Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Woolworths Group's full-year results for the 2025 financial year. I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today, their own country, and I'd like to pay my respects to elders past and present. Joining me this morning are Stephen Harrison, our Chief Financial Officer; Annette Karantoni, Managing Director of Woolworths Retail; Sally Copland, Managing Director of Woolworths New Zealand, and former Managing Director of Group Ecommerce; and Dan Hake, Managing Director of BIG W. I will start with an overview of the group's performance in FY 2025 and an update on our focus areas as announced in February. Steve will then cover off our financial performance before I conclude with an update on our medium-term strategic agenda and outlook for 2026.
While we plan to share our strategy in more detail at an Investor Day in the second half of the financial year, I wanted to provide a high-level overview of our strategic priorities this morning. Turning now to slide four, a number of challenges during the year resulted in a financial performance that was well below our expectations and those of our shareholders. After a highly disruptive first half, we have taken action to reposition the group for long-term sustainable growth. While there is more to do and current trading remains below our aspirations, we have seen some early positive signs with improving customer scores. In FY 2025, group sales increased by a normalized 3.6%, with sales momentum excluding Petstock improving in H2 after the disruption from industrial action in the Australian Food business in H1.
Group EBIT declined by a normalized 12.6%, reflecting a lower earnings contribution from Australian Food and BIG W. In Australian Food, providing more value to customers facing ongoing cost of living pressures, industrial action in the first half, high wage, and other cost growth led to a reduction in profits for the year. Encouragingly, we have seen improvements in customer scores in H2 as we've delivered lower prices to customers and focused on improving our everyday retail execution in areas like product availability. Excluding the impact of industrial action, incremental supply chain commissioning and dual running costs, and the acquisition of Petstock in the prior year, group EBIT would have declined by a normalized 7.8%. Despite the disappointing overall group performance, e-commerce, media, rewards and services, and New Zealand and CSD made a strong contribution during the year. Now moving to customer behavior during the year on slide five.
Despite food prices stabilizing, cost of living pressures continue to weigh heavily on customer household budgets, particularly our saver customers. We saw a continuation of value-seeking behavior in an increasingly competitive retail environment, particularly in non-food grocery areas like pet and baby. While customer sentiment appears to have stabilized, customers are shopping more specials with promotional penetration increasing by three points on the prior year. At the same time, the shift to convenience continues, reflected in the growth of digital and e-commerce, with more customers using digital tools to help plan their shops and manage their budgets. In Australia, sub-60 delivery sales have tripled compared to the prior year, highlighting the importance of our rapid delivery propositions. Now on slide six, at our half-year results, we highlighted three focus areas.
While we have more to do, we have made good progress across these three areas, which I'll cover off in the next few slides. We know we need to get it right for our customers every time they shop with us. Customers have more choice than ever, and we need to make sure Woolworths is their first choice through providing great value and the best in-store and e-commerce experiences. We're improving our retail execution and have taken very deliberate steps to address the areas that matter most to our customers. In addition to offering more specials with deeper discounts and absorbing cost price increases in categories that are critical to families like meat, we launched lower shelf price in May, recognizing that pricing on some key household items has risen in recent years, reflecting cost price inflation.
Customers told us they want reliable, lower shelf prices every time they shop with us. We have invested in lowering the shelf prices on around 500 everyday items, increased specials, and absorbed cost price increases and made our pricing clearer and easier to understand through improved in-store and online ticketing. Early customer feedback has been encouraging, with improvements in value for money, VOC NPS scores up four points compared to quarter three FY 2025, with positive trends continuing in July. Food inflation has continued to moderate throughout the year, and average prices have now declined year on year for the sixth consecutive quarter. Turning now on slide eight to our Everyday Rewards program. As more members connect with us, the value increases for both Everyday Rewards members and our business. Over 70% of sales in food are captured by Everyday Rewards members participating in the program.
