Bernardi’s Marketplace has had an important visit from the top, welcoming the owners of IGA, Metcash Limited and the company’s group CEO Ian Morrice.
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Mr Morrice spent the day with the Bernardis last Thursday and visited both the Bernardi’s Marketplace in Forbes and Bathurst.
The visit was part of a larger tour in which Mr Morrice will travel to all of the larger IGA operators across Australia.
With six stores operating in the central west, Mr Morrice said the Bernardis are an important part of Metcash Limited.
“The Bernardis are one of our most successful supermarket operators,” he said.
“They’ve got a very strong reputation locally, having opened in 1969.”
This was the first time Mr Morrice had visited Forbes and Bernardi group director Joseph Bernardi said the meeting was very productive.
“We are very pleased with it, it was a very worthwhile trip,” he said.
“He [Mr Morrice] was impressed with our stores and together we came up with some good ideas that we will be working on.”
Mr Morrice was appointed group CEO of Metcash Limited last year and Mr Bernardi said his visit to Forbes is indicative of the company’s new “more consumer focused” policy.
One of the first key changes Mr Morrice has made since his instatement has been to enlist $50 million in price cuts for the Price Match promise.
Price Match has been in place for a week at Bernardi’s Marketplace and guarantees that consumers will not pay more for the store’s baseline products, being matched weekly to both Coles and Woolworths.
Metcash Limited owns 1400 IGA stores, among other independent businesses, and is a wholesale distribution centre, supplying the majority of goods to IGA operators.
