Australia news

Woolworths has launched a new beauty department in its flagship Town Hall store in central Sydney. New beauty bar, dedicated staff and free treatments On our last visit to Woolworths Town Hall store the work for the new concept was underway and this week sees the launch of a new beauty category for Australia's market-leading retailer. The new beauty department features a unique store-in-...

Wesfarmers has announced the appointment of Stuart Machin as managing director of Target, its general merchandise business. Long career in grocery retail Mr Machin replaces Dene Rogers, who is leaving to pursue other opportunities. He has held the position of stores development and operations director at Coles  since August 2008, where a key focus was the development and rollout of new sto...

Last week we examined how retailers in Australia are creating formats that are strengthening multi-channel competition. However, moving from the macro environment and drilling down further, retailers and suppliers are progressively starting to evolve their strategies to become shopper and insight led, with differentiation a word that we are increasingly hearing. An area we are likely to see i...

With the changing dynamics of an increasingly competitive and unique grocery market, Australian retailers continue to drive strong growth, relative to their counterparts in other developed nations. However, despite a highly concentrated network of supermarkets, there remains much headroom to sweat more from existing bricks and mortar assets across all channels. International retailers creati...

Costco’s second quarter sales, for the 12 weeks to February 17, increased by 8.2% to $24.3bn, with comparable store sales (excluding the impact of fuel and currency), up 5%. Net income attributable to Costco increased by 38.8% to $547m. A resilient model despite economic headwinds Costco delivered a strong set of results for the quarter, despite the headwinds of higher payroll taxes and ...

Coles Express is to roll out a scheme whereby customers using its ATM machines receive discount vouchers for use in-store, according to local press reports. Follows trial earlier this year The scheme was trialled in January and offered discount vouchers on products from beer to mobile phone recharging.  The rollout will see customers who use Coles Express's 600-strong network of ATMs re...

Aldi Australia has launched its first lunchbox initiative, which is designed to help parents put together a nutritious lunchbox for their children. Creating balanced lunchboxes Aldi Australia has teamed up with Healthy Kids Association to create this new initiative that provides users with the information and support they need to create a lunchbox with a high nutritional content. A bold...

Woolworths has released its half year results for the period ending 31 December 2012, with group EBIT for continuing operations up 6.1% to AU$1,934.7m and net profits after tax for continuing operations before significant items up 5.5% to AU$1,247.2m. All business divisions contributed to EBIT growth with Australian and New Zealand supermarkets' EBIT growth recorded at 6.0% and 8.9% respect...

This week, Metcash has announced the appointment of Ian Morrice as CEO, and revealed details of a major new supply agreement with Supabarn Supermarkets.  Mr Morrice takes over at end June Mr Morrice will officially take over as chief executive on 30 June 2013, upon the retirement of Andrew Reitzer.  He has been a director of Metcash since June 2012 and before that was group CEO and MD of...

Coles has become the first Australian supermarket to trial a mobile wallet payment system, a significant move as the retailer looks to better leverage the use of the smartphone. Contactless mobile payment and flybuy points with a single swipe Coles has begun trials with 60 customers to test the new Coles Mastercard Mobile Wallet. The new app for smartphones will enable customers to pay for...