In late 2024 and early 2025, we led an intensive program for Bunnings to engage with its greenlife suppliers of nursery plants. This led to the creation of a Statement of Principles, outlining Bunnings’ commitment to create greater clarity and certainty around how Bunnings and greenlife suppliers will work together into the future.
Key highlights
- Over 40% of the 220 greenlife suppliers participated
- 86 growers attended informative webinars facilitated by Communication Link
- 75 growers completed an online survey
- 11 growers participated in individual deep dive interviews
- 463 individual pieces of qualitative feedback were received
- Diverse engagement options to reach busy growers across different time zones.
- Care given to protect grower confidentiality to inspire open feedback
Service delivery
The 2024 Supermarket Pricing Inquiry focused on the purchasing practices of large retailers and the impact on suppliers. This drew attention to Bunnings and its greenlife suppliers of nursery plants. In 2024 Communication Link delivered an engagement program to ensure Bunnings understood the challenges facing their suppliers and to identify supplier-led solutions. We quickly developed an understanding of the business landscape for suppliers and for Bunnings. 45 growers completed an online survey to share their challenges, and 24 growers attended intensive workshops to provide feedback on proposed solutions to these challenges.
In early 2025, we again worked with Bunnings as well as the industry peak body, Greenlife Industries Australia (GIA). Bunnings and GIA negotiated and agreed on a draft Statement of Principles on how Bunnings works with its Greenlife suppliers. We then implemented an engagement program to gather feedback from growers on the Statement of Principles. This included two information webinars attended by 86 growers, an online survey completed by 75 growers, and 11 interviews.
Most growers felt the Statement was a good starting point to improving their relationship with Bunnings. We heard a lot of ideas about how Bunnings should maintain this higher level of engagement and further improve conditions for growers. The Statement was released in April 2025.