Supermarket owners’ super profits
The supermarket trade is producing a generation of millionaires, according to the annual National Business Review (NBR) Rich List.
The combined wealth of richlisters compiled by NBR tipped above $100 billion for the first time this year. To qualify for the list, individuals and families must have at least $50 million in private wealth in net asset terms, after debt is accounted for.
There were 34 newcomers on the list – many of which made their fortunes in the grocery industry.
Quintin Proctor, who owns Wairau Park Pak’n Save on the North Shore, Auckland, came in at number 30 on the list. A qualified butcher, he worked in different departments at various New World stores before deciding he wanted to be an owner-operator.
He’s now worth an estimated $60m, NBR says.
Jason Witehira, also worth an estimated $60m, made his fortune in the supermarket trade, NBR says. Witehira, who won the Outstanding Maori Business Leaders Award from the University of Auckland’s business school in 2016, owns New World Victoria Park in the central Auckland suburb of Freemans Bay.
Pak’n Save owner (and former director of its parent company, Foodstuffs) Glenn Cotterill is worth an estimated $65m, NBR says. Cotterill joined Foodstuffs in 1992 when he bought New World Te Puke. He went on to buy Pak’n Save Whakatane and another in Tauranga.
Fellow Pak’n Save owner and rich-lister Rob Redwood also has a long history with Foodstuffs, having started as a Four Square delivery boy as a teenager.
In 1987 he bought his first supermarket – the Cut Price Store in Taumarunui – followed by the purchases of New world in Hillcrest, Hamilton, Eastridge, Auckland and Glenn Innes, Auckland.
Redwood is worth estimated $65m, NBR says.
Garry Baker and Ian Hong, the owners of New World in Wellington have an estimated combined worth of $75m, NBR says.
Graeme Hart maintained the top spot as New Zealand’s richest person, with a net worth of $9b, up $1.5b from last year.
Other newcomers to the Rich List include basketballer Steven Adams, worth an estimated $50m; Christchurch dairy farmer Doug Mcintyre, worth an estimated $50m; and Auckland marina owner and developer Simon Herbert, worth an estimated $70m.
The biggest riser on the Rich List was toymakers the Mowbray family, whose net worth rose 233 per cent to an estimated $1b.
Burgerfuel chief executive and major shareholder Josef Roberts, who was worth an estimated $55m in 2017, is one of several millionaires who have fallen off the Rich List, after the Nzx-listed burger chain lost half of its value in the past year. an