The supermarket retail sector in Australia has the distinction of being one of the most concentrated in the world (Wardle and Baranovic, 2009: 477). The sector is dominated by Coles and Woolworths (owned by Wesfarmers Group and Woolworths Limited respectively), following a string of acquisitions and expansions by the ‘big two’ parent companies over the past twenty years. Woolworths currently owns 840 supermarkets in Australia as of 2011 (Woolworths Limited, 2011: 86), up 17 from 823 in 2010 (ibid) while Coles owns 741 (Wesfarmers Limited, 2011: 20), down 1 from 742 in 2010 (Wesfarmers Limited, 2010: 20).
Woolworths is an Australian based trade group specializing in general products. In New Zealand, Countdown and Woolworths are fully owned
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The following paper will focus on analyzing Woolworth’s financials, performance and operational position using the financial ratio analysis learnt in this topic. The report will also look at benchmarking it against Coles Westfarmers Pty Limited (CW).
This paper will provide financial performance evaluation for the last two years 2013/2014 using the following criteria:
• Profitability
• Efficiency
• Short term solvency
• Long term solvency
• Market based ratios
1.1 Benchmarks
Depending upon the type and price level and various products that are sold to consumers together with the positioning of a business and the size, cost structures will always vary.
It appears that during the past five years the average profit margin across subdivisions has fallen to 5.5% of revenue in both 2014/15. It appears that there has also been weak trading conditions and discretionary spending which has caused retailers to carry excess stock in their stores. This meant that different retailers had to discount heavily in order to clear their inventory. Online shopping has become increasingly popular with consumers which has caused strong price-based competition between organisations and external operators, this in turn has also caused eroding profit margins.
The financial performance evaluation using the above criteria will provide analysis recommendations (by
Aldi appears to have been quite a success over recent years. For example, Aldi have approximately 9,000 stores across the world in 18 different countries. The company in 2014 (particularly in the United kingdom) made a profit of over 157.9 Million Pounds ($254.6 million). This has almost tripled from 2012. This means that in Australia, the company now poses as a large threat to the larger supermarket companies like, Woolworths and Coles. This is because of how low Aldi food prices are. The company offers similar foods to the other supermarket companies but at a significantly lower price.
Financial ratio analysis is a valuable tool that allows one to assess the success, potential failure or future prospects of the company (Bazley 2012). The ratios are helpful in spotting useful trends that can indicate the warning signs of
Secondary information is collected for this case. This case study limited only one techniques of financial analysis that is Ratio Analysis and also taken a single company. Thus the conclusion of the analysis carried out in a professional manner will be able to correctly describe the evaluation of the company and to substantiate the user’s decisions.
In the United States, the food retail industry is absolutely massive. According to Statista, this industry brings in nearly 5.27 trillion dollars annually and 594.4 billion of that is from grocery store sales. In this market, the 20-ton gorilla in the room is Walmart, racking in nearly 20% of the entire market at around 118 billion dollars in 2013 according to the Harvard Business School case study. Following Walmart, Kroger and Costco own the biggest next largest slices bringing in 76 billion and 71 billion respectively. In this highly competitive market that has some of the smallest margins of any industry it can be tough to get ahead and even tougher to grow. However, Trader Joe’s has managed to pierce what was once a very small world
1. Introduction The intended purpose of this report is to outline the nature of the Australian retail market, specifically the retail food sector. This report will then discuss the role of market segmentation and how it has resulted in the emergence of new retail channels available to consumers. The emergence of ALDI as a new retail channel will be the focal point of the report along with a brief overview of other new-coming organizations such as Costco. Through the use of current journal articles, books, internet sites and government publications, this report will outline the benefits of the new retail channels available to consumers, especially in regards to saving on common expenses. This report will also discuss the possible room for
ustralian groceries market was very fragmented during the 19th century and was typically solely operated, region specific and served a very small community. Improvements came about in the 20th century with the development of supermarkets which provided one stop shop for its customers (Deloitte, 2012). The supermarket and grocery sector is a major contributor to the retail turnover of Australia, (Alexander) with revenues in excess of A $ 80 Billion in 2013-2014 contributing to a little over 7% of the economy while the grocery industry alone contributes approximate 20% of that of the supermarket and the grocery sector. The industry also employs well over 280,000 people (Tonkin, 2014).
Because Woolworths and Coles generally have homogenous products, they rely on a heavy use of advertising, in order to avoid competitive pricing with each other. Oligopolies tend to avoid competitive pricing at all costs, as the worst case scenario of this is a price war, which generally cannot be escaped, resulting in one survivor, who goes on to become the monopolist.
New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland are the regions contributing over 75% of the 18.9 billion industry revenue. Westfarmers (Target and Kmart) and Woolworths (BigW) are the two largest companies competing on low-cost strategies (Porter, 1980). Myers and David Jones, holding 15.3% and 10.5% market shares respectively (Figure 1), compete on differentiated strategies targeting the upper consumer market (Porter, 1980). Over 10% of the total working population are employed in this industry (Productivity Commission, 2011).
The grocery industry is highly fragmented, with a multitude of strong regional players (Safeway, Publix, Kroeger, Wegmans, etc.). The largest grocery retailer in the United States is Wal-Mart, with an estimated 33% share. Other major retailers are targeting this segment of the industry, focused on a relatively narrow selection of key commodity foods at relatively low prices (Forbes, 2011). Whole Foods competes in a segment occupied by differentiated grocery players including Trader Joe's, Fresh Market and a highly fragmented selection of local and regional upscale and health-conscious grocery stores. The big players in the industry usually carry ranges of organic and natural products as well, siphoning off some business from Whole Foods. As Whole Foods grows, it comes into competition with mainstream grocery retailers more frequently (McLaughlin & Martin, 2009).
Woolworths is a conventional supermarket owned by Woolworths Limited. It started as a basement store in Pitt Street in 1924, and is now one of the leading competitors in the supermarket business. With over 850 stores in Australia, and 110,000 Woolworths staff, they provide
The grocery retail industry worldwide has grown in recent years to become one of the most intensely competitive industries due to the continuous amounts of new entrants. A grocery retailer is one that sells food and other general household items. Hypermarkets, supermarkets, discounters and small grocery retailers are all under the grocery retail umbrella. Between 2003 and 2008, the grocery retailing industry accounted for 45% of store-based retail values sales over the world. The figures
The Australian Supermarket Industry is the very hot topic that’s why very interesting topic now days. The Australian supermarket and grocery stores have a very severe competition in Australia mainly because of organizations competing in this mature industry are going towards cost reduction initiatives with competing advantage rather than product differentiation strategies, In other words business in this industry increase market share by charging lower prices while making reasonably fair profit. The growing popularity of ALDI – German based company of introducing its own label goods (products manufactured and sold under the retailers own brand) with low cost has forced the two giants –Woolworths and Coles to cut price
During the period 2012 and 2013, the Operating profit margin decreased from 9.2% to 5.7%. This slight decline can be attributed to the decreased revenues and the increase in tax expenses.
Profitability ratios are basically figures to measure if the company is doing well in the terms of profit[13]. ROCE ratio has increased in 2011 but in 2012 it deteriorates by 3%. This fall indicates that company was not successfully getting high returns as a percentage of its resources available, compared to 2011.
The UK supermarket industry resembles an oligopolistic industry, with several characteristics. Oligopolistic markets tend to be characterised by high concentration ratios, barriers to entry and…Since the turn of the century, the industry has been scrutinised by both the Office of Fair Trading and has been referred to the Competition Commission on two occasions. (Seely, 2012)