Latest news with #Woolworths'
IOL News
5 hours ago
- Business
- IOL News
Woolworths Holdings warns of earnings drop amid restructuring challenges
Woolworths' food business delivered above-market turnover and concession sales growth of 11% and 7.7% on a comparable-store basis for the 52 weeks to June 20, 2025. Price movement averaged 5.3%, with volume growthdriven by increased footfall and average basket size. Image: Siphiwe Sibeko, Reuters Woolworths Holdings has warned that its adjusted headline earnings per share (aHEPS) will fall between 17% and 22% for the year to June 29 after a restructuring impacted its Australian business, and despite continued revenue growth in South Africa. The grocery and fashion, health and beauty retailer warned in a trading statement Thursday that aHEPS will likely be between 292.8 cents to 311.6 cents, compared with 375.4 cents at the same time last year. As of this month, more than 24 000 Woolworths employees have access to health insurance, the first group in the retail sector to offer benefits of this scale. Turnover for the group increased by 6.4% and concessional sales by 7.3% in the 52 weeks to June 29, despite the tough macroeconomic conditions and significant uncertainty arising from global trade relations. Woolworths financial director Zaid Manjra said in the trading statement that in South Africa, consumer sentiment and discretionary spend remains subdued despite moderating inflation and interest rate cuts. However, Woolworths South Africa delivered strong turnover and concession sales growth of 9.4%. Within this, the food business delivered above-market turnover and concession sales growth of 11% and 7.7% on a comparable-store basis. Price movement averaged 5.3%, with volume growth driven by increased footfall and average basket size. Excluding Absolute Pets, acquired in the fourth quarter of the prior period, food sales increased by 9.2%. Sales growth in the second half was 10.6% (9.4% excluding Absolute Pets), with price movement of 4.2%. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading Trading space increased by 2.4%. The on-demand Woolies Dash offering grew by 41.6%, with overall online sales increasing by 32.9% and contributing 6.6% to total food sales. Fashion, beauty and home turnover and concession sales increased by 4.7% and by 5.1%. Trading momentum improved and second half sales increased to 7%, after the product flow challenges in the first half were resolved. Price movement averaged 2.2%. The beauty business gained market share, delivering growth of 14.7%. Net trading space in this segment fell by 2.3%, while online sales increased by 22.8%. The Woolworths Financial Services book decreased by 2.7% year-on-year and increased by 0.5% excluding the sale of part of the legal book of R1.6 billion. The impairment rate for the 12 months ended 30 June 2025 improved to 6.1%, compared to 7.0% in the prior period, and 'remains sector leading,' the directors report. Following its separation from David Jones, Country Road Group (CRG) completed a restructuring to reconfigure its operating model and reset as a standalone business. This was undertaken in an accelerated timeframe and within an unconducive macro backdrop, as pressure from high interest rates and living costs impacted consumer footfall and spending. The short-term business disruption saw sales decline by 5.4% and by 6.8% on a comparable-store basis. Trade performance in the fourth quarter improved significantly, declining by a lesser 0.3%, with second half sales declining by 4.5%. The Country Road and Trenery brands traded ahead of the rest of the CRG brands. Trading space decreased by 0.8%, while online sales contributed 28.6% of total sales for the period, up from 27.7% in the prior comparable period. The group successfully disposed of property in Australia for A$223.5m, recognising a R792m profit on disposal. BUSINESS REPORT
TimesLIVE
3 days ago
- Business
- TimesLIVE
From forest to floor: the story behind Woolies' locally sourced wood fittings
Woolworths' commitment to sustainability extends far beyond the high-quality food and apparel on its shop floor shelves. It is deeply ingrained in the very materials and architectural principles used in the design and construction in its stores. As part of its Good Business Journey, Woolies has embedded a philosophy of environmental stewardship and local empowerment into its shopfitting strategy, transforming not only spaces but also lives and landscapes in SA. In 2016, the company made the decision to start sourcing wood locally for some of its in-store fittings. This decision was driven by two core principles: job creation and ensuring that the country's indigenous forests are protected and given an opportunity to thrive. Woolworths partnered with local timber merchants Rare Woods and premium wood manufacturers Crazy Crates, and made a deliberate decision to move away from imported materials where possible, instead focusing on what SA has to offer. Central to this transformation has been the use of the invasive Australian blackwood, which has taken root in the country's forests over the past century. Originally planted by early woodcutters as a replacement for the indigenous trees that they had felled, Australian blackwood has now infiltrated forests across SA, including those managed by Geo Parkes & Sons in the Southern Cape, one of SA's oldest and most respected timber companies. Geo Parkes & Sons, a fourth-generation, family-owned business based in Knysna, is a cornerstone in this sustainable supply chain. With a heritage and experience spanning over 130 years, the company manages about 3,500 hectares of indigenous forest and 1,900 hectares of pine plantations in the Southern Cape. Their approach lies in striking a delicate balance between harvesting timber responsibly and indigenous forest conservation — ensuring that the Knysna native forest ecosystem remains vibrant and intact for generations to come. To date, Woolworths has sourced an estimated 600m 3 of Australian blackwood, equivalent to about 850 trees, through its local supply chain. The wood