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☆ Australia marks national day that stokes patriotism and anger
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-26 | by ( Angus Watson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Sydney CNN —“Australia Day is Dead!” Indigenous activist Gwenda Stanley chants into the loudspeaker, as a crowd of thousands breaks into applause. This is not a day to celebrate.”Nearby, Kevin Shaw-Taylor agrees January 26 is “absolutely not” an appropriate day for national celebrations. On the other side of the city, the Australia Day party was in full swing. A yacht sails in Sydney Harbor to mark Australia Day on January 16, 2024. Instead of guilt on Australia Day, a vast number of Australians “associate it with summer fun,” says Bongiorno, from the ANU.

Persons: Gwenda Stanley, It’s, Lynda, June Coe, Jenny Evans, ”, Grace, Elise, Kevin Shaw, Taylor, Arthur Phillip, Dan Himbrechts, EFE, Frank Bongiorno, –, Asanka Ratnayake, Chelsea Watego, “, Peter Dutton, ” Dutton, Dutton, Brad Banducci, Banducci, ” Banducci, Captain Cook, Queen Victoria, Queen, Diego Fedele, “ I’m, UQ’s, we’ve, we’re Organizations: Sydney CNN —, Indigenous, “, CNN, Australia, First Nations, Sydney, British Royal Navy, Australian National University, ANU, Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islanders, Voters, Nations, Curumba, Sea, Indigenous Voice, Coalition, Woolworths, Sovereign Movement, Blak Locations: Sydney, “ Australia, Belmore, Sydney’s, Australia, Sydney Harbor, Melbourne, Queensland, Queen Victoria

Customers seen in the self-service checkout area of a Coles supermarket in Sydney, Australia, June 17, 2020. REUTERS/Loren Elliott/File Photo/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsOct 26 (Reuters) - Australian retailers are ramping up their tech security initiatives, including placing cameras at self-checkouts and body-worn cameras on staff, to combat a surge in stock theft and customer aggression aggravated by the cost of living crisis. "Unfortunately the data suggests it's continuing to occur," added Thomson, whose firm counts Coles and Woolworths as clients. Reports of store theft surged 23% in Australia's three largest states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, home to three-quarters of the population, in the year to March 2023, according to the latest available government statistics, as COVID-related restrictions ended. Reports of threatening behaviour by shoppers rose to 17% of all security reports logged by Australian store staff in 2023, from 10% three years earlier, according to Auror data reviewed by Reuters.

Persons: Loren Elliott, Phil Thomson, Thomson, Coles, Leah Weckert, Weckert, Brad Banducci, Gerard Dwyer, Rishav Chatterjee, Byron Kaye, Praveen Menon, Christian Organizations: Coles, REUTERS, Woolworths, New, Reuters, National, of, Allied Employees Association, Thomson Locations: Sydney, Australia, New Zealand, Australia's, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Bengaluru

People walk past a Woolworths supermarket following the easing of restrictions implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sydney, Australia, June 16, 2020. A day earlier, Coles said a cost blowout sent its underlying annual profit lower. Woolworths said its earnings margin from food was 6% in the year to end-June, from 5.3% a year earlier. The company gave no profit guidance except that growth in Australian food sales, its main earnings driver, remained strong although inflation was moderating. "We think the result will be taken well in the context of yesterday’s weaker result from Coles," Citi analysts said.

Persons: Loren Elliott, Coles, Brad Banducci, Jim Stanford, Byron Kaye, Nausheen, Archishma Iyer, Krishna Chandra Eluri, Stephen Coates, Muralikumar Organizations: Woolworths, REUTERS, JPMorgan, Macquarie Group, Citi, Centre, Future, Australia Institute, Thomson Locations: Sydney, Australia, Coles, Bengaluru

☆ Australia's Woolworths posts nearly 5% rise in annual profit
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

People walk past a Woolworths supermarket following the easing of restrictions implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sydney, Australia, June 16, 2020. REUTERS/Loren Elliott/file photo Acquire Licensing RightsAug 23 (Reuters) - Australia's largest supermarket chain Woolworths Group (WOW.AX) reported an 4.6% rise in full-year profit on Wednesday, helped by elevated shelf prices on the back of rising inflation and increasing normalization of customer habits. The company said annual net profit after tax from continuing operations, after significant items, was A$1.62 billion ($1.04 billion), compared with A$1.55 billion a year earlier. The Sydney-based company also declared a final dividend of 58 Australian cents per share, higher than 53 cents per share declared last year. ($1 = 1.5567 Australian dollars)Reporting by Nausheen Thusoo and Archishma Iyer in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra EluriOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Loren Elliott, Brad Banducci, Nausheen Thusoo, Archishma Iyer, Krishna Chandra Organizations: Woolworths, REUTERS, Thomson Locations: Sydney, Australia, Bengaluru

