Key Points
- A senator quoted a report that found Tim Tams are more expensive in Australia than the UK.
- When questioned, Coles and Woolworth's suggested Arnott's was better placed to comment.
- A number of factors influence pricing but Arnott's says Australians generally pay less for Tim Tams than Brits.
An Australian senator has quizzed Australian supermarket representatives about the cost of one of Australia's favourite chocolate biscuits as part of a committee hearing into .
Senator Jane Hume said Tim Tams were cheaper in Tesco and Waitrose stores in the UK than they were in Australia.
"I can’t understand why it is that supermarkets in the UK can afford to sell Tim Tams at a lower price than Australian supermarkets where we know Tim Tams are in high supply, they are essentially an essential," the Victorian Liberal senator said on Friday.
Hume referred to a report that she quoted as stating a 200g pack of Tim Tams in was $6, however, she said that same packet cost the equivalent of $4.86 at full price in Tesco supermarkets in London.
Coles and Woolworths representatives suggested the company that manufactures the biscuits may have more insight into why this was.
A committee inquiry is looking at the cost of living pressures facing Australians. Source: Getty / chameleonseye
In a statement to SBS News, Arnott’s challenged the idea that Tim Tams were cheaper in the UK than in Australia.
"The average price paid by Australian consumers for a regular pack of Tim Tam Original in the past 12 months was $3.15, compared to the average price paid by UK consumers of $4.50," it said.
When asked by SBS News what other factors may contribute to Tim Tams being cheaper to purchase in the UK than in Australia, Arnott's did not provide a direct answer.
Adding further confusion to the matter, while Hume referred to “recent reporting in the UK” that she said compared packets of Tim Tams that were the same size, the Waitrose and Tesco websites currently list packets of the biscuits that are smaller than those sold in Australia.
While Australians are used to buying Tim Tams in 200g packs with 11 biscuits in them, the two UK retailers have 163gram packets containing nine biscuits for sale for the price quoted by Hume.
This would actually make the unit price of the biscuits sold in the UK and Australia within a few cents of each other, with the Brits getting slightly more biscuit for their buck.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) started legal proceedings against Coles and Woolworths in September over allegedly hiking prices on items before dropping the cost, with discounted items selling above regular pricing.
Tim Tams are among a list of products the ACCC alleges Woolworths made false or misleading representations to its consumers about, between 2021 and 2023.
Senator Jane Hume said TimTams were cheaper in Tesco and Waitrose stores in the UK than they were in Australia. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
"That’s not something that I or Coles would have visibility of at all, but I think that’s certainly a question that would be very best directed towards Arnott’s," he said.
A 'holistic' view
Professor Gary Mortimer, a retail marketing expert at the Queensland University of Technology Business School said many international retailers had a greater "economy of scale" than Australian retailers.
"A hypothetical biscuit manufacturer might want their biscuits in some of the biggest retail chains in America and across Europe, and be willing to negotiate a lower price to get those products onto shelves," he said.
Mortimer said he hoped the parliamentary committee would take a "holistic view" of the factors contributing to increased grocery prices.
"It's a free kick to go after the two big supermarkets, or supermarkets in general — for some reason they focus on the two," he said.
Mortimer said the "entire value chain" needed to be considered, what their cost structures are and how much they charge international retailers for the same products on Australian supermarket shelves.
Combined, Woolworths and Coles control 65 per cent of Australia's grocery market.
Following the hearing, Hume told media it was a "real concern" the chocolate biscuits “cost so much here, potentially in a supermarket in Sydney only metres away from where their products are manufactured, compared to 17,000 kilometres away in the UK.”
"That’s why we’ve said that there should be, not a voluntary code of conduct but a compulsory code of conduct, we want to ensure that supermarkets are dealing with their supply chain appropriately," she said.
"That’s why we want to put a commissioner specifically in the ACCC to make sure that they can deal with complaints, anonymously if necessary, from suppliers to make sure that they’re getting a fair deal."
A Senate inquiry earlier this year by Australian supermarkets and amidst a cost of living crisis, the
SBS News has contacted Senator Jane Hume for comment.
