Fashion
Woolworths Group has lifted full-year profit from continuing operations by 7.2 percent to $1.75 billion for the full-year, finishing strong with increased sales reported across its supermarkets.
Group CEO Brad Banducci said the company made “good progress” on its transformation across all businesses.
Group statutory profit lifted 56.1 percent to $2.69 billion, helped by the $1.7 billion sales of its petrol business. Normalized revenue for the year grew by 3.4 percent to $59.98 billion.
Woolworths supermarkets regained momentum after a tough first quarter, which saw the removal of single‑use plastic bags and rival Coles launch its successful Little Shop collectibles campaign.
Comparable food sales at Australian supermarkets increased by 3.1 percent for the full-year, while a successful Lion King collectibles program boosted comparable sales for the first eight weeks of FY20 by 7.5 percent.
Online sales grew by 31 percent in Woolworths, helped by the scale-up of its Pick Up and Drive up services, as well as the launch of on-demand delivery in 38 stores.
Woolworth Group’s New Zealand supermarket Countdown had a strong second half with comparable sales growth of 3.6 percent. The establishment of CountdownX helped the supermarket deliver strong online sales growth of 40 percent.
Woolworths Group’s discount department store Big W saw sales improved 4.2 percent to $3.8 billion, and online sales improve 128 percent – driven by click-and-collect.
The business reported a loss before interest and tax of $85 million – within recent guidance estimates of between $80 and $100 million, and an improvement over the $110 million loss seen last year.
However, the cost of a significant item of $371 million leveled against the business due to the store and distribution center closures pushed its loss down 313.7 percent to $456 million.
Drinks arm Endeavour saw improved sales growth in the second half, with comparable sales increasing by 4 percent, versus 0.7 percent in the first half.
Dan Murphy’s delivered double-digit online sales growth with on-demand delivery now available from 91 stores and 30 minutes Pick Up from all stores.
In July, Woolworths announced plans to merge Endeavour Drinks with it hospitality business ALH, to be followed by a demerger or “value accretive alternative” in the 2020 calendar year.
“We are pleased with the progress we made during the year and have exited F19 with good momentum across the Group,” Banducci said.
“In F20, we expect the uncertain consumer environment and input cost pressures to remain as well as an impact from new enterprise agreements. However, we are well placed to respond to these challenges and are excited about what we can achieve together in F20,” he added.
