{"id":771760,"date":"2026-07-01T09:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T09:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/771760\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T09:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T09:17:11","slug":"coles-supermarket-giant-in-talks-to-buy-major-pet-care-company-greencross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/771760\/","title":{"rendered":"Coles: Supermarket giant in talks to buy major pet care company Greencross"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supermarket giant Coles<\/a> is eyeing off a potential acquisition of Australia\u2019s largest pet care company.<\/p>\n

Greencross Pet Wellness Company owns 267 retail stores across Australia<\/a> and New Zealand<\/a>, including Petbarn and City Farmers.<\/p>\n

\"MOUNT<\/p>\n

Supermarket giant Coles is eyeing off a potential acquisition of Australia\u2019s largest pet care company.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Coles<\/a> confirmed it has been in discussions with parent company TPG Capital about its potential acquisition of the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs one of Australia\u2019s leading retailers, with a strong balance sheet and debt capacity, Coles regularly assesses strategic opportunities that may complement its existing business and create value for shareholders,\u201d the company said in a statement to the ASX.<\/p>\n

\u201cColes will only pursue an acquisition where it is satisfied that the transaction is strategically compelling and capable of delivering attractive shareholder returns.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscussions remain incomplete and there is no certainty that a transaction will proceed.<\/p>\n

\u201cColes will continue to keep the market informed in accordance with its continuous disclosure obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Australian Financial Review, the supermarket giant approached TPG almost a year ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The newspaper reported while the sale price was unclear, TPG is understood to be targeting about $4 billion, the valuation at which it was looking to float the company last year.<\/p>\n

Coles has been contacted for further comment.<\/p>\n

Outside of retail<\/a>, Greencross owns more than 140 vet clinics and 24 animal hospitals.<\/p>\n

The pet care company also owns\u00a0132 grooming salons, 114 puppy schools, four crematorium facilities, 166 DIY dog washes, 15 mobile dog washes and a specialist pathology centre which services\u00a0veterinary clinics nationally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coles\u2019 shares fell about 5 per cent following the news, although the merger talks weren\u2019t the only major development involving the supermarket giant on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"Senate<\/p>\n

Coles CEO Leah Weckert. The supermarket giant’s share price slid on Wednesday.\u00a0Dion Georgopoulos\/AFR<\/p>\n

Coles had been planning to launch a new supermarket and liquor store in Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia<\/a>, however the move was on Wednesday blocked by the competition watchdog.<\/p>\n

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission<\/a> (ACCC) said Coles\u2019 entry into the market would lead to independent stores closing up, leading to less competition for local customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndependent supermarkets are an important competitive constraint on the major supermarket chains,\u201d ACCC deputy chair Mick Keogh said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey provide consumers with meaningful choice, competition on service, quality and range, and competition on price for some products.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that while a new Coles supermarket will offer benefits to some consumers, there is a real prospect that the acquisition would lead to the exit of an effective independent competitor, and its assets leaving the market. <\/p>\n

\u201cNew entry would not be timely enough and sufficient to offset the loss of competition likely to result from the acquisition.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on our assessment of all of the material before us, we are satisfied that there is a real commercial likelihood that Coles\u2019 proposed acquisition would substantially lessen competition in Kalgoorlie in the longer-term, to the overall detriment of consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Supermarket giant Coles is eyeing off a potential acquisition of Australia\u2019s largest pet care company. Greencross Pet Wellness…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-771760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}