First, if you’re an interested party and want to submit something to the Competition Commission in defence or against the proposed takeover by Woolworths‘ acquisition of wholesaler Bertrams, the deadline is today, May 18. Woolworths submitted its own evidence to the CC this week, reports Publishing News, stressing that Gardners was a stronger constraint on Bertram than THE and that “Gardners is no less effective a constraint on THE than is Bertram and probably a stronger constraint by virtue of its greater range.”
It continued: “Put differently, to the extent that any independent uses the threat to switch to THE as a way to obtain better terms from Bertram, a more powerful threat remains to switch to Gardners.” It said direct supply accounts for more than 50% of the market, “in excess of the 20-30% combined pre-merger share of the parties.”