Wesfarmers has announced a net profit of $1,565 billion for the full-year ended 30 June 2010, up 2.8 per cent compared to the previous corresponding period.
The group’s retail businesses recorded solid earnings growth for the year, up 15.8 per cent, despite challenging retail conditions, particularly in the second half of the year.
Managing director Richard Goyder said it was pleasing to have recorded a higher profit than last year, despite retail businesses trading against the Australian Government’s stimulus payments of the previous year and pressure on household budgets from higher interest rates and energy costs.
“Continuing improvement in our turnaround retail businesses was particularly encouraging,” said Goyder.
“Progress is being achieved in building consumer trust through improvements in product quality, in-store service and value, as well as gains in supply chain efficiency and better working capital management. While there still remains significant work ahead to extract further value from these businesses, the performance to date is reassuring.”
Goyder said the Coles division continues to make encouraging progress on its turnaround program.
"The new management team has established solid business foundations, with significant improvements made to the in-store offer and higher levels of customer trust established in the Coles brand."
Bunnings continued to perform strongly, with earnings up 10.5 per cent, supported by robust growth in both retail and trade sales.
Kmart and Officeworks made good progress in executing their strategic plans, with both businesses reporting good transaction growth.
Despite a challenging trading environment, Target reported a solid result due to a higher contribution to sales from apparel and good inventory and cost management, said Goyder.