is used across multiple display areas in its Food and WCellar stores, including fridges, dairy and bakery and queuing aisles. The company is particularly pleased that these orders have enabled Geo Parkes & Sons to create a dedicated blackwood harvesting team, further supporting employment in the region. The harvesting process is tightly managed. Trees are selected carefully based on strict ecological criteria and are felled when required. High-quality timber is milled and dried locally, while lower-quality trees are left in place to support the natural ecosystem. Geo Parkes & Sons' sawmill waste doesn't go to landfill, but is instead repurposed. Wood offcuts are donated to a local black women-owned business that packages and sells it as firewood, employing unskilled workers in the process. Compost is also made from the sawmill's wood shavings, demonstrating a closed-loop system that benefits both people and planet. From the Geo Parkes & Sons forests in Knysna, the timber is transported to timber merchants Rare Woods in Cape Town for additional planing and storage until Crazy Crates is ready to transform the wood into shopfittings for Woolies. The collaboration between Woolworths, Rare Woods, Crazy Crates, and Geo Parkes & Sons is more than just a supply chain; it's a story of regeneration and purpose Based in Durbanville, Cape Town, Crazy Crates is a proudly family-run business that has been supplying Woolworths with wooden retail display equipment for over 20 years. With a team of 46 employees, most of whom are women from the local community, the business not only supports livelihoods, but also provides valuable wood manufacturing skills. Crazy Crates operates under a strict 'zero waste to landfill' philosophy. All offcuts and wood shavings are repurposed and donated for use as mulch or firewood, ensuring that no resource goes to waste. This commitment to sustainability, community upliftment, and craftsmanship has made Crazy Crates a respected name in local manufacturing. This collaboration between Woolworths, Rare Woods, Crazy Crates, and Geo Parkes & Sons is more than just a supply chain; it's a story of regeneration and purpose. It's about removing invasive species, restoring balance to delicate ecosystems, creating jobs, empowering entrepreneurs, and giving customers an elevated shopping experience rooted in sustainability.
NZ Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Heather du Plessis-Allan: We are being irrational about the price of butter
Unless you're into commercial scale baking, butter is not the thing putting the most pressure on household budgets. Try power. This winter power is costing the average household almost a block of butter every day. Or rates. That's costing the average Wellingtonian more than a block of butter every day. Those expenses have no alternatives. You have to pay them. With butter we at least have alternatives. If we don't like the price we can do a swap. I don't want to be Marie Antoinette but at least we have the option to switch to margarine. Not only have we abandoned logic, but also facts. Even the Finance Minister briefly took to complaining that butter is cheaper in Australia than in the very country that produces it. Except that's not true. At the time of writing, if you take Woolworths' salted butter, which is available both sides of the Tasman, adjust for currency and the fact the Australian Government does not charge their equivalent of GST on butter, we actually pay 30c less. Discounting butter domestically is impractical, as it would require subsidies, impacting farmers and shareholders. Actually, the price of butter is a good news story for New Zealand. Because if we're paying our farmers more, the world is paying our farmers more. And they're buying a lot more blocks of butter than we are. So that means they're paying a good chunk towards our tax take, our health, our roads, our schools. It's become slightly fashionable to suggest the solution is to discount butter domestically. That's a nutty idea. A discount is a subsidy. A subsidy has to be paid by someone. Who? Fonterra? The shareholders will probably object to that. Maybe, if this drama runs on long enough and there is enough reputational damage to Fonterra, it might be in the business' interest to cut the price to make the pain stop. That would not be a good day for farmers and shareholders. Miles Hurrell attributes the 46.5% rise in butter prices to global demand and supply issues. Photo / Alyse Wright The Government? Again, bonkers. If New Zealand is too broke to afford the full Dunedin hospital build, we're too broke to help commercial bakers afford their butter. The truth is there is no fix to the price of butter that isn't stupid or temporary. We simply have to pay the price that we pay. And the Finance Minister knows this. She knows this because she is a very clever woman. And because she worked for Fonterra for six years. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has turned butter into the cost-of-living symbol. Photo / Mark Mitchell So, she should never have turned butter into the cost-of-living symbol she has. This really started with her in April when she visited Costco and was taken by the fact it could sell butter for about half the price mainstream supermarkets were selling it for. It became her evidence that supermarkets were ripping us off. But then somehow, Fonterra got dragged into it and one of their regular ministerial briefings became a please-explain. And then the TV news was chasing the CEO Miles Hurrell around the forecourt of Parliament and going live to air while the meeting was under way. And there were expectations. And then nothing happened. And it has become yet another example of the Finance Minister, disappointingly, talking big but doing nothing. Just like with the retail banks. And just like with the supermarkets, so far. Spare a thought for Hurrell. The man is one of the most impressive Kiwi CEOs of his generation but had to spend his week cast as the villain of the butter story. There is no story. It's not even the biggest pressure on our weekly bills.
