The Latest Breaking News from Metcash

Challenging conditions will remain ahead of Christmas as consumers tighten their belts, IGA supplier Metcash has told shareholders.

Suppliers of food and other products have been complaining for years about their treatment at the hands of Woolworths, Coles and Australia’s other big supermarket chains, although rarely to the supermarkets themselves – perhaps, as suggested in a recent Four Corners program, because they feared retribution.

We need divestiture powers to curb corporate abuses like price gouging — but remember that super funds own a large chunk of these companies.

There’s often a disparity between what the consumer pays and the wholesale cost of a product — and it dictates prices at stores like mine.

IGA supplier Metcash will buy Superior Food, Bianco Construction Supplies and Alpine Truss for a total of around $558 million.

The ASX200 has climbed 0.7 per cent as investors feel more confident global central banks will stop tightening rates earlier than previously thought.

Australian supermarkets have been given an F for fail on plastic waste reduction, with an audit detailing some disturbing practices.

The supermarket watchdog has slammed former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett, in his role as an arbiter between Coles and its suppliers, for "flawed" decision-making and failing to comply with its directions.

Metcash's full-year sales have risen 6.4 per cent to $17.4 billion, while underlying earnings jumped 17.7 per cent to $472.3 million.