village friends

21 May 2008

Central Sydney News Magazine journalist Robert Burton – Bradley, in his recent article ‘ Locals Say No to Woolworths’ managed ( what we have been trying to achieve since September 2007 ) to obtain confirmation from Woolworths that they plan to be the operator of the two storey supermarket

Did you read this story ?

" Woolies admits trying to stop rivals setting up shop
Simon Evans
The Australian Financial Review | 20 May 2008 | Page: 5 | News

Supermarket giant Woolworths has admitted it sometimes uses town planning laws to try to derail competitive threats from rivals wanting to set up in a particular area but chief executive Michael Luscombe argued competitors were doing likewise. Mr Luscombe fronted the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry into grocery prices yesterday and also defended the impressive 75 per cent return on funds generated by Woolworths' Australian supermarket business in 2006-07, which had risen from 53 per cent in the past five years. This compared with Woolworths' New Zealand supermarkets that returned less than 10 per cent. Mr Luscombe told the inquiry competition was "about the same" in the Australian and NZ market, but admitted profit margins were higher in Australia. He attributed it to the NZ operations being in a rebuilding phase after Woolworths spent $2.5 billion in late 2005 buying Progressive Enterprises. Its main competitor in NZ is the Foodstuffs business. "We're doing the catching up in New Zealand," he said.

In Australia, Woolworths and Coles are the dominant players in the supermarket sector. Mr Luscombe said the return on funds and profit margins from the Australian supermarket business were very strong. "They're as good as any in the world," he said. Under questioning from ACCC lawyer Damien O'Donovan, Mr Luscombe admitted taking advantage of town planning laws on occasions to make it harder for competitors to set up. But he said rivals did exactly the same thing and Woolworths was a public company trying to generate returns for its shareholders.

"It's actually about protecting and putting opportunities for our growth in place," he said. Mr Luscombe revealed Woolworths was moving towards a "national pricing" policy. About 6000 of its 15,000 product lines had uniform prices except for 13 stores in remote locations such as Derby in far north Western Australia. But local managers at Woolworths stores had the power to respond to prices in rival outlets on what was referred to as "known value items" -essentially common items frequently purchased by shoppers. The local managers had the power to cut prices to meet the market but weren't allowed to put prices up independently to match the competition. "That's an end of career choice," he said.

ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel, who is yet to take evidence from Coles executives, questioned whether the price matching, also practised by Metcash-backed IGA stores, was potentially "tacit co-ordination" of prices. "They're both matching, but neither of them is going any lower," he said. "Tell me, where's the competition?" Mr Luscombe rejected suggestions Woolworths and Coles had a combined 80 per cent of the supermarket sector, saying that in the total food category Woolworths had 30.77 per cent of the market, which also counted local butchers, bakers and greengrocers as competitors.

Also yesterday, former ACCC chairman Allan Fels said in a report that outdated state government planning laws were stopping competition in the grocery sector with major retail landlords being protected. "

The Hive Building 21-23 Erskineville Road, Newtown
(Cnr of Erskineville Road and Gowrie Street, Newtown.)





Summary of Impact of Woolworths two storey Supermarket Development

Serious commercial and social impact on the shops at Erskineville Village.

Increased noise levels due to 7 day operation of Woolworths (almost 24 hours per day ).

Serious traffic noise from the design and hours of operation (0700-2200) of loading dock and car exit point into Angel Lane.

Increased through traffic on narrow local streets and lane ways.

Increased traffic on Erskineville Road

Impact on resident parking, Woolworths Supermarket has only 31 car spaces some of which will be allocated to Woolworths
staff (expect at least 10 staff ).

Negative Impact on Property Values and quality of life.

Inconsistent with Council's vision ( mixed use low scale development ) for this part of Erskineville Road.

Relocation of BWS liquor Store

In October 2005, City of Sydney Council approved a mixed use commercial development comprising:
• 18 commercial suites
• 2 shops
• Cafe
• 2 show rooms
• Parking for 27 cars. Entry and Exit were to be from Gowrie Street.
No loading zone was to be allowed.

The original plan was modified after strong opposition from local residents to the building height of the original plan and other design issues of the plan.



The site has recently been sold without the approved 2005 plan proceeding.

Overview of Woolworths Development

The Site Today





The new owner and developer of The Hive is planning to build (and own) a two level supermarket.

The supermarket will be on two levels (downstairs fresh food, upstairs other) and is planned to be leased to Woolworths who plan to operate a 2,200 square metre supermarket, half the size of the Woolworths supermarket at Marrickville Metro, larger than the Woolworths developed supermarkets in Macleay Street (ikon Apartment Building), Potts Point and Bourke Street, Surry Hills.

BWS Liquor Outlet at Ground Level.

Provide parking for only 27 cars (max limit by council), some of these spaces will be allocated to Woolworths Management managing the supermarket.



