Sydney Lord Mayor supports LFRA National Collective Buying Group for Energy
*Image Source: Clover Moore via Twitter
The Lord Mayor of New South Wales’ oldest local government authority commends the Large Format Retail Association (LFRA) and its members on their ACCC-approved authorisation to form a national collective buying group to negotiate a better electricity deal.
“On behalf of the City of Sydney, I congratulate the Large Format Retail Association (LFRA) and its members on forming a buyer’s group to seek renewable energy suppliers,” said Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney.
“I look forward to many other businesses following this fine example.
“I am also delighted to see significant installations of rooftop solar by many of the member retail companies,” added Lord Mayor Moore.
On 23 October, the ACCC released a final determination granting a 11-year authorisation for LFRA present and future members to pool their electricity demand and collectively invite tenders, and negotiate with suppliers, on the basis of that aggregated demand.
The group comprises 41 of the largest and best-known companies in the industry including Spotlight, Harvey Norman, Beacon Lighting, Bunnings and IKEA. Members of the group span 4,096 individual sites across every state and territory in Australia.
LFRA CEO Philippa Kelly welcomes Ms Moore’s words of support for the Large Format Retail sector and is excited to begin the initial stages of the tendering and negotiation process.
“It’s great to see the City of Sydney Council support the first nation-wide collective bargaining and joint purchasing arrangement for energy,” said Ms Kelly.
“Electricity is usually the third biggest cost for most of the businesses in this buyers group, where 30% of their total energy usage is from their New South Wales stores.
“I look forward to discussing with Lord Mayor Moore and her team on how this agreement can assist Large Format Retail businesses, and their customers, in her LGA,” Ms Kelly concluded.
Large Format Retail comprises of 25.1% or $81.7 billion of all retail sales in Australia as of the financial year ending 30 June 2019, with more than a third of those sales ($26.6 billion) in New South Wales stores. New South Wales is also the largest Large Format Retail employer with over 133,800 people employed FTE both directly and indirectly.
The ACCC considers that the collective arrangements are likely to result in significant public benefits, including transaction cost savings and facilitating greater competition for the supply of electricity to participating LFRA members.
The authorisation means these businesses will have access to competitively priced and reliable electricity supply which will further secure their ongoing business operations.
