Woolworths Group saw its sales increase in the first quarter of FY23 despite falling sales in its discount department store Big W and other businesses.
The supermarket chain witnessed its sales increase 5.3 per cent year over year to $17.22 billion in the 14 weeks to October 1.
Yet sales at Big W declined 5.5 per cent to $1.13 billion as customers reduced discretionary spending. Sales loss from its other businesses, which include Woolworths’ investments in Quantium and MyDeal, narrowed to $22 million.
“While customers continue to be cautious and are trading down within categories, we are seeing solid growth in summer clothing and in opening price point products that offer real value,” said Brad Banducci, CEO at Woolworths.
“While profit in the half to date has been impacted by the decline in sales and higher wage costs, the Christmas trading period will determine the success of the [full] half.”
On the other hand, sales of the Australian food segment rose 6.4 per cent to $13.08 billion, while the Australian B2B segment inched 1.5 per cent higher to $1.13 billion.
“Importantly for our customers, inflation in our food businesses continued to moderate over the quarter driven mainly by deflation in fruit and vegetables and meat as lower input costs in these categories have led to lower retail prices,” said Banducci.
Sales of the New Zealand supermarket business jumped 5.8 per cent to $1.91 billion.
