Cautious confidence has underpinned Woolworths’ newly revealed sales growth, with Australia’s largest supermarket keeping one eye on the geopolitical climate and its impact on consumers.

In a fiscal third quarter headlined by $18.1 billion in groupwide sales across Australian Food, NZ Food, Australian B2B, and W Living, Woolworths’ sales figures showed year-on-year growth across all of its Australian segments.

These sales – a 4.5 per cent increase on last year’s Q3 – represented “further progress” on the group’s long-term goals, its CEO CEO, Amanda Bardwell, said.

The group did not disclose its quarterly profits.

“Looking ahead, the conflict in the Middle East is creating greater uncertainty for our customers, suppliers, and team at a time when cost-of-living pressures are already acute,” Bardwell added.

This note of caution was reflected by investors; Woolworths’ stock slid by almost 9 per cent on the ASX after its results were released.

“While the impact on the group to date has been limited, higher fuel costs and secondary effects are likely to have an increasing inflationary impact as we move through the calendar year,” Bardwell said.

“I am confident we can navigate the current environment to continue to build a stronger, more resilient business while balancing the needs of all our stakeholders.”

Woolworths accompanied its third-quarter results with a price freeze announcement. In this, the supermarket portion of the business said that it would be freezing the price of 300 Woolworths-branded or exclusive products, which it labelled as “household staples”.

“We’re freezing the shelf price on 300 staples that families rely on most, like eggs, chicken breast fillets, pasta, beef sausages and nappies,” Bardwell added. 

“It’s our promise that the shelf price you see on these items today is the most you’ll pay for the next three months. We’ll invest to absorb any extra costs that are agreed with suppliers on these products to make that happen.”