In a move with far-reaching ramifications for the entire newsagency channel, several Coles petrol outlets in Victoria are about to commence a trial selling Tatts lottery products.
It’s expected that the product mix will be similar to the Tatts products currently sold at 7-Eleven. When 7-Eleven got Tatts products newsagents were told it was about incremental business – business not won through the then current network. That has not been the case. 7-Eleven has marketed the products well, especially at jackpot time. I have no doubt that their consistent offer and marketing have seen some traffic diverted from newsagencies to their network.
I’m told the trial will be in seven Coles petrol locations. I expect it will expand beyond this in Victoria once the trial is completed and into other states as local hurdles are overcome. I’d expect Woolworths to follow in the Caltex outlets they acquired some time back. I can’t see Woolworths letting Coles get Tatts products and them not.
An additional 2,000 lottery outlets could open around Australia over the next two or three years. If this happens it will negatively impact on lottery driven traffic and sales in newsagencies with lottery products.
Newsagents facing Tatts mandated shop-fitting need to take this increased competition into account when planning for the capital investment. The capital investment must be responsible. Tatts cannot make you invest uneconomically. Indeed, I would have expected Tatts to disclose their longer-term intentions so that newsagents can make fully informed decisions.
Expansion of Tatts products into supermarket controlled petrol outlets would add strength to the perfect storm we are experiencing – migration from print to digital, migration of product sales to other channels, shoppers buying online products we’d usually sell, a soft economy, growing diversity around the newsagency shingle and its value and more retailers chasing the traditional newsagency shopper.
While Coles and Tatts can do what they like, newsagents could consider complaining to the ACCC. Rod Sims, ACCC Chairman, has the supermarket duopoly in his sights as he has noted several times since taking on the role. This move by Coles ought to interest him as it is a grab for greater market share by one of the two major supermarkets.
The geographic spread of newsagencies and other lottery outlets indicates, to me at least, that consumers are well served. More outlets does not necessarily mean more competition or better customer service. No, more outlets in petrol locations controlled by one or both of the supermarket duopoly businesses will, ultimately, lead to less competition.
So, I’d hope that newsagents and those who represent them take this issue up with the ACCC. I’d also like to see it taken up with politicians in the lead up to the election – calling for a halt to the growth of Coles and Woolworths. We need legislation to do this and this lottery move by Coles is a good reason to prosecute that case.
Now is not the time to worry about the reaction from Tatts if unified action against the Coles move is taken. Put your interests ahead of fear of reprisals.
Newsagents cannot afford for Tatts products to get into the petrol outlets controlled by the supermarkets. Newsagency businesses would suffer and the communities in which they serve would suffer.
Before anyone goes off about the ANF on this issue I’d note that it came to their attention a few days ago and that they are working on it.
Footnote: over the last six weeks, at the Newsagency of the Future workshops I talked about Coles and Woolworths, observing that they must want lottery products in their petrol outlets because of what 7-Eleven has achieved. I predicted that the supermarkets would pursue Tatts.
I made this observation without any inside information. Indeed, the dots have been there for several years for all of us to connect.
I connected the dots for hundreds of newsagents to underscore the importance for newsagents to assess whether their future is as agents or as retailers.