The more a member engages with us, the higher their advocacy and loyalty to our retail banners. This delivers more value back to our members, and they reward us by spending more on their food budget with us. Turning now to slide nine, one of our greatest strengths is our customer reach through our store network and leading e-commerce business. To build on this strength, we have opened 12 new supermarkets and Metros and completed 82 renewals across Australia and New Zealand, an increase of 25 compared to the prior year. A highlight was completing the renewal of our Hervey Bay supermarket, which was closed for 14 weeks after sustaining significant damage in the Queensland floods. Pickup orders fulfilled by our store network are growing faster than delivery, with pickup mix reaching 42% in quarter four.
To support growing demand, we added over 200 Direct to Boot Now sites in FY 2025, available as part of our network of over 750 standard Direct to Boot sites, which serve both our customers and our rapidly growing Woolworths delivery. Product availability has been a key focus area, and our out-of-stock box metric was up five points compared to Q3 and up seven points compared to quarter two, as we focused on improving retail execution and recovered from industrial action and weather-related disruption. Now on slide 10, customers are looking for convenient ways to shop. Our e-commerce business had another strong year, with Australian Food e-commerce sales growing by a normalized 17.4%, driven by on-demand services like Milk Run and Direct to Boot Now.
As at quarter four, 87% of our e-commerce orders are now fulfilled within 24 hours, and 41% of delivery orders are fulfilled within two hours, an increase of six points compared to the prior year. Our capabilities took a big step forward with the opening of Auburn e-commerce CFC in May, with capacity to serve 60,000 orders per week. The new automated CFC will free up store capacity to meet the growing demand for delivery and pickup services in the highest density catchment areas of Western Sydney. Now moving to our second priority, simplifying the way that we work. We have made key management changes and established a new structure to better align to key focus areas and our strategy. This includes the establishment of Woolworths Retail under Annette Karantoni's leadership, bringing our own brand and red meat businesses together with Woolworths supermarkets and metros.
Sally Copland is now leading Woolworths New Zealand, returning from Australia, where she most recently led Group Ecommerce. We have also finalized other changes to the group leadership team to simplify our reporting structure and increase accountability, including consolidating previously separately managed but complementary areas under the direct leadership of key executives. Amitabh Mall has been appointed as Managing Director of Group Ecommerce, in addition to his role as Group Digital and Analytics Officer. Mike Tyquin, Managing Director of Cartology, will work with me to take our insights, media, and loyalty commercialization to the next level with our suppliers. In this elevated role, Mike will report directly to me as he works with leaders across the group to orchestrate a more connected commercial insights, media, and loyalty front door for our suppliers.
Dan Hake will also now report directly to me to ensure that BIG W has the right group support as it progresses its turnaround. PFD and Petstock will now report to Stephen Harrison, reflecting the material opportunity for value creation in these businesses. Now turning to slide 12, our productivity plan in retail businesses and supply chain is helping to offset elevated inflation in 2025. Dollar productivity benefits in store have almost doubled over the last three years, providing some offset to a period of material wage and other cost growth. Some key examples of savings during the year include e-commerce picking optimization initiatives to reduce the walk path of personal shoppers in stores, and transport efficiency initiatives to optimize store delivery windows and transport routes to deliver transport savings. We are also committed to restoring a discipline of making every dollar count across Woolworths Group.
As part of this, we announced a review of our above-store support office structure, recognizing increases in support office costs compared to the pre-COVID levels. We are on track to deliver AUD 400 million in above-store savings by the end of the 2025 calendar year. Regrettably, this has led to some redundancies, as we've reorganized management structures to reduce complexity and increase the speed of decision-making by bringing decision-makers closer to the business. We have also reviewed all above-store non-team costs to ensure maximum efficiency. Turning now to slide 13, the third priority was unlocking the full potential of the group. Over the last six months, we reviewed our strategic plan and potential of all businesses to ensure that they have a credible path to delivering appropriate returns.
In June, we announced the closure of the My Deal customer website by the end of September and have consolidated or exited other smaller early-stage businesses during the year to enable greater focus on our core food business. In New Zealand, we're encouraged by the progress we're making on our multi-year transformation. This has been reflected in our improved customer scores and financial performance, driven by improvements in value, fresh, and e-commerce. Turning now to slide 15, we recognize BIG W's financial performance remains materially below where it needs to be. We understand the challenges of this sector, but also recognize the opportunity in categories such as everyday, pet, and health and beauty. In 2025, we have seen strong customer momentum, with quarterly sales growth rates increasing sequentially.
