Woolworths’ Food business continues to perform well, but its Fashion Beauty Home (FBH) and Australian-based Country Road Group (CRG) seriously hurt the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group’s results for the first half of the 2025 financial year showed that the strong performance of Woolworths Food was offset by lower contributions from its apparel businesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It said that the South African FBH and Australian CRG are in the throes of a huge transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In South Africa, discretionary spending remains constrained. However, sentiment is improving due to moderating inflation, easing interest rates, and suspending load shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite improved consumer sentiment and the uplift in retail sector sales, high interest rates and elevated living costs continue to weigh on consumer behaviour in Australia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, group turnover and concession sales for the period increased by 5.7% and 6.2%, respectively, on a constant currency basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group said that softer-than-expected topline growth in its apparel business, as well as pressure on gross profit margins and the expenditure on its transformation initiatives, hurt profitability, especially CRG. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the group did receive a boost from part of the sale of David Jones. Despite selling David Jones in 2023, Woolworths retained the flagship David Jones property in Melbourne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group subsequently sold the property for A$223.5 million (R2.6 billion), recognising a profit on the disposal. This increased earnings per share by 20.9% to 245.4 cents per share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Headline earnings per share dropped by 24% to 152.8 cents per share, with the group reducing its interim dividend by 27.7% to 107.0 cents per share:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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