Foodland leads, Woolworths the biggest improver

Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 2-Jul-18

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey shows that customer satisfaction with Foodland in the six months to May was 95.5%. It was again the top performer among the big five supermarkets, despite showing a decline of 2.3% points over the last 12 months. Aldi had a customer satisfaction rating of 91.8%, followed by Woolworths (90.0%), Coles (88.5%) and IGA (85.4%). These are the latest results from Roy Morgan’s "Retail Satisfaction Report-Supermarkets", which is based on in-depth personal interviews conducted face-to-face with over 50,000 Australians per annum in their own home, including over 11,000 main supermarket shoppers.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, FOODLAND AUSTRALIA LIMITED, ALDI STORES SUPERMARKETS PTY LTD, WOOLWORTHS SUPERMARKETS, COLES SUPERMARKETS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, IGA

Stand-alone Coles to turn up dial on capex

Original article by Sue Mitchell
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 26 : 8-Jun-18

Coles has indicated plans to boost capital expenditure after it is demerged from Wesfarmers, in part because the food and liquor retailer needs to refurbish stores. Coles may need to raise capital in order to finance its expenditure plans, depending on the amount of debt that Wesfarmers decides to leave it with. Coles MD John Durkan says he anticipates that the total Australian grocery market will grow by around three per cent a year.

CORPORATES
COLES GROUP LIMITED, COLES SUPERMARKETS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, WESFARMERS LIMITED – ASX WES, METCASH LIMITED – ASX MTS, WAVESTONE CAPITAL PTY LTD, MOODY’S INVESTORS SERVICE INCORPORATED, STANDARD AND POOR’S (AUSTRALIA) PTY LTD, AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, BUNNINGS GROUP LIMITED

Kaufland set to open first store, suppliers told

Original article by Eli Greenblat
The Australian – Page: 19 : 30-Apr-18

Grocery suppliers have been advised by German supermarket operator Kaufland that it plans to open its first Australian stores by the end of 2018. Kaufland has been advertising for executives in the past few months, with former Metcash and Woolworths executive Mark Hewlett joining it as chief operating officer. Its latest advertisements have called for executives with experience in areas such as fashion, accessories and homewares, leading to suggestions that it might be trying to take customers from general merchandise stores such as Kmart, Target and Big W.

CORPORATES
KAUFLAND STIFTUNG & CO KG, METCASH LIMITED – ASX MTS, WOOLWORTHS GROUP LIMITED – ASX WOW, KMART AUSTRALIA LIMITED, TARGET AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, BIG W DISCOUNT STORES, COLES SUPERMARKETS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, ALDI STORES SUPERMARKETS PTY LTD, MORGAN STANLEY AUSTRALIA LIMITED, DAVID JONES LIMITED, MYER HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX MYR

It’s official: Majority of fresh meat now bought at Coles & Woolworths

Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 16-Apr-18

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey shows that Australia’s two largest supermarkets captured more than 50% of the $13bn+ fresh meat market for the first time in 2017. Woolworths Group had a 26.5% market share, up 1.1% since 2016, while Coles Group’s share rose 2% to 24.3%; their combined share of the fresh meat market was larger than all other retail outlets, including rival supermarkets Aldi and IGA, butchers, markets, other supermarkets and other non-supermarkets combined. Both Australian supermarket giants have enjoyed stronger growth in the fresh meat market over the past year than rival Aldi, which now has a 9.6% share of the fresh meat market, up 0.9% in a year – although all three have clearly taken substantial market share from traditional butchers. Ten years ago butchers and markets had 32% of Australia’s fresh meat market; today this is just under a quarter (24%). In the last 12 months fresh meat market share for butchers and markets dropped 3% points. This is the steepest drop of any time period in the last decade.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, WOOLWORTHS GROUP LIMITED – ASX WOW, COLES GROUP LIMITED, ALDI STORES SUPERMARKETS PTY LTD, IGA

Woolworths increases lead in $100b+ grocery war

Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 26-Mar-18

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey shows that Woolworths had 32.2% of Australia’s total grocery market (including fresh food) in the year to December 2017, an increase of 0.8% over the 2016 result. Coles Group’s share of the grocery market rose by 0.1% in 2017, to 28.8%. Aldi’s market share rose 0.8% to 12.1%, but IGA’s share fell 1.1% to 7.4%. Non-supermarket food retailers such as butchers, fruit shops, markets and convenience stores currently have an 11.8% market share, which is down by a combined 0.8% points. Meanwhile, very few customers only shop at one supermarket; although 72.7% of grocery buyers shop at Woolworths, just 8% shop only at Woolworths. Likewise, 70% of grocery buyers shop at Coles, but only 6.6% shop there exclusively. The store overlap in shoppers of the big two is very large, with over half of them shopping at both Coles and Woolworths.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, WOOLWORTHS GROUP LIMITED – ASX WOW, COLES GROUP LIMITED, ALDI STORES SUPERMARKETS PTY LTD, IGA