We have also seen items and transaction growth, and we worked hard to reposition our range and provide more value to customers in a competitive market. We will continue to progress the transformation of the business and expect an improved result in 2026. Turning to slide 16, our complementary businesses are continuing to grow and are important earnings contributors to the group. Cartology, insurance, mobile, and our third-party supply chain business, Pixi Plus, all delivered solid sales and profit growth in the year. Cartology was a highlight, with revenue increasing by a normalized 19.5% in 2025, with growth across all banners and channels. Finally, moving on to progress against our sustainability initiatives on slide 17. This year marks the completion of our five-year 2025 sustainability plan. I'm proud of the impact we've had across our key pillars of people, product, and planet.
Over the last five years, we've delivered an estimated AUD 2.6 billion in net societal benefit through investments and initiatives addressing hunger and food waste, plastic packaging, decarbonization, healthier eating, and human rights. Another highlight is the improvement in our safety outcomes during the year, with a 6.2% reduction in TRIFA achieved through focused efforts on material risk management and injury prevention. I'll now hand over to Steve to cover off our financial results in more detail.
Thank you, Amanda, and good morning, everyone. I will start on slide 20 with the FY 2025 results summary for the group. As many of you will recall, FY 2024 included a 53rd week. Unless otherwise stated, all growth rates I reference today will be on a normalized basis to exclude the extra week in the prior year. Group sales for FY 2025 increased 3.6% to AUD 69.1 billion, with sales growth in all operating segments. This includes a full-year contribution from Petstock, which was acquired in January 2024. Excluding Petstock, group sales increased 2.9%. Group EBIT before significant items was AUD 2.8 billion, a decrease of 12.6% compared to the prior year, primarily reflecting lower EBIT from Australian Food and BIG W.
This result includes a number of one-off impacts, including the negative impacts from industrial action in half one in Australian Food and incremental supply chain commissioning and dual running costs versus FY 2024, and the benefit of a full year of Petstock post the acquisition in the prior year. Normalized for these impacts, group EBIT was down approximately 8%. Group NPAT, attributable to equity holders of the parent entity before significant items, was AUD 1.4 billion, a decrease of 17.1%, reflecting lower group EBIT and higher financing costs in the year, somewhat offset by lower tax. Group ROEV was 13.7% in FY 2025, a decline of 194 basis points compared to the prior year due to lower group EBIT. Turning to slide 21 and our group trading performance, starting with Australian Food, total sales for the year were AUD 51.5 billion, an increase of 3.1%, benefiting from continued strong e-commerce growth of 17.4%.
Excluding tobacco, Australian Food sales increased 4.5%. Reflecting the recovery from industrial action in H1 and more consistent trading, sales momentum improved in the second half, with sales growth of 3.5% or 5% excluding tobacco. Within Australian Food, WooliesX sales increased 15.9%, driven by e-commerce, continued growth from Cartology, and a solid performance from our Everyday Rewards, insurance, and mobile businesses. Australian Food EBIT declined 10.5% in FY 2025 and by 8.1% in half two. Excluding the impact of industrial action in half one and incremental supply chain commissioning and dual running costs, normalized EBIT would have declined by 5% in the year. In Woolworths Food Retail, which is the combination of our stores and e-commerce business, EBIT declined by 13.3%. While the impact of cost inflation and price investment on gross margins moderated somewhat in the second half, this was offset by adverse stock loss trends in half two.
Wage increases, which were partially offset by solid productivity in the year, together with a lower mix of in-store sales and higher DNA, impacted EBIT in the year. Reflecting the strong e-commerce sales growth and growing contribution from Cartology, Everyday Rewards, and our Everyday Services businesses, Woolworths Group's ex-profitability grew ahead of sales, increasing by 27.5% in FY 2025 with DAP and EBIT margin growing by 40 basis points compared to the prior year to 4.5%. Australian B2B sales for FY 2025 increased by 4.1%, with half two sales increasing by 2.7%, with the slower growth in half two largely due to softer sales in PFD and the scale back of Australian grocery wholesalers. Full-year sales growth was largely driven by B2B Food, with PFD sales up 6.9%.
