It’s now pretty clear that the major shareholders of The Warehouse just want out, and they reckon the most profitable way to achieve this is by selling out to either Progressive or Foodstuffs.
I’m not personally convinced the grocery section of The Warehouse wasn’t making any money, and there’s no way we will ever know whether they have or not. It was always going to take a while and it simply hasn’t been there long enough to have had any chance to succeed.
There is no doubt that Progressive wanted The Warehouse to ensure a possible competitor didn’t appear because as they are struggling against Foodstuffs a third player was more likely to damage Progressives sales that Foodstuffs.
The whole thing looks like a huge setup and of course there is nothing the Commerce Commission can, or will be able to do about it.
This is a bad day for consumers and we can only home that a third player will eventually appear in the market. The Warehouse presented the best hope and that is not going to happen now.
[...] And these were the guy’s who were going to take over The Warehouse. [...]