MBIE also received support from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) and Invest New Zealand as part of its outreach efforts.
MBIE’s team collated a list of 21 target grocery contacts from 10 countries, ranging from domestic chains to multinational retail giants, and courted engagement from other Government ministers, including Trade Minister Todd McClay and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
Now the Herald can confirm that, from that list of target grocery contacts, at least five companies had some form of meeting or in-person discussion with Government officials, three declined to engage, and six were contacted with little or no response.
The Herald’s OIA request asked for copies of all communications between NZTE officials and international organisations identified as target grocery contacts, including any responses received from the organisations themselves.
The names of the international companies that declined were suppressed for confidentiality reasons, but included a denial to participate from one grocery contact just three hours after an NZTE official initiated contact.
Another contact took eight days to confirm a decision not to participate after discussions with relevant leaders.
The final attempt declined was via LinkedIn, in which the grocery contact responded by saying they were on leave and could not help the official with the matter.
Reviewing the instances in which contact broke down or where a trade official was ignored, documents show contact was made without response from French business Carrefour, Singapore’s Lazada, Malaysia’s MacroValue and Australia’s Harris Farm Markets and Coles.
An invitation was also sent to a grocery contact at Aldi’s Australian team. This was ignored despite a follow-up just four hours later.
Senior NZTE officials who conducted the outreach included Singaporean trade commissioner Maggie Christie, Malaysia and Thailand trade commissioner Suzy Fewtrell, and Melbourne trade commissioner and consul-general Bella Katz, all of whom received no response based on the provided documents.
It proved more challenging to identify instances in which a meeting or call occurred.
It was already known that, after contact with Schwarz Group (owner of Lidl) and Aldi, both chose not to participate in the process.
The documents confirm that officials contacted and held meetings with contacts at each company, based on two supporting letters signed by Willis identifying the brands.
Nicola Willis held a meeting with UK supermarket Tesco in June 2025, but nothing eventuated.
Officials had a meeting with a contact from Aldi on May 23, 2025, although no follow-up was received after the meeting.
Other documents indicate a video conference with someone responsible for strategic expansion in the group’s real estate department on June 2, 2025, which, based on their location being in Germany and Willis’ attached letter, is assumed to be from Schwarz Group.
This contact appears to have indicated no intent to participate in the RFI on July 10, given the response from the official and no further correspondence with the contact.
The documents mention three other outreaches that progressed to a meeting either virtually or in person, but the companies could not be identified.
The first appears to have been with another European company, given the mention of a warming climate in April, in which the official attempts to organise a meeting with the contact from May 1, 2025. No further correspondence was given for this contact.
The second followed multiple months of back and forth, beginning with an in-person morning tea discussion between the grocery contact and an official from NZTE on April 21, 2025.
After many emails and WhatsApp messages, the contact suggested a meeting between officials, a minister, an ambassador and Invest New Zealand to discuss the RFI.
This progressed to a dinner attended by a minister and others, but the trail then stopped.
The last unidentified outreach began with a meeting between an NZTE official and the grocery contact on March 20, 2025, 10 days before Willis officially announced the RFI.
Four days later, the contact requested a meeting with a colleague and other key stakeholders. However, no further correspondence was given by NZTE, suggesting no further contact.
Of the 21 listed target grocery contacts, the Herald was provided with the outreach efforts to only 14 companies.
A further seven companies were contacted as part of NZTE and MBIE’s outreach efforts. No information was provided as to the contents or outcome of these.
An NZTE official confirmed to the Herald that the outreach to these seven was conducted by phone, in person by officials or through third parties, and this information was more difficult to confirm or provide in the expected timeframe.
The official also confirmed that officials could not identify a relevant contact for some companies. The number of those companies was not known at the time of publishing.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
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