Woolworths has jumped three places to become the 22nd largest retailer in the world, according to the Deloitte 2009 Global Powers of Retailing report.
The Australian company has increased its position in the global market place, jumping up three places from 25th in last year’s report.
The report identifies the 250 largest retailers globally for the fiscal year 2007 (encompasses fiscal years ended through June 2008).
Woolworths is one of only three Asia-Pacific companies to make it in the top 40 global companies, along with Coles Group and Wesfarmers, who scored 29th and 36th respectively.
Woolworths’ strong performance also helped maintain its dominance in the Asia-Pacific region, claiming the third position once again, one ahead of rival, Coles Group.
This is definitely huge news for the Australian retail giant and the accolade came as no surprise to Deloitte Australia’s Consumer Business leader, Andrew Griffiths, who attributed the reason for the success on the “strong retailing culture in the country”.
“The markets and the customers strongly value our retailing brands and this is reflected in the report.”
The report also found that the Australian companies in the top 250 have, on average, the highest market capitalisation to assets ratio.
Griffith remarked that “we are punching well above our weight, given the size of the Australian retail market”.