The next battleground for Woolies and Checkers

Forget Flavourburst, branded Sixty60 jumpsuits, Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver, or even FreshX or ‘The Market’ store formats. Forget about long-term exclusive lease agreements with landlords, which will all but disappear at the end of this year after an investigation by competition authorities. Also, mostly over is the aggressive land grab in the titanic battle as Checkers took aim squarely at Woolworths Food’s long-held dominance at the affluent end of the market.

There are only so many more ‘white space’ opportunities to be had. In recent years, the war has shifted to delivering (and protecting) a differentiated offering, which means unique products and services (such as concessions like Starbucks) in store. This will translate into more baskets, more trolleys and more deliveries, more often.

The cross-shop by customers across the two brands (and others, like Pick n Pay and sometimes Spar) is real. In the tussle between Checkers and Woolies, the addition of the former by Discovery Vitality as a HealthyFood partner has deepened this cross-shop, given the size of that engaged base. For consumers, this race to differentiate has meant a far greater variety of products and options in the stores themselves.

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Woolies has extended Flavourburst – ‘No other fruit has quite the same juiciness and flavour’ – from the original soft citrus across most of its fresh fruit line, as an example. It has also been very smart in finding opportunities to extend this into adjacent categories (in season, it has special Ayrshire yoghurt with Flavourburst blueberries). The best possible example is the most iconic Woolies product of them all, Chuckles.

It is canonical. This registered trademark, no less, defines what Woolies is. It has extended this brand from the ‘humble’ chocolate-covered malted puff into every confectionary product conceivable and then further into ice creams, biscuits, milkshakes, hot chocolate power and even body butter (which was perhaps a stretch too far, given that it has been delisted).

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