B2B EBIT increased by 15.8% in the year, with growth driven by double-digit earnings growth in both PFD and PFD Plus, and half two EBIT increased by 24.4% on the prior year. New Zealand sales increased by 3.4% in FY 2025 and 4.1% in half two in New Zealand dollars, driven by item growth and e-commerce momentum as good progress was made against transformation initiatives across the year. This translated into a strong EBIT performance increasing by 40.6% in FY 2025 and by 91% in the second half. Total W Living sales increased by 9.9% in FY 2025 and 3.2% in half two, largely reflecting the full-year contribution of Petstock compared to a half year in FY 2024. Excluding Petstock, W Living sales increased by 1.6% for the full year.
W Living recorded a loss of AUD 63 million in FY 2025 compared to a loss of AUD 29 million in the prior year, with BIG W losses the key driver of the decline, somewhat offset by the full-year impact of Petstock. BIG W full-year sales increased by 1.1%, with half two sales up 3.1%, supported by improving customer momentum over the year and a successful toy sale in Q4. Volume increases were driven by a shift to a more affordable range and seasonal clearance, leading to lower ASP, which impacted gross margin and resulted in a full-year loss of AUD 35 million. Petstock sales increased by over 100% compared to the prior year, reflecting a full year of ownership. Half two sales increased by 1.7% on a reported basis. However, excluding the impact of divestments, comparable sales increased by approximately 5%, driven by strong growth in own-brand pet food and e-commerce growth.
EBIT increased in FY 2025 by 57.8% to AUD 44 million, with a similar earnings contribution in both halves. Our other segment includes group functions such as property, group overheads, and Woolworths investment in Quantium. The segment resulted in a loss before interest and tax of AUD 211 million, an increase of AUD 91 million versus last year, with a variance largely driven by the inclusion of the group's share of profits from its investments in Endeavour last year and lower gains on the disposal of properties in the current year. The group also reported a significant item loss before tax of AUD 569 million in FY 2025 related to the impairment of BIG W of AUD 346 million, MyDeal impairment and closure costs of AUD 52 million, Healthy Life impairment of AUD 17 million.
In addition to this, a cost of AUD 146 million was recognized relating to team member redundancies and restructuring costs as part of the group's support office savings program and the reset of the store operating model in New Zealand. Moving now to slide 22 and our key balance sheet metrics, average inventory days were up 1.6 days on the prior year, reflecting an increase in investment in inventory across key lines to improve availability, including elevated inventory levels in advance of the industrial action in half one and the earlier receipt of BIG W seasonal inventory. Despite a decline in closing payable days, reflecting payment timing differences in New Zealand, average payable days were down 3.3 days in FY 2025, largely driven by the timing of payments related to the impact of the retail calendar from the 53rd week in FY 2024.
ROEV of 13.7% was down 194 basis points, reflecting lower group EBIT. Pleasingly, Australian B2B ROEV increased by 176 basis points to 10.8%, reflecting the strong profit growth in this segment. Moving to slide 23, this slide is a reminder of our capital management framework. The group generated strong operating cash flows in the year due to favorable working capital movements, which were invested into sustaining our assets, growth initiatives, and maintaining a dividend for shareholders at the higher end of our payout ratio. I'll provide some more color on the following pages. Moving to slide 24 and our cash flow, the group generated operating cash flow before interest and tax of AUD 6.2 billion in 2025, pardon me, an increase of 5.3%. This was driven by favorable working capital movements, more than offsetting a decline in EBITDA for the year.
