Woolworths - Competitive Advantage

According to Pettinger(2004) The Company extends its pillar of service not only by aiding clients in making decision to shop in stores, but also making it easy for them to drop by the stores and shop. There are two potential competitors existing in the market .There is Woolworths which has an 8% stake of the vast Australian market share and uses its subsidiaries such as Home Hardware and Timer, Thrifty Link, and Masters Home Improvement. There is also Metcash which has a 7.3% market share and uses its two subsidiaries: True Value Hardware and MITRE 10. Bunnings is currently the market leader in Australia (see Appendix figure1.1).Australia’s largest and most profitable home improvement retailer with (9,012,000) customers who shop at Bunnings over period of four week July 2014. This numbers was up in July 2012/13 which was 8,435,000. Bunnings potential competitors are Mitre 10 (1,789,000) and Masters (1,217,000).

1. The grocery industry is a commoditized industry, which makes it difficult for grocers to sustain through differentiation. Buyer power is high and thus, cost leadership and operational efficiencies are critical. There is fierce competition amongst various grocery stores, with the main players such as Loblaw and A&P holding multi-banner stores in various market segments. Traditional grocery stores also lose some of their market share to drug stores, convenience stores and other retailers who have entered the industry. Threat of substitutes from fast-food and take- away outlets is not as prevalent, since many grocery stores have started stocking ready-to-eat meals and have deli services available for consumers. Competitive

Coles Myer Limited (CML) and Woolworths Limited (WOW) are two major Australian companies with extensive retail interest and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. They are Australian public companies which operate a number of retail chains.

Trader Joe's faces several threats to its business, as competitors try to invade the company’s niche and attempt to imitate the company’s core strategies. The supermarket industry itself faces a major threat, as larger chains such as grocery retailers Wal-Mart and Tesco have begun to open small-format stores that mimic the Trader Joe's approach. This invasion results in additional cost pressure for incumbents like Trader Joe’s, which had to let go employees in order to become more cost competitive.

The threat of substitutes in the food retail industry can be high among the ‘Big Four’ as switching costs are relatively low and products can be similar. However, most have their own private labels and also target slightly different markets, such as Sainsbury’s having more upmarket positioning and Tesco’s cost leadership. Waitrose offers unique and differentiated products, which are, in the eyes of the consumer, significantly superior. No other supermarket offers such premium quality products with great service and such a large range of organic products as Waitrose, so this makes them extremely difficult to substitute. (Euromonitor, 2008).

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.

If focusing on the retail industry it involved, such as Coles supermarket, the main competition comes from its countpart, Woolworth. Coles and Safeway are the two main retailors in Australia as analysed by Inside Retailing organisation in Australia. Australia’s retail industry has developed to become a leading industry in the national market as well as in the world market. As this article indicates, all entities in the retail industry confront pierce competition. Also cited in the article, a 1966 issue of trade magazine Inside the Food Industry observed that: Woolworths and Coles are now nearing 10% of total Australian retail sales. They are opening more stores than anyone else. Up until now, this figure can be much bigger than 10 percent; and the competition between retailers is increasingly intense.

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).

Grocery industry is a highly competitive market with thin profit margins. Super markets are dominant players in the grocery industry. They use grocery offerings to drive traffic to their higher profit margin retail items. With its operations efficiency, Walmart, the largest grocery retailer has been able to offer significant price drops. This also forces other grocery stores to drop prices which keeps the profit margin thin. Even with all the advantages of operational efficiency and economies of scale, Walmart’s share in grocery sales was down at 51% in 2011.

Woolworths Limited is a retail company made up of a range of businesses that provide customers with quality, range and value. This report focuses on two parts, Woolworths Ltd Strategic analysis and strategic review in order to provide advise to the Board and Senior Management of Woolworths to obtain a higher achievement in 2012. In the first part, the report demonstrates analyzing the business environment by SWOT analysis, key capabilities, major stakeholder interests and identification of generic business level strategy of supermarket unit. Then the second part provides analysis on two strategies from internal and external environment and the Corporate Balanced Scorecard analysis contributing better implement their

Coles thrive to make itself a better shopping and working place, therefore they lay stress on achieving the goal i.e.

Overall satisfaction: both Aldi & IGA came out ahead of Woolworths & Coles despite the latter stores having significantly more clout. Aldi received 5 stars for overall satisfaction, & IGA was close behind with 4. Coles & Woolworths both received an admirable 3 stars for overall satisfaction.

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).

The following report will investigate the Australian retail/grocery supermarket Woolworths and its parent company Woolworths Limited. This report will explore the success Woolworths and its contribution to the Australian economy.

High employment rates and a family culture are the main contributors to the lack of substitute services. Possible threats such as restaurants or takeaway stores do exist; however, their threat is minimal. Conversely, the intensity of rivalry among competitors is strong. In terms of market share it is extremely difficult for Aldi to penetrate the dominance of Woolworths and Coles, especially considering the current price war breaking out.