Forum Archive Index - March 2004

["david.gibson" <david.gibson@k.co.nz>]

>  In NZ WHS had only one small competitor, which it fought with and won.

That is true at the beginning - when the Warehouse was defining a new market
segment.  As the business grew - the Warehouse has come up against the big
Aussie competitors - Deka, Farmers, etc - and has built market share in a
steady fashion.

>  Supply chain automation - See Woolworths latest results for the success
of
their new supply chain project.

Is this the Aussie Woolworths who had a complete database of customer and
customer purchases, through a loyalty scheme and couldn't figure out what to
do with it?  They canned the data collection and analysis projects.  Albeit,
this was about 3 - 4 years ago - but stupidity of this magnitude tends to
hang around an organisation like a bad smell.

Remeber, Stephen Tindall is the Steve Jobs of the retail trade.  He wants
his people to be "insanely great".  There is a significant culture within
Warehouse operations that grows and nurtures its people like nothing else
seen in the big Aussie retailers.

The Warehouse was born in 1982, listed in 1992 and is now the undisputed
leader in NZ in terms of retail "creativity".

The big Aussies have much more significant available capital but are bound
into dsyfunctional cultures (esp Coles, with the fairly recent Board room
ego fest).

The battle lines are drawn - the brash agile newcomer vs the incumbent
dinosaurs.

Predicting the outcome might seem difficult, but I would have thought that
portfolio theory would offer some guidance - put a bob each way ;)

Disclosure: Hold WHS.NZX
Also have Stephen Tindall permanently, inexpungably, on my list of the good
and the great!

/dbg





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