Coles held its 2025 Annual General Meeting yesterday (11 November).

CEO Leah Weckert said she was “immensely proud” of what Coles has achieved this year.

“Together, we have made great progress across our strategic pillars of ‘Destination for food and drink’, ‘Accelerated by digital’ and ‘Delivered consistently for the future’,” she said, also noting that customer experience improved across all key metrics.

Valuing value

With cost-of-living front-of-mind, Ms Weckert said Coles has continued to invest in value, meeting customers “where and how they choose to shop”.

“Our commitment to providing value at the checkout – through thousands of weekly specials, Every Day Low Prices and extended Great Value, Hands Down seasonal campaigns – provided relief throughout the year, as customers looked for ways to balance their household budgets,” she said.  

Own brand innovation

The Exclusive to Coles range continues to set the retailer apart, according to Ms Weckert.  

“Over the past financial year, we launched 970 new products into the range, achieving sales growth of 5.7%,” she said. “Within this, Coles Finest sales grew 13.6%, demonstrating how own brand innovation is resonating with customers.”

Flybuys and campaigns

Coles’ Flybuys loyalty program provided value for customers, Ms Weckert said.

“This year, we increased Flybuys active members by 4.4%, and saw a 13.3% increase in customers redeeming Flybuys points for dollars off their shop through Coles supermarkets,” she noted.  

The retailer’s continuity campaigns – including its SMEG knives and Curtis Stone glass containers promotions – also proved “very popular” and were a key driver of customer engagement and sales, Ms Weckert added. 

E-commerce

In FY25, Coles’ e-commerce sales growth was 24.4% in supermarkets, and 7.2% in liquor.

“This was supported by the introduction of a windowless rapid offer, app and web feature enhancements and simplification of the checkout process online,” Ms Weckert said.

Liquor

Coles has commenced the national rollout of ‘Simply Liquorland’, which Ms Weckert said is progressively bringing all its liquor stores under the Liquorland brand. 

“We can already see the benefits through improved sales and customer experience in the converted stores,” she said.

Coles 360

Coles 360 is continuing to grow rapidly, according to Weckert, with income up 13.5% in the past financial year as Coles helps its supplier partners connect with customers in new ways.

Looking ahead

In the year ahead, Ms Weckert said Coles’ strategy will remain “firmly focused on strengthening our core supermarkets and liquor businesses, particularly through the use of data and AI to unlock productivity, enhance customer experiences, and enable smarter, faster decision-making across our operations”.