Woolworths Group Limited (WOW.AX) has announced a 4.5% rise in its group sales for the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year, reaching A$18.00 billion, up from A$17.22 billion in the previous year. When Petstock sales are excluded, the group's quarterly sales increased by 3.3%.
Looking forward, the company anticipates that customers will continue to be highly value-focused due to ongoing cost-of-living pressures throughout the rest of the fiscal year 2025. The first quarter saw Australian Food sales climb 3.8% to A$13.595 billion, with Woolworths Food Retail sales rising by 3.6%, or 4.9% when excluding tobacco, driven by significant growth in Long Life product categories.
The Australian Food EBIT for the first half is expected to fall short of earlier predictions. The current expectation is for EBIT, including A$40 million in additional supply chain costs, to range between A$1.480 billion and A$1.530 billion for the first half of fiscal year 2025, a decrease from A$1.5951 billion in the previous year.
The company also highlighted continued momentum for WooliesX, with total sales jumping 21.7% to A$2.565 billion, showing growth across all platforms.
In the business-to-business (B2B) sector, Australian total sales for the first quarter reported a 6.9% increase over the previous year, reaching A$1.473 billion, spurred by robust growth in PFD, export meat, and expansion in the Group's third-party supply chain business.
In New Zealand, Food total sales advanced by 2.7% in the first quarter of 2025 to NZ$2.120 billion. Comparable sales rose by 3.4%, though overall sales growth was tempered by temporary store closures.
Conversely, BIG W's total sales experienced a slight decline of 0.9%, tallying A$1.121 billion for the first quarter.