☆ Australia central bank stuns market with 25-bps hike, says more might be needed
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Wrapping up its May policy meeting, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) lifted rates to 3.85% and said "some further" tightening may be required to ensure that inflation returns to target in a reasonable timeframe. Investors reacted by pushing the Australian dollar 0.9% higher to $0.6687, while three-year bond futures slumped 16 ticks to 96.85. "Given the importance of returning inflation to target within a reasonable timeframe, the Board judged that a further increase in interest rates was warranted today." Home prices are also showing signs of bottoming out, having risen for the second straight month in April, supported by rising migration levels and a chronic shortage in housing supply. Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Shri NavaratnamOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Woolworths and smaller rival Coles Group Ltd (COL.AX) have experienced wild swings in Australian consumer behaviour since COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 sparked grocery stockpiling. As with Coles' interim result reported on Tuesday, the Woolworths profit gain was helped by a sharp decline in COVID-19 related expenses. Woolworths shares were up 2% by midsession, against a 0.3% dip in the broader benchmark(.AXJO), as analysts cheered the prospect of profit margin growth at a company exposed to rising supply costs. "Momentum in the key Australian Food business remains solid, with sales growth rates better than expected in early 2H23," E&P Financial retail analyst said Phillip Kimber in a client note. Woolworths declared an interim dividend of 46 Australian cents per share, compared with 39 Australian cents a year earlier.

read moreIt also shows Woolworths' grocery dominance being challenged: its September quarter sales showed higher inflation than at Coles, which reported results on Oct. 26, while Woolworths food sales went backwards compared to higher supermarket sales at Coles. In the same period, Australian food prices for Woolworths rose 7.3%, compared to 7.1% at Coles. Woolworths food sales were below consensus forecasts and Coles "appears to have closed the sales gap somewhat", Jefferies analysts said in a research note. Australian food sales "did not improve ... despite rising inflation", UBS analysts noted. Including all divisions such as discount department store and its business-to-business unit, group sales rose 1.8% to A$16.4 billion, Woolworths said, roughly in line with analyst forecasts.

☆ Australia's Woolworths sales rise on higher prices, grocery demand stumbles
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 3 (Reuters) - Australia's biggest supermarket chain Woolworths Group (WOW.AX) said on Thursday first-quarter sales rose 1.8% as higher shelf prices and strength in its wholesale business offset a slowdown in grocery demand. Last week, rival Coles Group Ltd (COL.AX) CEO Steven Cain said cost-of-living pressures were changing customer behaviour. Total group sales for Woolworths rose to A$16.36 billion ($10.39 billion) in the first quarter and narrowly beat a Jefferies estimate of A$16.33 billion. The country's heavily populated east coast experienced flooding earlier this year, worsening cost-of-living pressures. read moreWoolworths' topline growth was also helped by its Australian business-to-business segment, where sales rose 26% to A$1.20 billion.

☆ Australian grocer Woolworths' quarterly sales rise on higher prices
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 3 (Reuters) - Australian grocer Woolworths Group (WOW.AX) said on Thursday first-quarter sales rose 1.8%, helped by higher prices of products and a jump in sales in its domestic business-to-business (B2B) segment. Retailers have been raising prices to cope with higher fuel and ingredient costs. Total group sales for the country's biggest supermarket chain rose to A$16.36 billion ($10.39 billion) in the first quarter and narrowly beat a Jefferies estimate of A$16.33 billion. In Australian B2B, quarterly sales surged 26% to about A$1.20 billion, which helped offset a 0.5% drop in the company's biggest segment, Australian Food, and an 8.1% fall in sales from New Zealand. ($1 = 1.5746 Australian dollars)Reporting by Harshita Swaminathan and Navya Mittal in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika SyamnathOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Australia's Coles flags climate challenge as floods push up inflation
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Byron Kaye | Harshita Swaminathan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

2 grocer Coles Group Ltd flagged climate change as its next big operational challenge on Wednesday as floods pushed up prices in the first quarter, lifting sales revenue but squeezing the farming supply chain. Coles shares fell 3% by mid-session, against a flat overall market, as analysts weighed the impact of inflation, which economists also blame on soaring energy prices, on profit growth. Shares of larger rival Woolworths Group Ltd, which reports September quarter sales on Nov. 3, were also down 3%. At its annual meeting, Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci said inflation remained a concern and the company expected the operating environment to remain challenging. With Australian inflation at a 32-year high of 7.3% in the September quarter, Coles CEO Cain said cost of living pressures were changing customer behaviour, with lower-income shoppers buying less fresh produce and more canned goods, and “catering in bulk” to reduce food waste.

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