About

Mike Brooker has drawn significant attention for his role in the 2013 merger, which created New Zealand’s leading supermarket brand Foodstuffs in its current form. Given the market dominance of the two businesses involved, the billion-dollar transaction created significant regulatory implications. Sources also praise Brooker’s effective handling of the lengthy integration process, which still continues two years on. ‘The merger has created one of New Zealand’s largest businesses’, Brooker says. ‘We have a long way to go before the businesses are fully integrated – particularly in IT and Supply Chain infrastructure – and this remains a work in progress’. Sitting on Foodstuffs’ executive committee, Brooker has had a significant hand in shaping wider policies within the business. Since his arrival in the role in 2009, he has moved the business away from a ‘100% outsourced model’ to one with a comprehensive in-house function, which plays a central role in decision-making. ‘I have helped install a compliance culture within the business’, he says, explaining the focus he has placed on education in this area, across the wider business. One of the biggest challenges he currently faces is dealing with the level of instructions from internal clients. ‘This may seem surprising as the business had no in-house legal capacity five and a half years ago, and now has 4 lawyers’, Brooker says. ‘However, the business is much bigger, operating in a more competitive and regulated environment, and is more sophisticated and more proactive around risk management. The breadth of what we cover as an in-house legal team is staggering as our business is so diverse’. Brooker has great confidence in the law firms he instructs, whom he has ‘handpicked over time’. ‘The key to providing external services successfully is to take ownership of the problem that you have been asked to solve and actually solving it’.