Coles’ full year sales revenue increased by 6.9% to $37.4 billion with sales revenue growth across all segments, according to the retailer’s 2020 Full Year Results.
CEO of Coles Group Steven Cain notes the refreshed strategy in June 2019 that helped transform the business.
“Since that time, we have been presented with a number of unforeseen challenges including drought, devastating bushfires, and of course the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic,” he says.
“Coles for its part has become a designated ‘essential service’, playing an importance role during these crises, and it will also play an important role as the nation recovers and returns to growth.”
Supermarkets
Supermarkets sales revenue was $33.0 billion for the year, an increase of 6.8% on the prior year, with comparable sales growth of 5.9%.
For the fourth quarter, Supermarkets sales revenue increased by 7.6% and comparable sales growth was 7.1% relative to the prior year. EBIT For the full year increased by 10.7% to $1,310 million and EBIT margin improved by 14bps to 4%.
The results show that supermarkets performance was strong, reflecting the implementation of the refreshed strategy. More specifically, there was strong growth in Online, increased penetration of Own Brand and the roll out of tailored ranges and the start of the Smarter Selling efficiency program.
The report states that Coles Online sales revenue grew by 18.1% for the year after services were temporarily disrupted in March and April during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coles Own Brand reported more than $10 billion in sales for the year with sales growing by 9.7% with over 1,850 new products launched.
Inflation was recorded excluding tobacco and fresh of 1.5% for the year and 3.3% for the fourth quarter. Total Supermarkets price inflation of 2.4% was recorded for the year and 3.6% in the fourth quarter.
Liquor
The report says that Liquor sales revenue was $3.3 billion for the year, an increase of 8.0% on the prior year, with comparable sales growth of 7.3%.
For the fourth quarter, Liquor sales revenue increased by 20.3% and comparable sales growth was 20.2% relative to the prior year due to strong performance across all three banners.
The Coles report states that there was a strong online sales growth of 40.3% for the year. Four the fourth quarter, online sales increased in excess of 70% driven in part by changing customer preferences towards online shopping alternatives during COVID-19.
There has been a review of operations and the company will reset the Liquor strategic framework to become a simpler and more accessible.
The First Choice Liquor Market conversions continue to perform strongly with the format now rolled out to 61% of the First Choice network.
ELB reported sales growth of 7.5% for the year and 17.7% for the fourth quarter.
20 new Liquor stores opened, and 20 stores closed, maintaining a total of 910 Liquor sites.