.

The canny Scot described the business as “fundamentally broken” when he took over, with management just looking at the next quarters sales/profit cycle and not long term.

So supplier such as Nestle and Unilever are now being asked for more trading terms to cover Coles’ poor management and lack of reinvestment in Fixtures and Fittings.  That makes sense!

How about Coles suck it up and actually offer the suppliers a decent business to deal with before they start screwing the account managers for more funds.

Any thoughts Ian?

Tim

Posted under Uncategorized