Coles’ lifts profits as it steps up campaigns, picks up sales from Woolies
“These actions enabled the supermarkets’ network to generate approximately $120 million in incremental sales,” Coles stated in its earnings report.
The nation’s second-largest supermarket also continued to invest in its home-brand range during the first half of the 2025 financial year by rolling out over 530 new products. Revenue from Coles-exclusive products lifted by 5.1 per cent, with customers especially taking to the more premium Coles Finest range during Christmas.
A cost-saving initiative also delivered $157 million in savings, helping to offset rising wages, while theft losses reduced marginally.
Both Coles and Woolworths plan to cut their product ranges in the name of simplification, with Weckert pointing to the example of 13 types of table salt on offer.
“We would describe it as range optimisation, where we’re actually looking to remove duplication, where we have lots of products that are very similar in their type,” she said.
“When we reduce complexity, that drives efficiency for us as a business, but it actually also makes it easier for the customer to shop.”
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The grocery chain said it’s seeing food inflation – which was 7.2 per cent this time two years ago – easing further, now at 1 per cent excluding tobacco. Prices for apples, pears, stone fruits and red meat products are falling, while shipping costs and raw ingredient prices like cocoa are elevated.
Coles declared a 37¢ fully franked interim dividend to shareholders.
More and more Australians are turning online to do their grocery shopping, with Coles’ e-commerce sales rising 22.6 per cent in supermarket items and online liquor sales rising 9.2 per cent. However, liquor has been a poor-performing arm of Coles for some time, with bottle shop sales ticking up just 0.8 per cent and earnings diving 20.2 per cent.
Parting chairman James Graham has led the board since the supermarket demerged from Wesfarmers and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2018, and has overseen major investments in technology and automation, the sale of Coles Express to Viva Energy and other key strategic decisions. Allen has been a non-executive director on the Coles board since September.
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