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Highlights
- Woolworths’ shares were on the rise, with a gain of 0.510% at 11:42 AM AEDT on 9 November.
- In the past year, Australian retailer’s shares have dropped by 14.72%.
- The company reported a 1.8% increase in group sales during Q1 FY23.
Shares of the Australian retailing giant Woolworths Group Limited (ASX:WOW) were spotted trading in the green on the ASX today (9 November 2022), up 0.510% at AU$33.480 apiece.
However, the trans-Tasman business’ shares have dropped 14.72% over the past year and 13.06% on a year-to-date basis as of 11:42 AM AEDT. Woolworths saw a 0.53% growth in the past month while jumping over 4% in the past five trading sessions.
Today’s performance of Woolworths’ shares was in sync with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Consumer Staples sector, which was at 12,452 points with a gain of 34.6 points (11:42 AM AEDT).
What has happened at Woolworths during the year?
Woolworths group shared the results of its AGM and Q1 FY23 on 26 October and 3 November 2022, respectively. The following are the key takeaways from the company’s official ASX releases:
- The Australian retailer stated that the emergence of new COVID-19 variants negatively impacted the group's sales growth, particularly in the first half of FY22.
- As per Woolworths, this disruption led to increased team absenteeism and materially affected operations throughout the company's supply chain.
- In addition, bad weather and flooding events in Australia also had an impact on the company's sales growth, which put Woolworths in a difficult position for inconsistent customer experience as well as significant incremental costs, said Bradford Banducci (Group CEO) during the AGM 2022.
- Towards the second half of FY22, the company saw improvement, leading to a positive Christmas trading period and increased operating performance, as per Woolworths.
- Woolworths’ group sales increased by 1.8%, from AU$16,070 million in Q1 FY22 to AU$16,363 million in Q1 FY23.
- The company’s food business saw a decline in sales during Q1 FY23; Australian food sales dropped by 0.5%, alongside New Zealand food plunging 2.5% compared to the prior year.
- The three-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the Australian food division was 5.3% higher, while the New Zealand food division grew by 4.7%.
- The company reported a 30.1% increase in BIG W sales with a three-year CAGR of 8.9%.
- Due to increased customer mobility, eCommerce sales at Australian food and BIG W were 10.8% and 51% lower than the previous year.
- Sales growth for both Australian food and BIG W was up 43.5% and 43.7%.
Apart from these two major updates, Woolworths acquired the following businesses this year, 80% of MyDeal.com.au (ASX:MYD) on 27 September and 100% of Shopper Media House on 18 July. The company also withdrew a non-binding proposal to acquire 100% of Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (ASX:API) on 7 January.
