A cheesecake chain, newsagents and home-delivered meal providers are among 44 competitors to Woolworths, the supermarket giant has claimed as its market dominance comes under further scrutiny.

Six sitting and recently departed senior executives used a rare public inquiry to defend the $36 billion company’s role in Australia’s concentrated grocery market.

They also strongly denied land-banking to prevent competitors from setting up shop in some suburbs and towns.

Details on prices, profitability, competition and supply chains are at the top of the agenda for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission probe initiated by the federal government.

Woolworths’ newly minted chief executive Amanda Bardwell said digitally savvy customers were more willing than ever to cross-check prices on individual products, including with specialty retailers.

She name-checked a range of chains ranging from the Cheesecake Shop and Nextra Newsagents to diet-focused home-delivery meal providers.

“Some of the retailers … play a very important role in some key categories, like personal care when it comes to Chemist Warehouse, or pet and household care when it comes to Bunnings,” Ms Bardwell told the consumer watchdog’s inquiry on Monday.

She also contested an ACCC retail analysis that found Woolworths and Coles together accounted for two-thirds of supermarket sales, suggesting the broader grocery market should be taken into account.

The commission’s interim report found various non-supermarket grocery retailers were not significant competitors to supermarkets.

“(The market) is dominated by Coles and Woolworths, isn’t it?” counsel assisting the inquiry Naomi Sharp SC asked.

“We are a substantial part of the market, which is dramatically changing and we compete every single day for customers to choose to shop with us,” Ms Bardwell replied.

Amazon was “absolutely an increasing competitor” to Woolworths, she said, noting the supermarket chain had spent hundreds of millions of dollars to improve its e-commerce capabilities.

“In their recent Prime Day offering … 30 per cent of the range at substantial discounts was grocery product,” Ms Bardwell said.

The probe is putting costs under the microscope, including how wholesale prices translate to customers at the checkout.

The inquiry previously heard the two biggest retailers dictated supplier price rises, leaving Metcash, which licenses IGA-branded independent grocery stores, at the whim of those increases.

Aldi also described overseas grocery markets as more competitive than Australia’s duopoly-dominated sector.

But Ms Bardwell said Australia’s relatively small population and vast geography made economies of scale a key element.

The $36 billion food giant’s land acquisitions were also placed under the microscope amid allegations of strategic purchases to pressure or lock out competitors.

Woolworths property boss Ralph Kemmler said its portfolio included shopping centres, including some where the company did not operate a supermarket.

None of the centres it owned had both a Woolworths and a Coles.

An internal document, dated March 2023, noted Woolworths owned sites “held for strategic reasons” that were not earmarked for development.

But that land was “absolutely, 100 per cent” not held for competitive reasons, Mr Kemmler said.

He also denied Woolworths had acquired an interest in any land without an intention to develop.

The executives are expected to return on Tuesday, while their Coles counterparts face the inquiry on Thursday and Friday.

The ACCC’s final report is due in February and the watchdog is separately taking legal action against the two biggest retailers, accusing them of misleading customers with fake discounts.

The federal government has proposed changes to merger laws and a mandatory food and grocery code of conduct, which would carry multimillion-dollar penalties for serious breaches.

This post was originally published on Michael West.