Kaufland hires staff as supermarket giant readies for Aussie launch
German supermarket giant Kaufland will leverage its considerable global muscle to introduce a market-leading fresh food and grocery offer in Australia that could threaten the dominance of supermarket leaders Woolworths and Coles, as well as newer players like Aldi and Costco.
Kaufland, flush with $43 million in funding from its parent company Schwarz Group, is now in the market for a team of food buyers and merchandise executives, including a head of fresh food purchasing, head of produce purchasing, non-perishable buyers and a marketing chief.
Crucially, Kaufland is also seeking store planners who will begin organising its store layouts — including shelves, store furnishings and interiors that will follow Kaufland guidelines but also be flexible enough to adapt to local Australian tastes.
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It signals the German supermarket group is rapidly moving towards its first store openings in Australia as it puts the final touches to its layout plans.
Late last year Kaufland began to advertise for property developers, building service engineers and architectural planners as the ink dried on its maiden property deal in Australia: the $25 million acquisition of the Le Cornu site on Anzac Highway in Forestville, a site on the fringe of the Adelaide CBD.
But now Kaufland, a global supermarket with more than 1230 stores in Europe and more than 150,000 staff, has stepped up and significantly widened its talent search.
New job advertisements placed online show Kaufland is particularly focused on picking executives to formulate its buying and merchandising teams, especially around the categories of fresh food and groceries, and non-perishable produce, which is likely to cover canned food and other standard supermarket items.
German supermarket chain Kaufland is set to spark a supermarket war in Australia.
Most of the new job offers are in Melbourne, signalling Kaufland’s first store in Australia could be in Victoria — or that at the very least its administration and senior management will be located in the Melbourne CBD.
Kaufland is now hiring a head of purchasing (fresh food), head of purchasing (produce), head of purchasing (food, non perishable), junior buyers and a head of marketing. The German group is also keen to hire a quantity surveyor to help with store construction as well as store planners.
It marks a rising threat to the supermarket leaders, Woolworths and Coles, as Kaufland sharpens its claws to break into the $90 billion grocery sector and grab a slice of the market with its offer of a warehouse-style store that spans multiple categories such as food, housewares, hardware and clothing.
But the threat is also aimed at newer players in the Australian market, Aldi and Costco, which have been very successful in stripping market share from Woolworths and Coles but could now themselves fall victim to the latest market entrant. Aldi’s revenue in Australia has lifted from a standing start in 2001 to more than $8bn last year, while Costco’s recent accounts showed annual sales of $1.6bn.
Aldi, whose market share is just above 10%, knows very well the threat posed by Kaufland as its parent company, Schwarz Group, also owns Lidl, which is a major discount rival.
The Kaufland offer is very different to small-format stores Aldi or Lidl. It is run out of large warehouses of up to 20,000sqm (a typical Woolworths or Coles is less than a fifth of that size) with as many as 60,000 products across a wide range of categories.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