AU Financial Review
06-07-2025
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Petrol pass-the-parcel: Woolworths curse too much for EG
Australia's big two supermarkets, which not long ago accounted for half of all retail petrol sales across the country, are gone from the sector, and now one of their replacements wants to get out, too. British-born EG Group, which paid $1.73 billion for Woolworths' 540 company-owned fuel convenience sites in April 2019, has revamped efforts to sell its Australian arm and is in talks to cut its losses and get out, only six years after landing with a splash and promising to shake up the local market.
TimesLIVE
30-06-2025
- Business
- TimesLIVE
Woolworths scales up support to empower SA entrepreneurs
In celebration of Youth Month, Woolworths' Inclusive Justice Initiative has proudly announced that its successful Youth Makers competition will return for a second season. This innovative contest invites dynamic young entrepreneurs aged 18-35 to apply for a tailor-made empowerment programme that will give them an opportunity to take their enterprises to the next level. Winners will receive once-in-a-lifetime mentorship from Woolies experts, bespoke leadership and retail guidance, and a whopping R125,000 in grant funding to help each business scale and succeed in the retail world. The programme is designed to lay strong foundations for retail success and long-term business sustainability. This exciting announcement comes shortly after the launch of the Woolworths Inclusive Justice Institute, a major milestone for the business and a powerful new initiative. The institute will unlock market access opportunities, enable inclusion, and address inequality through support for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and impactful community programmes that address food security and contribute to quality basic education. 'Our purpose as a business has always been to add quality to life — not only for our customers but also in the communities where we operate,' said Woolworths Group CEO Roy Bagattini. 'The launch of the Inclusive Justice Institute aligns with our vision to be one of the world's most responsible retailers. It underscores our deep commitment to enabling meaningful social justice outcomes in SA.' The launch of the Inclusive Justice Institute aligns with our vision to be one of the world's most responsible retailers. It underscores our deep commitment to enabling meaningful social justice outcomes in SA Woolworths Group CEO Roy Bagattini As part of the institute's establishment, Woolworths has doubled its MSME fund to R200m. In the spirit of collaboration for inclusive growth, Land and Agricultural Development Bank of SA (Land Bank) has committed an additional R100m in funding for emerging farmers — bringing the total funding to R300m. The institute is home to two dedicated nonprofit companies, the Enterprise Inclusive Justice Institute (EIJI) and the Community Inclusive Justice Institute (CIJI). The EIJI will drive MSME development and economic inclusion and play a key role in nurturing MSMEs into sustainable businesses. The CIJI will focus on strengthening Woolworths' social impact programmes aimed at addressing food security, quality basic education, and community resilience — all crucial pillars of economic inclusion and long-term impact. Speaking at the launch event, minister of small business development Stella Ndabeni praised the initiative: 'The Woolworths Inclusive Justice Institute points us in the right direction. It's a practical demonstration of how a leading retailer can empower small enterprises. A vision like this resonates with everything we stand for — and Woolworths has a partner in us.' Zinzi Mgolodela, Woolworths director of Corporate Social Justice, highlighted how the institute builds on the retailer's long-standing socioeconomic development work. 'Our support for MSMEs has stimulated economic growth by helping beneficiaries expand and create employment. Through partnerships with NGOs, we've helped communities grow food and achieve self-sufficiency, while our education programmes continue to uplift under-resourced schools, promote child safety, and empower young learners to reach their potential.' Mgolodela added: 'The youth hold the key to SA's future, and we're proud to be investing in their potential. Empowering young entrepreneurs not only changes individual lives — it transforms communities and strengthens the broader economy.'