The positive movement in working capital in the year reflects an increase in trade payables driven by the timing of payments in New Zealand food, together with higher provisions and accruals. Cash interest costs increased 41.3%, driven by higher average debt across the year. Cash used in investing activities of AUD 1.9 billion was 15.4% lower than the prior year, reflecting the cycling of the Petstock acquisition in 2024. I'll provide more detail on CapEx on the next slide. Cash flow before lease payments and dividends of AUD 2.6 billion was up 26% on the prior year. The group paid AUD 422 million for the purchase of additional equity interest in subsidiaries, largely driven by the acquisition of the remaining 35% interest in PFD in the year. Dividends and payments for shares held in trust of AUD 1.7 billion for the year included the payment of a AUD 0.40 special dividend from the prior year.
Finally, our cash realization ratio was 103%, reflecting the favorable movement in working capital during the year. Onto slide 25, operating CapEx for 2025 was AUD 2 billion, broadly in line with the prior year, reflecting increased spend on renewals offset by lower supply chain CapEx in the year. The small increase in growth CapEx compared to the prior year reflects higher spend in e-commerce, including the Auburn CFC, which went live in Q4. As you can see from the additional detail on the slide, CapEx has been relatively stable for the last four years and declined as a percentage of sales over that time. In 2026, we expect operating CapEx to be approximately AUD 2 billion, broadly in line with 2025. Moving now to an update on our supply chain on slide 26.
Our New South Wales supply chain transformation reached a number of important milestones in 2025, with the opening of the Moorebank National Distribution Centre in November and the opening of the Auburn CFC in May. The Moorebank Regional Distribution Centre is also nearing completion and is on track to open at the end of the calendar year. This will complete the renewal of our ambient supply chain in New South Wales, and together with the MSRDC in Melbourne, our two major markets in Australia will be served by modern, efficient, and highly automated supply chains. We continue to expect double-digit return on the investment in these sites in New South Wales. Construction has also commenced on a new semi-automated children's fresh distribution center in Sydney, which will complete the transformation of the supply chain in New South Wales, our largest market.
This aligns with our fresh food strategy, and this temperature-controlled site will materially enhance fresh quality for our customers and capacity for future growth, to deliver benefits from automation and reduce transportation costs, given its strategic location in Eastern Creek. We've also announced the construction of a new automated CFC in Melbourne North to provide increased capacity to service the growing demand for e-commerce in Melbourne following the compulsory acquisition of the Notting Hill CFC. This new CFC will also use the same proven technology as our Auburn facility. Moving to slide 27, as previously guided, the group expects FY 2026 supply chain commissioning, transition, and dual running costs to be broadly in line with FY 2025, which was approximately AUD 110 million. Implementation and dual running costs in FY 2027 are now expected to be similar to FY 2026, given the incremental costs associated with the commissioning of Sydney children's fresh and Melbourne North.
However, we expect these costs will be materially offset by benefits from Moorebank and Auburn in FY 2027. In FY 2028, the facilities will deliver net benefits, and in FY 2029, we expect double-digit ROEV in aggregate across all three DCs and the two CFCs. Moving finally to slide 28 and dividends and funding, the board today approved the final dividend of AUD 0.45 per share, bringing the total ordinary dividend for the year to AUD 0.84, with a full-year payout ratio of 74.1%. Moving to our balance sheet settings, net debt to EBITDA was 2.8x compared to 2.6x in FY 2024 and remained well within our leverage thresholds. We remain committed to solid investment credit ratings and have significant headroom under our current ratings of BBB from S&P and Baa2 from Moody's.
In FY 2025, the group completed AUD 5 billion of debt refinancing, including AUD 1 billion of domestic medium-term notes and EUR 500 million of EUR medium-term notes, with the balance related to bank debt, with proceeds used to refinance maturing bonds and facilities. Thank you, and with that, I will now hand back to Amanda.
Thanks, Steve. Before I turn to current trading and outlook, I wanted to provide a brief update on our strategy and introduce our priorities for the medium term. Turning to slide 32, we are an everyday retail group anchored in the strength of our food business. It all starts with food, and that is what we're famous for. A thriving food business provides a strong platform for the group's success, and we want to return to leadership here. We've already made decisions over the last six months that will enable greater focus on our food business going forward. With food the cornerstone and Everyday Rewards connecting, we have complementary service businesses that support our retail businesses but also provide the opportunity for material third-party growth over the medium term. Our retail and service businesses are enabled by our network and capabilities, which leverage our group's scale.
