Woolworths Limited has released its half yearly results and has performed exceptionally well in terms of sales and profit, but it also created thousands of new jobs and launched new stores and initiatives.
Over the half year leading up to 4 January 2009, Woolworths experienced a growth in sales of 8.8 per cent to $26.1 billion and a net profit increase after tax of 10.3 per cent to $983.3 million.
Michael Luscombe, CEO of Woolworths Limited, commented “this is a strong result reflecting increasing customer acceptance of our retail offer underpinned by the continued investment in all our businesses”.
One of the key areas where Woolworths has excelled in is employment, and Luscombe detailed that over 9,000 jobs were created in the six month period. Not to mention a forecasted 7,000 new jobs to be created in the second half of the year.
It has also been outlined that that the company has high hopes for expansion in terms of creating new stores across various market categories.
Woolworths has opened 122 new stores and completed 190 refurbishments in this half alone and plans on expanding further in the future.
The company has proposed opening 15 to 25 new supermarkets each year, targeting to reach over 200 Big W stores and to have approximately 150 Dan Murphy’s stores around Australia within the next three years.
“Woolworths has invested almost $1 billion of capital in this half year to add new stores, improve existing stores, add services, deliver value and create an even better shopping experience for our customers,” Luscombe said.
Evidently Woolworths is performing very well in this troubling economic time, most other businesses are folding under the pressure, but Woolworths is remaining prosperous. This will undoubtedly instil hope and confidence into the company and prove to other retailers that it is still possible to conquer the economic slowdown.