Big growth for Woolies Dash
Woolies Dash has seen solid 20-week growth, with Woolworths’ online food sales increasing by 26% and contributing 3.6% of South African sales.
This is according to Woolworths’ trading update for the period between 26 June and 13 November 2022.
Its food business overall has also seen solid growth, despite the challenges load-shedding presents.
“The Food business improved its run-rate through the period, growing turnover and concession sales by 7.3% and by 5.1% on a comparable store basis,” Woolworths reported.
“This was notwithstanding the considerable disruption caused by load-shedding, which has had a pronounced impact on our predominantly fresh categories across the business, in terms of foregone sales, increased waste, and significant increases in diesel costs required to support trade during the extended power outages.”
Woolworths said price movement averaged 6.3% for the period, with underlying product inflation of 7.9%.
It said it continues to invest in price to improve its overall value proposition.
Woolworths’ Fashion Beauty Home business had a strong start to the year, with turnover and concession sales growing by 10.8%, and by 10.9% on a comparable store basis.
Online clothing sales grew by 1.5% and contributed 4.2% of South African sales.
“The focus on improving the underlying financial health of our respective business in Fashion, Beauty and Home continues to deliver positive results with full-priced sales growing by 15.2% for the period, and clearance sales down over 20% in South Africa, following the smallest and most profitable winter sale to date,” it said.
“Price movement averaged 11.1% and remains positively impacted by the successful implementation of our markdown reduction strategies.”
Woolworth said its financial services book showed a year-on-year increase of 12% on 31 October 2022, driven by post-Covid recovery in consumer spending, and new business and credit card advances.
“The annualised impairment rate for the four months ended 31 October 2022 increased to 6.2%, compared to 4.1% in the prior period, due to the growth in new accounts as well as the increased financial pressure felt by consumers,” it said.
Woolworths notified shareholders that it expects its earnings-per-share to be more than 20% higher than the same time last year.
However, given the prolonged lockdowns in Australia in the prior period, it said its results for the first half of the 2023 financial year are not directly comparable to that of the preceding period.
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