Woolworths New Zealand managing director Spencer Sonn at the reopening of its Bethlehem store in August 2023. Photo / Supplied
Spencer Sonn is leading Woolworths' New Zealand operation as it continues to rebrand its domestic stores, but a tough financial result and ongoing inquiries into supermarket competition remain on the mind.
How would you describe 2024 for your business?
Our customers, and our team, have felt the pinch of the cost-of-living crisis more than ever in 2024, and that’s really shaped our year at Woolworths too.
In the last financial year, we made a loss. Our absolute priority and challenge has been to make sure we offer New Zealanders great-quality products consistently available at competitive prices, whether they’re shopping in store or online.
It’s not been easy to do that, but there’s been some real highlights – like the launch of Everyday Rewards in the New Zealand market, which is going from strength to strength, and our customers love the value it gives them.
What will be your biggest business challenges in 2025?
Retail is an ever-changing industry, so I’m sure there’ll be many challenges I can’t predict, but I don’t think the cost-of-living crisis is anywhere near over yet.
Inflation was very high for several years and has only just come down to where the Reserve Bank wants it to be. Household budgets are very challenged and New Zealanders will need us to keep doing more to give them great value at Woolworths.
What opportunities do you see in 2025?
We’ve recently hit the milestone of 100 Woolworths-branded stores in New Zealand. As we continue rebranding and refreshing more of our stores, we have a real opportunity to show every community across the country how great a Woolies shopping experience is.
I’m really excited about what our investment in stores means for our team and customers, and what a difference we can make by modernising the in-store experience.
I’m also not seeing any sign of the need for time saving and convenience slowing down, so there’s an opportunity for us to help even more Kiwi families get precious time back through our online shopping experiences in 2025.
What will it take to kickstart New Zealand’s economy?
The Government has done an excellent job reducing inflation. After Covid-19, New Zealand had the highest inflation for 20 years [7.3% in June 2022] – getting this down to 2.2% was impressive.
For 2025, I’d agree with Katherine Rich [of Business NZ], that we need to keep the lid on inflation and keep excessive regulation from stifling business. It’s not as if we can regulate our way into growth. We need to grow productivity, grow innovation and listen closely to our customers.
How will a Donald Trump presidency affect the geopolitical dynamics?
This is a big topic and much of the world is looking at how this will change things. The New Zealand Government will no doubt be working very hard to put New Zealand’s best foot forward. My job is to ensure we deliver great value to our customers no matter what the environment.
What are the concrete actions your company has taken to reduce climate change?
We’ve set science-based targets and have cut our own emissions by 59% in our New Zealand operations since 2015. The main factor was our significant investment in lower-emissions refrigeration technologies, not only at our new Green Star stores, but across our store network. Now that we’ve made progress on refrigeration, we’ve increasingly focused on emissions sources within our operations, including transport and energy efficiency.
In transport, our ambition is to transition all of our home delivery trucks to electric by 2030. We first introduced electric vehicles to our home delivery fleet in 2019 with support from EECA (the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority), but this new goal will really step things up, adding approximately 300 trucks to the country’s electric vehicle fleet over the next seven years.
Like most businesses, our supply chain is our largest source of emissions. We’re already partnering with suppliers, industry and government to tackle climate change. This includes commitments to sustainable sourcing in our Own Brand products, an annual emissions reporting programme with some of our largest suppliers, and the Regenerative Farming trials we have supported with our partner LeaderBrand Produce, alongside Plant & Food Research, and the Ministry for Primary Industries.
How are you increasing diversity in your business?
I’m proud that we’re one of the biggest employers in New Zealand. With over 21,000 team members representing over 120 ethnicities, we have a workforce that truly reflects the communities we serve – I think that’s really quite special.
Our commitment to diversity is woven into everything we do and we partner with external organisations who support us to provide leadership pathways for our team. We also have inclusive recruitment practices to help us attract talent from all walks of life, and are focused on enhancing diverse team-member experiences through initiatives like our Women in Leadership programmes, our LGBTTQ+ initiatives and our Disability Action Plan.
Last year, we received our first Accessibility Tick and achieved our sixth consecutive Rainbow Tick accreditation, which are just a couple of the things I’m most proud of that demonstrate our genuine commitment to diversity and inclusion.
What is your New Year’s resolution?
The same one that I try to live my life by: “Stay true in the dark and humble in the spotlight.”
Where and how are you holidaying this summer?
We have family friends over from South Africa. It’ll be their first time in New Zealand, so we’ll be doing a brief tour around the country to give them a taste of the incredible beauty here in Aotearoa.
What would you recommend as a good podcast to listen to over summer?
The Imperfects.