Coles Liquor is benefiting from more focus on the problem division, says Wesfarmers CEO Richard Goyder.
Wesfarmers
stated that Coles’ same store food and liquor revenuewas up 3.5 per
cent in the third quarter, after correcting for the inclusion of New
Year’s Eve in the prior period and the timing of the Easter holiday.
Online
trade paper, The Shout, reported that with the liquor business stripped
out, Coles’ food increased a stronger 3.9 per cent for the period, but
Goydersaid he was not troubled by this discrepancy.
“I’m not too
worried about the drag on sales growth, because some of the sales we’ve
been having in liquor haven’t been particularly profitable sales,”
Goyder said.
“I’m not as concerned with that as I am improving fundamentally the profit of the liquor business.”
Overall
sales for the third quarter were $6.7 billion, up 3.9 per cent on the
last year. Food and liquor revenue were up 4.7 % to $21.7 bn for the
year to date.
“[The Liquor business is] about 10 % of Coles’ sales and half of that in terms of profit,” Goyder said.
“Ultimately
we’d want it to be carrying its weight so the profitability’s got to be
improved, that’s through stronger stores, improved mix, better
pricing.”
“It’s getting more attention at the moment... and we’re making some steady progress, I think Andrew Charlton and the team are doing some very good work on it.”
