Stepping up to his new position as company CEO, Grant O’Brien laid out Woolworths’ strategic plan for the next five years.
Speaking at the company’s AGM, O’Brien highlighted that while there are succeeding parts of the business there are also others that are not performing so well.
“Many parts of our business are performing very well with solid momentum, areas like Fresh Food, Liquor, Countdown in New Zealand, Hotels, and Home Improvement,” he said.
“Other areas are not accelerating quickly enough for my liking and they need a new focus and a new energy. But I am committed to realising success in all of our businesses and investing now for the long term.”
As part of the company’s five year plan, Woolworths plans to extend and defend its leadership in the food and liquor market, as well as to grow its portfolio to maximise shareholder value, beginning with coming up with “new and compelling reasons for customers to shop in BIG W, either in-store or online”.
O’Brien also said that it will look to build the business by expanding its multichannel strategy.
“The most obvious growth ambition is to be Australia’s undisputed leader in multichannel retailing,” he said.
“That means having the winning combination of bricks and mortar, with a versatile online platform, which delivers real, incremental growth and market leading innovations like the upgraded supermarket app launching early in the New Year that will let you shop from your mobile.”
At the same time, Woolworths plans to improve productivity in its supply chain and leverage its investment in customer data to fuel growth and customer centricity.
“We have more than 8 million members of our loyalty programs, which provide us with rich customer insights so we can have the most compelling offers in the market,” O’Brien said.
“We are on track to open 39 new supermarkets in this financial year, almost double our store openings in the last financial year and create 10,000 net new jobs from new store growth this financial year.”