Under siege Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci has quit after the south African CEO who failed to back Australia Day celebrations announced a shocker Big W result.
Woolworths owned Big W has seen EBITDA profits fall by 60% to $54M after sales in the last half of 2023 fell 4%, sales in their home category also fell.
Last week archival Kmart Group, recorded a revenue lift of 4.8 per cent to $5.9 billion for the first half of FY24.
The revenue lift was driven by Kmart, which recorded a 7.8 per cent lift in sales, with Target offsetting the growth with a 5.1 per cent decline.
In the last half Big W had revenues of $2.59 billion Vs $2.billion in the same quarter 2022.
Profits fell from $134M to $54M.
Woolworths management have not said whether their ‘Woke’ policies and their decision to back the YES vote in the Federal November’s referendum in Australia affected sales.
It also appearts that their investment in Black Friday discounts failed to deliver growth.
Management is claiming that an ‘adjustments to cost-of-living pressures” was a problem for the business that has stopped selling large TV’s because of so called ‘safety’ risks.
The business claims that their Everyday range house brands range continued to resonate with customers, however, more discretionary categories such as Home underperformed as customers were increasingly cautious and traded down to lower price products.
Woolworths who backed Chinese Lunar Year celebrations and Diwali, an Indian holiday, but not Australia Day, have recently been slammed by media and their customers with management not saying how much an impact this has had on January 2024 sales.
Under siege Woolworths South African, CEO Brad Banducci earlier this week walked out of a heated interview while being questioned over allegations of price gouging in Australia.
The interview was featured in an episode of ABC Australia’s Four Corners, which delved into how the country’s biggest supermarket chains profit off rising prices.
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