Bottle-O boss: Just why does he stay silent?
Grant Simpson, the chief executive of Bottle-O, the New Zealand liquor chain with the most failed labour inspections in recent years, really doesn’t want to talk to me.
Over the past few months, I’ve phoned him, texted him and emailed him many times, trying to get an interview. All I’ve ever managed to get in reply is a handful of short, written statements.
It’s frustrating, because I’ve got important questions to ask. I’ve written extensively about the exploitation of migrant workers in bottle stores. They get underpaid (sometimes as little as $7 an hour), overworked (sometimes 90 hours a week with no day off), denied sick leave, holidays or holiday pay.
There’s a lot of it that happens, and of the cases I’ve uncovered, at least 10 of them worked at Bottle-O and their sister brand, Merchant’s Liquor. Both franchises are owned by Tasman Liquor, the company of which Simpson is general manager, and which itself is owned by a giant Australian conglomerate, Metcash.
Of the 25 liquor stores which failed labour inspections in the last three years, 13 of them were Bottle-O and Merchant’s franchises.
We became particularly interested in Ravinder Kumar Arora, who at one stage owned at least 12 Bottle-O and Merchant’s franchises, failed 19 labour inspections, was made to pay out $30,000 to former employees, and settled confidentially with another who claimed years of exploitation. Seven more employees came forward to Stuff alleging the same treatment, one saying they were treated ‘‘like animals’’. Last month, another of Arora’s stores, Bottle-O Picton, failed a Labour inspection.
If Simpson and I could sit down over a Blackheart and Cola (on special last week at Bottle-O for $22.99 for 12 bottles), I’d ask him some questions about how serious his franchise is about halting worker exploitation.
Why has it ‘badged over’ at least two stores stripped of their franchises by other chains for suspected labour law breaches?
Why has the Labour Inspectorate boss Stu Lumsden twice singled them out in an interview as ‘‘slow to engage’’ with their strategy to crack down on migrant exploitation?
What did Bottle-O do to reassure itself Ravi Arora was a suitable franchisee after he failed six labour inspections (2014), was forced to pay out $30,000 to former staff (2015) and made a confidential settlement with another who had claimed exploitation (2017)?
What gave Bottle-O the continued confidence in Arora that they were willing to allow him to negotiate for another franchise in Christchurch in early 2020, and to respond to claims by former employees by saying Arora ‘‘strongly refuted [their] accuracy’’?
We began writing about Arora in July this year. Early in October, his stores finally re-branded away from Bottle-O to become generic liquor stores. Prompted by that, I emailed Grant Simpson again, asking for a sitdown interview at his convenience to discuss his approach to migrant exploitation.
He replied: ‘‘I am not available for an interview, but I can confirm that we do not support the exploitation of migrant workers. We will work with the authorities and support any investigation they undertake and act on any findings delivered by the authorities.’’
I wanted to give him one more chance, so I spoke to him as he arrived for work at Tasman Liquor’s head office in Wiri, south Auckland, one morning last week. I tried to ask him some of those questions. All he would say was: ‘‘I’m not in a position to talk to you.’’
I don’t know who has
If Grant Simpson, right, and I could sit down over a Blackheart and Cola (on special last week at Bottle-O for $22.99 for 12 bottles), I’d ask him some questions about how serious his franchise is about halting worker exploitation.
formulated Simpson’s public relations strategy on this issue, but I can have a decent guess at what approach he’s decided upon: the ostrich.
If he hides away from it for long enough, then hopefully it will go away. People will get sick of reading about exploited migrant workers employed by his franchisees, and business can continue as usual. Presumably, it’s a strategy signed off at the top, by his multinational bosses across the Tasman.
As an aside to this, if you worked at Bottle-O or Merchant’s Liquor and you got ripped off by your boss, please drop me an e-mail (steve.kilgallon@stuff.co.nz).
I’m not saying Bottle-O conspired in the exploitation of migrant workers by Arora and other franchisees.
But I think if they looked themselves in the mirror, they would concede that their business model provided an element of complicity.
If you are a chain of primarily smaller bottle stores, targeting a more discount end of the market in an industry known for low profit margins, would you not be alert to the possibility of franchisees exploiting their workers to make a business profitable?
If you were so alert, might you at some stage have questioned a major franchisee having a business model so reliant on migrant labour?
Arora received 107 work visas for staff from 2015 to 2020 – that is, after he began failing Labour inspections. Would you have conducted an internal assessment then to discover what might be going on?
Or would you wait until a second, and then a third negative story about one of your franchisees in the national media to finally decide to cut him adrift – having originally declared you would sit tight until the Labour Inspectorate had investigated?
What makes Simpson’s silence more perplexing is the coaxing of Labour Inspectorate boss Stu Lumsden, who clearly thinks Simpson should front up.
‘‘It’s always wise for the franchise owners to make it clear to the public that they do not support exploitation in any shape or form and that they are taking steps to overcome those issues when they do arise,’’ he says.
Lumsden says Bottle-O is actually improving. They’ve had a ‘‘constructive meeting’’ with Simpson, in which ‘‘we’ve outlined what we think Bottle-O needs to do, and they have accepted that and put in place a number of steps they are going to take to remove exploitation from their supply chain’’.
The biggest of those is banning rogue franchisees, such as Arora.
Lumsden says the Inspectorate has encouraged Bottle-O to ‘‘continue down the path they’ve begun’’.
Simpson, then, ought to be able to articulate what he’s doing to stop another Arora continuing his chain’s woeful record of migrant exploitation issues.