So how big are our supermarkets?

The “Australian Food Statistics” report recently released by the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) shows that there was a 4.2 percent increase in the total value of food and liquor retailing in Australia, it is now up to $135.8 billion.

The data for the report comes from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for that time period.

The report also shows that although supermarkets make up the largest amount of this spend at 62 percent, this level has not changed significantly since the previous year.

The rest of the spend is from the following; cafes and restaurants at 14 percent, takeaways at 11 percent, liquor stores have seven percent and the remaining sic percent is covered by all other food outlets.

This really shows the power that the supermarkets have in our food industry, but interestingly, according to the Report, Australian supermarkets are only middle powers in global terms. We are seeing more and more internationally owned supermarket chains, like Costco, are starting to take Aldi’s lead and set up on our shores. This is making the market progressively more divided, although the Australian big two still dominate.

The number one largest supermarket chain across the world is the US-owned Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated.

Although two supermarket chains dominate the Australian market, Metcash is also a significant player, and between them the Report shows 3996 food stores across the country. There are also 4970 liquor stores. Interesting to note that there were more liquor than food stores in 2011-12.

The biggest foreign owned food retailer, Aldi, shows only 200 stores in the Report, so is the fourth biggest supermarket chain in the country.

According to the data, it is Woolworths that had been the most successful in 2010-11 with a profit margin of 7.4 percent for it’s food and liquor business compared to Coles and Metcash at 3.6 percent.