Australia's Woolworths first-quarter sales up as discounted goods fill cash-strapped carts (updated)

Woolworths

27/10/2026 21:54

Woolworths posts 6.9% growth in Q1 Australian Food sales
Reports Q1 group sales of A$19.35 billion
Says average prices excluding tobacco fell 0.7% in Q1
Rewrites, adds analyst comments in paragraphs 6-7 and 10, details throughout
By Shivangi  Lahiri
Oct 28 (Reuters) - Woolworths WOW.AX said first-quarter sales rose on Wednesday as budget-conscious Australian shoppers hunted for discounts and promotions, while the grocer warned cost-of-living pressures were weighing on customers.
The country's largest supermarket chain reported a 4.7% rise in group sales to A$19.35 billion ($13.60 billion) for the 14 weeks ended October 4, largely in line with Visible Alpha's consensus estimate of A$19.34 billion.
    Australia has grappled with inflation since the Middle East conflict drove up fuel and raw material costs, prompting multiple rate hikes from the Reserve Bank of Australia this year and pushing shoppers toward discounts under stretched budgets.
Woolworths said average prices, excluding tobacco, fell 0.7% in the quarter, the eleventh consecutive quarterly decline, helped by an expanded Lower Shelf Price program and price cuts, particularly on everyday essentials.
"We recognise that many of our customers remain under significant pressure," said CEO Amanda Bardwell.
"Higher cost of living pressure encourages consumers to cut back on discretionary spend, including dining out, while prioritising essential groceries including switching to home-brand options," said Grady Wulff, senior market analyst at Bell Direct.
"Woolworths can sustain competitive pricing for now, but the test will be if sales volumes and productivity improvements continue to offset inflationary costs over the coming months."
    Sales at its Australian Food segment rose 6.9% over the quarter, benefitting at the start from its Disney DIS.N Ooshies campaign that ran from mid-July till late August.
"In October to date, sales growth in Australian Food (Woolworths Food Retail) is broadly in line with the Q1 post Ooshies trading," Bardwell said.
It implies a 6% sales growth run rate, well ahead of the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of 4.6% growth, according to analysts at Jefferies. 
Sales growth at Woolworths' New Zealand Food segment has moderated since the completion of the Ooshies campaign, the grocer said, reflecting a weakening macro environment and highly competitive market.
Shares of the company fell as much as 1.4% to A$40.43 by 2303 GMT, before reversing course to edge 0.2% higher.

($1 = 1.4229 Australian dollars)

 (Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri and Nikita Maria Jino in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
 ((Nikita.Jino@thomsonreuters.com;))