Best of Australian Fresh
Be the best for Australian fresh food, with new varieties, better in-store service, and fresher ready-made meals.
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Woolworths Group
Three medium-term priorities, Medium term
Our strategy to deliver low prices and the best range and convenience gives us confidence we can be first choice for customers
Three medium-term priorities
Woolworths Group runs Woolworths supermarkets in Australia and New Zealand, BIG W, Petstock, and food distribution and service businesses around them. Its medium-term strategy has three priorities, led by being first choice for the freshest Australian food.
Woolworths has five levers for this: fresh food, products people love, the easiest ways to shop, value, and execution.
Easiest ways to shop
Offer the easiest ways to shop, in store, online, and on demand, with digital tools such as the Olive shopping assistant.
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Consistent and meaningful value
Give consistent and meaningful value through lower prices and Everyday Rewards, alongside own brand products people love and better execution.
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Australian Food sales rose 4.6% in F26, 5.7% in the second half, and 7.6% in the first eight weeks of F27.
Woolworths invested over $100 million in lower prices, put over 800 items on Lower Shelf Price, and launched a DoorDash partnership.
Profit grew faster than sales
In the year to 28 June 2026, Woolworths Group’s sales grew 3.6% to $71.5 billion, with every trading business growing. EBIT grew 12.7% and net profit 15.4%, and the dividend rose in line with net profit, to 97 cents a share.
Each dial reads growth on the year before. EBIT and net profit are before significant items.
Online sales grew 15.9% to $10.6 billion
In Australia online sales grew 18.6% in F26, speeding up to 22.0% in the second half. New ways to shop include Olive, a shopping assistant using agentic AI, a Smart Basket feature, Scan&Go Trolleys in 52 stores, and delivery through a partnership with DoorDash.
Each crate is $1 billion of online sales. The share online counts Australian Food, New Zealand Food, and W Living.
Delivery docketF26
- Online sales
- $10.6bn
- Share of sales online
- 15.9%
- Weekly visits to its apps and sites
- 31.5m
- Online sales growth
- +15.9%
- Australian deliveries within two hours, Q4
- 47%
- Direct to Boot locations
- 785
BIG W back in profit
W Living, which runs BIG W and Petstock, turned a $31 million loss into $116 million of EBIT in F26. BIG W made $64 million after losing $33 million, with better stock flow and clothing ranges, and its return on funds employed rose from −2.8% to 7.0%. Petstock’s EBIT grew 33.5%, and the loss from MyDeal and other costs narrowed after MyDeal closed its website in September 2025.
Each carton is $10 million of EBIT; outlines below the shelf are losses. F25 as restated by Woolworths in its F26 results.
Split the first priority into levers people can pull.
Woolworths’ first priority, first choice for the freshest Australian food, comes with five levers, and each result is reported under one of them. We recommend breaking the biggest priority into a few named levers, so every team can see which one it works on.
Name the businesses that need fixing.
One of Woolworths’ three priorities is simply to improve returns in New Zealand Food and BIG W. We recommend saying plainly which parts of the business are underperforming and making their recovery part of the plan, rather than leaving it implied.
Let savings pay for prices.
Woolworths cut above-store costs, helping lower its cost of doing business by 24 basis points of sales, while investing over $100 million in lower prices. We recommend tying cost programmes to what the savings will fund, so both sides of the plan move together.
Sources
- 1. Woolworths Group Limited (2026). F26 full year profit and dividend announcement. ASX announcement, 26 August 2026. woolworthsgroup.com.au
Headwater is not connected with Woolworths Group. Woolworths, BIG W, Petstock, Everyday Rewards, and Cartology are trade marks of their owners. Updated 29 September 2026.