Woolworths Limited today released their half yearly sales report up until 4 January 2009, and surprisingly it has performed exceptionally well in the economic downturn that has been ruthlessly closing stores and axing jobs in the retail world.
Woolworths reported overall sales of $26.1 billion over the period which is an increase of $2.1 billion or 8.8 per cent.
The supermarket division reported increase in sales of 8.7 per cent, variety retail branch Big W was also strong with an increase in 10 per cent and the overall consumer electronics division reported massive growth of 14 per cent in six months.
Woolworths chief executive officer and managing director, Michael Luscombe commented that “Woolworths has continued to reinvent in all its businesses to improve our stores, create jobs, add services, deliver value, and create an even better shopping experience for our customers.”
“This is a pleasing result in a more challenging economic environment and I am confident that we are well positioned to meet future challenges.”
The general manager of Big W, Julie Coates, was also very pleased with the recent results and commented “this represents the ninth consecutive quarter of positive comparable results. The result reflects customers’ acknowledgement of the great value and range offered by Big W and the success of our repositioning of the business over the last few years.”
Woolworths finance director, Tom Pockett, understands that consumer discretionary spending will be influenced by the recent events in the global economy, but still remains positive on the back of this report that Woolworths will still continue to grow.
“Subject to the uncertainty regarding these factors, we expect sales from continuing operations to grow in the upper single digits on a 52 week basis.”