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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW of a building project. We currently supply about 30 per cent of a build and we think we can get that supply up to 70 per cent, and we continue to make good progress on that. We’ve invested quite a bit into technology on the trade side. Some of the tools that we’ve built include Trade+ and Truck Tracker. If you’re on a building site, the app shows you where your supplies are, and when they’ll get to you, which the tradies and builders love. We invested more into that and also into our digital offer. We’ve had a growing digital platform in hardware for a number of years now, about four years, and we’re starting to see that really accelerate. And finally, the big news that we recently announced, we have entered into an agreement with Total Tools to acquire a majority stake in that business. This would be another big accelerator for our hardware business. We are currently waiting for the ACCC to approval this acquisition. What’s next for Metcash and what’s the outlook for the rest of the year? Are there any new expansion plans on hold that can now progress? We’ve seen a good start to the year. In April, we thought things would start to slow down a bit, but across all three of our businesses, we carried on quite strongly in April. We’ve seen that now carry on into June, which is good for us. We keep ourselves in a very strong financial position. If there are things that would help us accelerate our strategy, then certainly we’re in a position to be able to take advantage of those. The only one that we’ve mentioned publicly is Total Tools, where we’re trying to finalise discussions and get the ACCC’s approval. We also finalised two acquisitions – in the private label brand and a banner group that we acquired in our New Zealand liquor business last year. Then we still have one other acquisition, which is a smaller trade customer in our hardware business that we’re talking to. We’ll see how things develop through the year. We are in a good financial position and if something comes along that helps us with our strategy, we’d certainly be willing to talk. Where do you see the grocery industry and recovery over the next year? The big question is: are these consumer behaviour changes going to stay? Will people continue to shop more locally? Food typically does pretty well. If the economy gets a bit tough, some of the trends that we’ve seen, where people eat more at home than they eat out, will Mitre 10 Mt Waverley. remain, particularly for budget purposes. Where’s it going to go? This is the multimillion-dollar question: ‘Are the consumer behaviour changes of shopping more locally, doing more scratch cooking, and eating and cooking as a family going to stay?’ All I can say is that it’s hard to change people’s habits, and equally as hard to change them back. We’re certainly positive about the work we’ve done. People have now come back into the stores and we would hope some of those people would certainly stick around regardless of the outcome. About Jeff Adams BA, Business Administration & Management CEO, Metcash Group Jeff has over 40 years of international retail experience across domestic and international businesses in the United States, Europe, Asia, Central America, and the Middle East. Most recently, Jeff was Chief Executive Officer of Operations for Turkey at Tesco Kipa. Jeff served as an Executive Vice President of Operations at Fresh & Easy Neighbourhood Market Inc. from 2008. Before moving to Fresh & Easy, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of Tesco Lotus since 2004. He was instrumental in starting Lotus in 1993. AUG, 2020 RETAIL WORLD 21