Markets/Australasia/News

Australasia news & analysis

06 October 2022
The retailer has announced three key leadership changes in its Group. Leadership of Woolworths Food Company Guy Brent will be managing director of Woolworths Food Company (Woolworths own and exclusive brand food business), Greenstock (upstream meat business), the PFD Food services partnership and Australian Grocery Wholesalers. Brent has led the Woolworths Food Company since 2019 and had he...
21 September 2022
Coles is selling its 710 Coles Express sites to petrol and diesel supplier Viva Energy for AUD300m (US$201m). What does this mean for Coles? The deal will allow Coles to focus on its core supermarket and liquor business. Site branding will happen over the next three and a half years, with the majority updated within the next two. Although the sites will be rebranded, Coles’ shoppers will co...
26 August 2022
Woolworths released full year results with sales up 9.2% to AU$60,849m and EBIT down 2.7% to AU$2,690m. Excluding new businesses PFD and Quantium, the sales growth was 5.1%. We review the results and share five key learnings. 1. Australian Food sales momentum builds against backdrop of rising shelf prices   After an operationally challenging first half, Australian Food sales were AU$45,461m...
24 August 2022
Coles has released FY22 results with sales revenue up 2.0% to AU$39,369m and EBIT down by 0.2% to AU$1,869m. The retailer has completed its third year of its transformation strategy and is already benefiting from the strong ecommerce performance. We share the key takeaways and what to expect next. 1. Solid sales revenue, but profits hampered by higher costs The positive sales revenue was de...
17 August 2022
Woolworths has announced its MD of B2B & Everyday Needs, Claire Peters, is leaving the business. She will take up the role of VP worldwide at Amazon Fresh. Oversaw strong growth at Woolworths Claire Peters joined Woolworths in 2017 as Managing Director of Woolworths Supermarkets. Prior to this, she had over 20 years of experience working for Tesco, having started at the retailer as a gradua...
23 May 2022
After two disrupted years, rather than a return to normality, the eating out sector is facing a new set of challenges.  The issues outlined in our UK Eating Out Market Forecasts 2022 , such as rising costs, staff shortages and financially-stretched consumers, are shared by many countries around the world.   These significant headwinds may slow recovery, however we anticipate a period of inten...
03 May 2022
Despite the impact of omicron and flooding across Australia, Woolworths has reported sales growth of 9.7% to AU$15,123m for the 13 weeks ending 3 April 2022. The retailer is outpacing Coles in Australia, but what else do the results tell us… Australian Food sales up 5.4% to AU$11,432m Although time periods are not directly comparable, growth of 5.4% compares to that of 4.2% reported by Cole...
03 May 2022
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Couche-Tard and EG Group could potentially merge, with the latter valued at around US$16bn. Where do the two businesses overlap? The convenience market in the U.S is highly fragmented, with approx. 150,000 stores trading. Couche-Tard is the second largest operator with about 7,150 sites, while EG has approx. 1,700 stores. The merger could he...
28 April 2022
Despite a quarter of significant disruption Coles has continued to see sales climb in Q3 of its latest financial year, up 3.6% to AU$9,295m. So what can we learn from the latest period? 1. Sales and inflation up, but costs up too...  Q3 was shaped by three disrupting factors; the Omicron variant of COVID-19, floods across South Australia, NSW and Queensland and subsequent knock-on supply ch...
23 February 2022
Woolworths Group has reported HY results for the period ending 2 January 2022, with sales up 8.0% to AU$31,894m, but EBIT down 11.0% to AU$1,382m. We pull out our top five learnings… 1. COVID and new revenue streams skew the big picture Woolworths Group CEO, Brad Banducci, described the period as ‘one of the most challenging halves’ for the retailer. A focus on customers, team and the broad...