If, as the Reserve Bank and the business lobby reckon, there’s no link between rising profits and inflation, shareholders in Woolworths won’t care — they’ll be getting an inflation-beating 13% lift in full-year dividend after the supermarket giant revealed today a solid rise in revenue and earnings for the year to June 25.
Woolies’ revenue rose 5.7% to $64.3 billion — less than the 6% rise in the consumer price index (CPI) for the year to June and less than the 7.5% rise in the cost of food and non-alcoholic beverages. But the giant’s earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) — the key measure of retail profitability — rose 15.6%, more than twice the rate of inflation (CPI and food) to a record $3.116 billion.
Woolies tried to soften the impact of the sharp rise in EBIT by claiming that if you deduct the COVID-related costs in 2022 of $323 million (which were not needed in 2023), the rise was just 3.4%. But you can flip that and point out that not having to pay those COVID costs meant Woolies could have used those savings to knock the tops of big rises in some food areas. Instead it chose to let them go through to EBIT.
So Woolies’ final dividend was lifted 9% (more than inflation) to 58 cents a share, which took the full-year payout to $1.04 a share, up 13% from the 92 cents a share paid for the 2022 financial year, a rate of growth well ahead of inflation.
Things weren’t so flash at Coles: on Tuesday it revealed a lower-than-inflation 4.5% rise in its EBIT to $1.9 billion, with supermarket revenue up more than 6% to $36.75 billion in revenue. It pinned part of the blame on a surge in theft from its stores.
When you replace human checkouts with self-serve checkouts, thus transferring part of the labour cost of processing to consumers, and you increase the price of grocery staples at a faster rate than the CPI, you perhaps shouldn’t complain about a rise in consumers helping themselves to a five-fingered discount. But rather than acknowledge this, Coles says organised crime is behind the rise, perhaps forgetting that organised crime makes money only by on-selling stolen products to consumers more likely to buy black market products when they perceive retailers are ripping them off.
No such concerns for Woolies shareholders, though — they can enjoy dividends rising a lot faster than inflation. Thank you, shoppers.
We do our weekly shop in Aldi replete with booze and dodgy Aldi offers, and then buy a few items from the duopolists, and those few items always end up costing nearly half of what we spent doing 90% of shop in Aldi.
yes imagine if the bloody ACCC did the job they are paid to do abd pull these scumbuckets up for unfair practices – imagine if their were actually experts in good governance represented on our ABC Ita and “whatsyername from Netflix and head of news ” whatshisname” – imagine real change for good for democracy and equity in public ownership
there
Cause and effect sans responsibility? How good are DIY check-outs – for share-holders and customers?
To save outlaying on pay, so staff in each store can be cut -> the temptation for five-finger discounts -> so prices have to be jacked up to cover those ‘losses’ -> so cost of (buying commodities necessary for) living (when buying from there) goes up too?
Which bright spark came up with that sort of economy ‘cost cutting’? … And how much were they paid?
“Sod customers. Bottom line comes first!”?
As Sebastian Maniscalco quips … “Hey! I did not do the checkout operator course .. I got a job already !”… Yet ya see the daft numbnuts standing dutifully doing away with the cartels taking away good jobs …new jobs to take their place is the oft spouted rubbish – gaslighting
numbnutsdoing the work of cost savings for these cartel profiteers
Irrespective of the huge profits I expect to be served by a shop by a human to support our democracy – bugger any spurious savings for the cartel – do the job or get out of this country –
Personally I believe the Aldi staff, and Costco staff are far more in tune with customer needs.
However, I do wish the Aldi check out attendant needed on check three would get there quicker! The announcements are repetitious and far to loud. It would not be hard to devise a better system.
Obviously accountants and not operating floor managers. I recall a former industrial processing plant that bedecied that technical control and supervision was not needed and were happy to see only a 3% drop in efficiencies – amounting to over $20 million drop a year.
Another cut out the tea lady delivering tea and biccies to the desk with a tea trolly pushed out of the lift. The end result was that the clatter of the trolley signaled the start of a half hour tea break & conversation for all on the floor.
Nailed it with that second-to-last paragraph. ‘Organised crime.” Do me a favour!
Coles and Woolies need only to look in the mirror for a clue to who the organisers might be.
People are probably walking out of Coles with stuff because they can’t get served anymore. They have closed express lanes, trying to force customers to work for them for nothing on self-checkout machines, and have left surviving staff overworked and stress.
stressed.
Aldi are now going the same way. The remaining checkout staff at our local Aldi hate ss checkouts as they have to leave serving customers to keep fixing the stupid things. Management says customers asked for them…
More lies
and older workers treated like the lowly ; ignored or abused in low est grade roles – heavy oushing of supermarket trolleys helping bag heavy groceries whilst young males boss the senior workers and know not much about service of cutomers – its a top down model – scum blaming the wrong citizens
Having just been duck-shoved through Woolworths feedback I can now see why some may chose to take retribution by theft. They’ve waste so much of my time I am bloody-minded too!
Are you telling me you don’t do your fruit and vege shopping at the organised crime market?
I don’t. See comment below.
Just dont buy from Coles or Wollies. It only encourages them.
Use your local IGA or other independant.
should be lots of real snall businesses if it was a thing id join in a public blackban including the midflemen parasites running jobs providers and the third party owners of Gp superclinics -we are heading for neo lib induced poverty and loss of intellectual property … wake up Australians
yep except they still sit on cartel and have lots of support from our system – the ageist staffing is soooooooo sexist and ageist too
How is it a thing that these parasites post huge unwarranted profits ( thats profiteering due to fact they put in – “check it out yerself folks” infrastructure to their often unkempt/ dirty / poor refrigerated but data collecting scenario filled outlets… What a joke – the gaslighting cartels are posting huge profits and now invest in our public heathcare too ! A scam – vote in Greens or progressives at the following elections for gawd sake