IGA (Australian supermarket group)

Independent Grocers of Australia

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retailer
Founded	1988; 34 years ago (1988) (as Independent Grocers Alliance)
Headquarters	Macquarie Park, New South Wales , Australia
Key people	Scott Marshall
Products	Groceries & general products
Revenue	A$14.12 billion (2017)
Parent	Metcash
Subsidiaries	Supa IGA IGA Supermarkets IGA X-press Progressive Supa IGA (WA) Foodland (SA)
Website	http://www.iga.com.au

Independent Grocers of Australia^[1] (IGA) is an Australian chain of supermarkets. IGA is owned by Metcash, but individual IGA stores are owned independently.^[2] Its main competitors are Woolworths, Coles, Spar Australia and Aldi Süd. It is the fourth largest chain, since Aldi overtook Metcash in supermarket revenues.

Markets[]

An IGA supermarket in Forest Hill, New South Wales

The U.S. Independent Grocers Alliance^[3] has over 5,000 stores in over 30 countries.

IGA was brought to Australia by Davids Holdings in 1988 when 10 stores became members of IGA. As of January 2020, there are over 1,400 IGA stores in Australia, an amount which fluctuates as independently owned stores close, open, or are sold and rebranded out of the group.^[4] Many of the stores were acquired from other brands such as Woolworths or Coles when they shut down stores following their own acquisitions of smaller brands during the major industry period of rationalisation in the 2000s.

There are a wide variety of stores under the brand, from small corner and convenience stores, liquor stores, and large full service grocery stores. The stores operate under the same IGA brands but are individually owned and operated. For a brief period of time IGA owned stores in New Zealand following corporate mergers.^[when?] In 2019, it was reported that IGA had 7% of the grocery market in Australia.^[5]

In c. 2018, IGA began a rebrand that repositioned the chain as a "truly [uniquely] localised" option, scrapping the white colour and corrugated metal for wood veneer and chalkboard and a series of chalk emblems for stores.^[6] A while ago, the chain previously similarly used the slogan "How the locals like it" referencing Ben Lee, followed by "Where the locals matter".

Brands[]

IGA's main store brand is Black and Gold, a generic food brand which also sells in FoodWorks across the country. Items are easily distinguished because of the gold/yellow packaging with the black writing on the item. There is also a more upscale IGA Signature range that is identified by a metallic signature brand. "No Frills" was previously the Franklins home brand and is available mostly in Western Australian stores.

References[]

External links[]

• IGA Australia

Wikimedia Commons has media related to IGA stores in Australia.