Go East the Asian Population Is Growing, but SOURCE
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New Zealand's Asian population is growing but mainstream supermarkets are missing the boat I .- - -- I - TRENDS Asian food dollars go east The Asian population is growing, but SOURCE. STATISTICS NEW ZEALAND, CORIOUS ANALYSIS the mainstream Pacific Maori .Asian supermarkets don't . seem to have noticed, reports Nikki Mandow agement is just waking up to the Asian market. Merchandising general manager Mark Brosnan is looking at expanding the range of Asian food CAN YOU name New Zealand's third largest they service the Asian market. Tai Ping director on offer at the Auckland City Foodtown, due to supermarket chain? New World? Woolworths?3 Michael Chan, for example, says his company open in June. "We are still developingour strategy Guys? All wrong. It's Tai Ping Trading, an Auck- imports 90% of its non-fresh stock from a wide at this point [with regards the rest of our super- land-based group specialising in importing food range of Asian countries. His aim is to cater for markets]," Brosnan says, but the experience at this for the Asian market. most Asian tastes -exceptthe traditional Japanese, new store will help. OK, the question is sneaky because all New whose food is quite different. Second,Asian super- It won't be easy. With shelves already crowded Zealand's main supermarketbrands are ownedby markets have the best prices in town on many non- with pakeha-geared produce, it's hard to see how two huge groups - Progressive Enterprises and brandedgoods- andnotjustAsianproducts.Look mainstream supermarkets can compete for the Foodstuffs. Although Tai Ping Trading is number at Coriolis's random price survey: instant noodles Asian market without a major rethink. three it only has six supermarkets - so far. But at Lim's Supermarket in Auckland were $8.99 for "They would have to increase their product Tai Ping has grown enormously from one small 100 packets ($1.69 for five at Foodtown); chicken range by a lot," Chan says. "We are constantly supermarket when it was founded 20 years ago. drumstickswere $3.99 akilo ($8.99);bananas $1.29 going overseas to extend our range. I feel a lot And the increasing Asian-ification of the New a kilo, ($2.59). The results are similar for Tai Ping, of the Asian migrants would prefer to go to an Zealand retail scene is just one manifestation of which imports food by the container-load, Chan Asian-oriented store where they can get most of a growing trend. says, also acting as a wholesaler for many smaller the products." Analysis by retail market researcher Coriolis Asian stores. Mainstream supermarkets may not be going shows while only nine mainstream supermarkets Are New Zealand manufacturers graspingthe head-to-head against their Asian counterparts, (what supermarket researcher ACNielsen calls opportunities of this new market? Nope. "All the but there is evidence Asian supermarkets are not 'key accounts") have opened in the last three signs are that Asian supermarkets will continue so benign. Tai Ping's stores originallystocked only years, 39 "other" supermarkets have started up, to grow and chains have already begun to emerge. Asian vegetables, but Chan says they now have mostly in Auckland and Wellington (see graph). [In alow-growthmarket] there is an opportunity a full range. And with Asian importers taking 'Most of these 'other' supermarkets are stores for Australasian manufacturers to embrace the advantage of parallel importing rules to bring in specialising in servicing an Asian clientele," growth of Asian supermarkets," Morris says. cheap branded goods from Asia, albeit with Asian Coriolis principal Tim Morris says. "[But] 1 can count on one hand the sales reps 1 labelling (Colgate toothpaste, Milo, Campbells Of course, the Asian population is blossoming have met from major FMCG [fast moving con- soup, Nabisco wafers etc), the non-Asian Kiwi (see graph) and is expected to make up 13%of the sumer goods] companies who are either Asian or shopper will recognise more and more products population by 2021. "Unlikeprevious major waves who speak an Asian language". on Asian supermarket shelves. of immigration from Holland, Yugoslavia or Poly- At Foodstuffs, managing director Tony A recent New Zealand Herald survey found nesia," Morris says, "these new arrivals are bringing Carter doesn't see Asian supermarketsas athreat, one in five Auckland householdsvisitedan Asian their brands and retail formats with them." but neither is he particularly taking advantage supermarket at least once a month. Chan says his Why? Because mainstream supermarketsare of the potential market. The company doesn't customers are now about 30% non-Asian and the merchandised to sell European staples, and Asian measure the number of Asians visiting its stores, number of pakeha is increasing. cuisine uses fundamentally different foods. Rice he says, and much ofthe growth in sales ofAsian By the next census in 201 1, the name of New not wheat, Asian greens not potatoes, soy-based goods is driven by non-Asians experimenting Zealand's "other" supermarket chains may trip not dairy-based milk products. with Asian cuisine. more easily off the tongue. Asian supermarketscompeteontwolevels.First, At Progressive Enterprises, however, man- [email protected] unlirnited.co.nz june 2004 17 .