Wesfarmers says continued investment in lowering prices and better customer service at Coles, together with improvements in store and supply chain operations, have resulted in the retailer increasing customer transactions, average basket size and sales density.
Earnings before interest and tax at Coles increased 6.6 per cent to $1.783 billion for the year on revenue growth of 2.2 per cent. Food and liquor recorded sales growth of 5.3 per cent for the year.
“In a competitive supermarket sector, Coles’ improved sales momentum was a good result,” Wesfarmers Managing Director Richard Goyder said.
“Investment in the fresh supply chain and building long-term supplier relationships remained key initiatives during the year, resulting in increased fresh produce participation as customers responded positively to improvements in product quality, value and availability. Further improvements were also made to Coles’ store network as well as online, financial services and Flybuys business platforms.
“While the liquor business produced relatively flat earnings growth, there were encouraging customer responses to early transformation work focused on range rationalisation, better value and store network improvement. The convenience business performed solidly during the year, despite lower fuel volumes.”
Coles Express recorded revenue of $7.4 billion for the year, 9.2 per cent lower than in the previous corresponding period.
At June 30, Coles had a total of 776 supermarkets, 858 liquor stores and 662 Coles Express sites.
Coles’ parent company, Wesfarmers Limited, reported a net profit after tax of $2.44 billion for the full year ended June 30, an underlying increase of 8.3 per cent on the previous corresponding period when excluding discontinued operations and non-trading items.
Mr Goyder said it was pleasing to record a solid increase in underlying profit for the year.
“All our retail businesses grew earnings and benefited from their hard work to deliver an improved merchandise offer and genuinely better value for customers,” he said.