Coles has reported a 4.8 per cent increase in full-year profit to $1.09 billion in its 2023 full year results ending 25 June 2023.
Continuing operations sales revenue grew 5.9 per cent to $40.5 billion, with supermarket earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increasing by 2.9 per cent to $1.77 billion, while liquor EBIT declined 3.7 per cent to $157 million.
Coles Express, which was sold to Viva Energy earlier in the year for $300 million, was classified as a discontinued operation.
Leah Weckert, CEO of Coles Group, said that since the demerger, their strategy has been to invest, innovate, and drive sustainable growth for Coles.
“This past year we opened our first automated distribution centre, achieved our target of $1 billion in benefits through our Smarter Selling program, divested our Coles Express business to allow greater focus on the core, opened or refreshed more than 300 stores, and brought hundreds of exciting new products to market.”
Despite sales growth, continuing operations net profit after tax (NPAT) fell 0.3 per cent to $1.04 billion due to inflationary cost pressures and major project implementation costs in relation to the two automated distribution centres (ADCs) and two automated customer fulfillment centres (CFCs).
James Graham, Chairman of Coles Group, said it is pleasing to record continuing sales growth and broadly stable after-tax profits from continuing operations in another year marked by challenging operating conditions.
“The payment of a steady final dividend of 30 cents per share is in line with our 80 to 90 per cent full year dividend payout policy.”
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