Australia: Woolworths Retail Sales Rise Includes Petrol

Woolies reported sales of $12.8 billion for the 14 weeks ended October 5, up 9.6 per cent from the same period a year earlier. Petrol sales were up 30.4 per cent by value and 1.7 per cent by volume as surging pump prices continued to hit motorists. The domestic food and liquor division managed to boost its sales by 8.3 per cent to $8.3 billion, or 6 per cent when the benefit of new store openings was removed.

Woolies chief executive Michael Luscombe has defied the gloom of financial markets to maintain forecasts for full-year sales growth ``in the high single digits''.   The only black spot was the New Zealand supermarkets division, where sales were down 5.6 per cent to $1.01 billion owing to the Kiwi economic downturn. Mr Luscombe said the company was still considering whether to buy New Zealand general merchandise chain The Warehouse, noting that he was more interested in the long-term strategic value of the business rather than its likely performance during the current economic slump.

Mr Luscombe also said he did not support calls from retail industry bodies to delay the introduction of unit pricing in order to spare retailers from having to invest in costly new systems at a time of economic downturn. ``We've already spent the money _ we've been developing this for 15 months or so,'' he said, adding that it would take about six months to roll out the new pricing system across the Woolworths store portfolio. Unit pricing, under which the price of goods is displayed by standard measures such as per 1kg or 100mL, is expected to be made compulsory in supermarkets.

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