Expect at least 20-30 vans per day over 5 metres in length (this may be on the low side)



Expect 6 large trucks per day

Expect 2- 3 garbage trucks per day

Trading hours will be 7am – 10pm 7 days a week, with trucks arriving any time of day and night. In other locations Woolworths vendors delivering perishables such as milk, bread etc regularly violate the council agreed times of operation stipulated in the development application.When the small loading dock is full, trucks waiting to unload will be forced to wait,double parked in Gowrie Street.

All trucks and cars will enter the building from Gowrie Street. The trucks will enter a double size entry to the loading dock, moving through the dock into Angel Lane and then reversing into the loading dock. Imagine the insessant noise of all those trucks reversing. Cars will enter the existing entry (as above), a truck entry will be created to the right of the car entry. Street parking will be lost



All vehicles to exit the building into Angel Lane at the rear or near residences.

The cars and trucks then travel along Angel Lane past the terraces into Angel Street



Turning right into Angel Street, the cars and trucks then travel to the intersection of Angel Street and Erskineville Road.Expect cars and trucks to bank up in this area as Erskineville Road is already often bottle necked at this narrow point.





The cars and trucks will be turning left or right into Erskineville Road. The developers claim this plan is the preferred option of City of Sydney Senior Traffic Consultants. There are no plans to install traffic lights at Angel Street / Erskineville Road.



Angel Street exit onto Erskineville Road is to be narrowed with the construction of the new railway bridge due for completion in mid 2008

There has been no comprehensive consultation with these directly affected residents / owners.



There has been no comprehensive consultation with these directly affected residents / owners.



No detailed plan has been tendered to ensure the traffic and reversing noise of trucks does not disturb the nearby residences.



There has been no comprehensive consultation with these directly affected residents / owners.



There has not been a Social Impact Study undertaken.



There has been no Retail Study undertaken. How will the Woolworths supermarket impact on our village commercial life ?





There has been no Traffic Impact Study discussed with the local community.Can Erskineville Road take any more traffic at the peak shopping time of an inner city supermarket (early evenings, Saturday) ?







What will be the impact of Woolworths supermarket shoppers trying to find street parking in our residential streets, due to the very limited parking in the proposed development.

The developer plans to ask City of Sydney Council for operations to be changed to retail.

A Woolworths Development Control Plan (DCP) will have to be prepared to try and minimise impact on the our locality bounded by Union/ Gowrie / Harold / Angel / Whitehorse/ Norfolk / Railway Lane / Erskineville Lane / Angel Lane of shoppers travelling along these one-way streets trying to locate a parking space. Due to the long established design of the traffic flows in these streets the supermarket will dramatically increase the number of non residential cars using these one way streets at all times of the day and night.The DCP will mean that changes will need to be made to the traffic direction in part or all of these streets. Severe parking restrictions (max 15 minute parking) may be necessary so residents could reclaim street parking.



Can the narrow streets including Angel Street, Gowrie Street, Newman Street and Railway Lane handle the increased traffic that will access Woolworths.

There has been VERY limited community consultation, with only approx 10 residents being invited to discuss the draft concepts. No mass letter box drop has taken place to ask residents what they would like to see developed on the site. There are over 420 residences and 20 shopkeepers in the directly impacted area.

No qualitative research has been released on this development.

No Social Impact Assessment has been undertaken
No details of the Woolworths retail evaluation study have been released that identify the expected consumer shopping benchmarks
that demonstrate how the target market will shop at this Woolworths location.

1. How many check outs will the Woolworths supermarket have?
2. What is the projected number of shoppers per hour? How long will they stay ?
3. What are the peak shopping times?
4. What is the geographic area that the Woolworths supermarket expects to draw shoppers from?
5. How will these shoppers travel to the Woolworths supermarket?
6. How many will drive? How many will walk?

At a City of Sydney community meeting on Wednesday 26 September 2007 the Senior Planner advised local residents:

'it is a well known unwritten law amongst planners the most people drive to do their food shopping‘

Do we need another Supermarket?

Our area is well served by supermarkets:

Franklins King St, Newtown ( 700 square meters )
Foodworks King St and Newman Street, Newtown ,will double in size in the next few months to over 1500 square meters with the planned
$500,000 upgrade.
Woolworths Marrickville Metro ( 4,500 square meters )
Broadway Shopping Centre including Harris Farm and Coles (4,500 square meters )

Additional supermarkets are planned to be built in the next 12-18 months ( coming on line at the same time as the proposed Woolworths supermarket in Erskineville ) in the Green Square Area as follows:

Green Park Town Centre ( 4,000 square meters )
Victoria Park ( 4,000 square meters )
Meriton ACI ( 2,600 square meters )
Wyndam Street ( 4,000 square meters )

There is also one large supermarket zoned for Ashmore Estate ( corner Mitchell Road and Coulson Street).