Aussie Animals cards help double Woolworths growth

Sue Mitchell
February 6, 2014
The incredible popularity of Australian Animals collectible cards with Australia’s primary school kids helped nearly double Woolworths’ sales growth in the December quarter.
Woolworths announced rising grocery and produce prices and its ‘Aussie Animals’ trading card promotion have helped it lift group sales by 5.9 per cent to $16.16 billion in the three months ending December, almost double the rate of growth in the first quarter of 2014.
Sales growth in Woolworths’ earnings engine-room, the Australian food and liquor business, rose 5.1 per cent, with same-store sales growth of 3.4 per cent augmented by the roll out of new stores.
Same-store sales growth exceeded analysts’ forecasts around 2.75 per cent and compared with growth of 2.5 per cent in the first quarter.
New stores and last year’s acquisition of online and catalogue retailer EziBuy also buoyed revenues at BIG W, offsetting weak same-store sales.
BIG W’s total sales rose 3.3 per cent but same-store sales fell 1.7 per cent, with price deflation countering higher sales volumes.
Analysts had expected same-store sales to fall as much as 2.7 per cent.