Wesfarmers reported third quarter growth from all of its retail divisions, with Coles and Bunnings being the top performers.
For the three months ending March, Coles reported its sales grew by $8.4 billion. This is up 6.4 per cent from the same period last year. This is the sixteenth consecutive quarter of growth in comparable sales and sales density.
Coles managing director Ian McLeod said the growth was driven by the company’s ‘Down Down’ campaign.
“The reinvigoration and extension of our ‘Down Down’ campaign during the quarter began in January with the lowering of prices on hundreds of grocery lines that our customers buy most. The vast majority of these lower prices have been funded by Coles, and this investment has been welcomed by our customers and has resulted in good grocery volume growth,” he said.
“Customers also responded positively in the period to our re-launched flybuys program and the targeted offers we are providing, which complement our broader, existing offers.”
Meanwhile, its home improvement division leaped 6.7 per cent, with solid comparable store sales growth of 4 per cent.
“The Bunnings business continued to execute its strategic agenda, achieving good growth in all major trading regions and key product categories,” Richard Goyer, Wesfarmers managing director, said.
Trailing behind, but yet with a positive result is Target up 1 per cent and Kmart up 3.6 per cent in third quarter sales.
“Target recorded total sales growth of 1.0 per cent during the quarter with comparable sales 1.9 per cent above last year. Following strong sales growth in January, trading at Target progressively softened during the balance of the quarter. Stronger apparel and toy sales offset continued difficult conditions in electrical and entertainment categories,” Goyder said.
“Kmart’s total sales increased 3.6 per cent for the quarter, with comparable sales growing 3.0 per cent. Kmart’s continued investment in lowering prices on everyday family items, together with a strong focus on availability and in store execution, continued to drive strong transaction and volume growth.”