Coles’ capital structure key to Wesfarmers demerger success

Original article by Sue Mitchell
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 & 32 : 20-Mar-18

Wesfarmers will retain a shareholding of up to 20 per cent in Coles and a seat on its board if the proposed demerger proceeds. David Errington from Bank of America Merrill Lynch does not endorse this idea, saying it would be better for Coles long-term if it has an independent board and share register. Investors and analysts are of the view that the potential for Coles to succeed once the demerger is completed will depend largely on its balance sheet and capital structure.

CORPORATES
WESFARMERS LIMITED – ASX WES, COLES SUPERMARKETS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, BANK OF AMERICA AUSTRALIA LIMITED, MERRILL LYNCH (AUSTRALIA) PTY LTD, WOOLWORTHS GROUP LIMITED – ASX WOW, KKR AND COMPANY LP, JP MORGAN AUSTRALIA LIMITED, PARADICE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, AIRLIE FUNDS MANAGEMENT PTY LTD

Wesfarmers in push for tax cuts

Original article by Eli Greenblat
The Australian – Page: 17 & 27 : 22-Feb-18

Wesfarmers has posted a 2017-18 interim net profit of $A212m, which is 86.6 per cent lower than previously. Group revenue rose 2.8 per cent to $A35.9bn, while Bunnings’ revenue in Australia and New Zealand was 10.2 per cent higher at $A6.566bn. Supermarket chain Coles posted revenue of $A19.978bn, which is in line with the previous corresponding period. Wesfarmers CEO Rob Scott has called for corporate tax cuts to ensure that Australian companies are globally competitive, adding that a lower tax rate will ultimately boost wages.

CORPORATES
WESFARMERS LIMITED – ASX WES, BUNNINGS GROUP LIMITED, COLES SUPERMARKETS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, TARGET AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, KMART AUSTRALIA LIMITED, OFFICEWORKS SUPERSTORES PTY LTD, COCA-COLA AMATIL LIMITED – ASX CCL, UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Penalty-rate victory for Coles workers

Original article by Richard Ferguson
The Australian – Page: 2 : 24-Jan-18

The Shop Distributive & Allied Employees’ ­Association has negotiated a new enterprise agreement with grocery giant Coles that includes higher penalty rates for staff who work at night and on weekends. The deal includes an annual pay rise for all employees, and a one-off payment to ensure that their take-home pay is not adversely affected by the new wage deal. Coles workers will vote on the proposed enterprise agreement in mid-February. Coles and the SDA have been negotiating a new deal for about 12 months.

CORPORATES
COLES SUPERMARKETS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, SHOP, DISTRIBUTIVE AND ALLIED EMPLOYEES’ ASSOCIATION, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Woolworths facing union boycott threat

Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 6 : 29-Nov-17

The New South Wales branch of the National Union of Workers has called on consumers to boycott Woolworths in the lead-up to Christmas. This follows the supermarket chain’s decision to stand down union delegates in early November over alleged breaches of safety rules. The delegates, who work at its Minchinbury warehouse, were stood down after allegedly telling other workers to take off their protective vests, in protest at the alleged bullying of staff there by a manager. A Woolworths spokesperson says it hopes to conclude an investigation into the matter in the week ending 2 December.

CORPORATES
NATIONAL UNION OF WORKERS, WOOLWORTHS LIMITED – ASX WOW, UNILEVER AUSTRALIA LIMITED, CARLTON AND UNITED BREWERIES

Woolies’ warning to suppliers

Original article by Sue Mitchell
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 : 24-Nov-17

Woolworths chairman Gordon Cairns has urged food and grocery suppliers to think carefully before putting their goods for sale on Amazon. Speaking at its AGM on 23 November, he said retailers such as Woolworths might find that they could not compete with Amazon’s prices, and so might decide to start selling more of their private label goods in preference to brand-name products. CEO Brad Banducci said that Uber Eats could be as a big a threat to Woolworths’ business as Amazon over the next year.

CORPORATES
WOOLWORTHS LIMITED – ASX WOW, AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, UBER AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, BIG W DISCOUNT STORES, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, BP AUSTRALIA LIMITED