Woolies’ biggest fall since 2015

WOOLWORTHS will return $1.7 billion to shareholders following the sale of its petrol station network and has managed to wrest the lead from Coles in the grocery sales race.

But Australia’s biggest grocer has suffered its biggest oneday market rout in almost 3½ years after its first-half profit fell short of expectations.

Woolworths yesterday re- ported a net profit of $979 million for the 27 weeks to December 30 — up 1 per cent from a year earlier. But the haul was markedly less than analysts were expecting, and shares in the retailer slumped by more than 5 per cent yesterday, wiping more than $2 billion from its value, in its biggest single-session fall since October 2015.

Sales at Woolworths, which also owns Big W and liquor chain Dan Murphy’s, rose 2.5 per cent to $33.2 billion for the half, less than the 2.6 per cent growth rate key rival Coles notched up in the same period.

Sales in the key Australian food space rose 2.3 per cent to $19.9 billion — again less than the 3.6 per cent growth Coles notched up for the period.

But Woolworths overtook Coles in the final three months of the year, recording 2.7 per cent sales growth for the quarter against 1.3 per cent at Coles as the impact of the latter’s Little Shop collectables promotion faded.

Big W was a bright spot in Woolworths’ report card, with its sales climbing 2.7 per cent ro $2.1 billion.