Turning to slide 33, we have world-class assets across our group that give us unique competitive advantage and significant potential. These include the strengths of our retail brands, our large customer base, leading loyalty program, expansive digital data and AI capabilities, our wide-ranging network and retail assets, and our experienced team who care deeply about getting it right for customers every single day. While we're operating in a highly competitive market, these strengths give me absolute confidence in our ability to deliver long-term valuable growth for shareholders. FY 2025 was a year of significant disruption, but we've taken action to set the business up for the medium term. Looking ahead over the next few years, we're focused on three key medium-term strategic priorities. Starting with the most important, we want to be the first choice for customers for the freshest Australian food.
Second, we need to address underperformance in New Zealand food and BIG W by improving returns. Finally, we will grow our complementary businesses and services to support our longer-term growth aspiration. Before I talk about each priority in detail, let me outline the things we need to consistently get right across all of our businesses to enable our strategy. Turning to slide 36. Firstly, delivering consistently good customer and retail excellence will remain an imperative. Within that, establishing price trust continues to be our greatest priority. As of now, we have around 700 lines under the lower shelf program, with customers who will benefit from significant shelf price reductions. In addition, today we launched our spring price campaign, where we have reduced the price on more than 300 items for the duration of the spring season.
We have more to do to get the retail fundamentals consistently right every day, including stop loss. Unfortunately, we have seen a rise in acts of violence and aggression against our team, which is frankly unacceptable. As a result, we have increased our investment in a variety of in-store security measures and training. We know that we need to embed simpler ways of working through a simpler operating model and increasing accountability and improved ways of working. Making every dollar count is about restoring a low-cost discipline across the group, elevating the importance of capital discipline and managing our costs through the delivery of our productivity agenda and realizing benefits from investment. We expect this will be an always-on priority in the years to come.
These will be underpinned by our leading loyalty tech and AI capabilities, which will transform the customer experience, as well as enabling our team to make better decisions. Turning to slide 37, our key priority is becoming first choice for freshest Australian Food. We know we need to make meaningful shifts for customers to put our first in food. We're determined to win in fresh, convenience, and range while delivering meaningful value and executing consistently well. It all starts with fresh. Fresh is the gateway where the supermarket shop begins, and we have the capability to improve freshness and range and showcase our fresh offer through merchandising and through our passionate team. Customers already recognize our range, but in some categories, we can make it easier to shop while better meeting local customer preferences.
Own brand has grown strongly in recent years, delivering value for customers that clear our price tiering, and it expanded better range, improved quality, and more choice in growing areas like ready meals will meet more of our customers' needs. We want to continue to lead in e-commerce and convenience and expand our express delivery and pickup coverage, personalize and improve customer experiences by leveraging data and AI, and maintain a modern store network that is close to our customers. We have an incredible business in Milk Run that we expect will continue to grow rapidly. While we know our prices are competitive, our value perception has deteriorated over the last couple of years, as many everyday items have risen in price through a period of high cost price inflation.
We're committed to lowering prices where possible, restoring a more balanced mix of everyday low prices and specials, and making our product communications easier to understand. Finally, we need to excel on retail execution by delivering consistently good experiences every time customers shop with us. One of our key execution priorities is to improve the profitability of our scaled and fast-growing e-commerce business. Moving now to slide 38, our second priority, which is to improve returns in New Zealand Food and BIG W. While our transformation initiatives in New Zealand deliver encouraging results in FY 2025, EBIT margins and returns remain well below our aspirations. We want to build on the momentum to return to double-digit ROEV over the medium term. In BIG W, we need to sustainably improve performance in a highly competitive market and build on our areas of strength.
We have strengthened capabilities through our new leadership appointment and are taking the right steps to reposition our range to provide better quality and more affordable options and are providing more options to customers through e-commerce and marketplace. We expect an improved performance in 2026, and going forward, we want to ensure BIG W has the appropriate foundations to be successful. We will also begin the transition for BIG W onto its own fit-for-purpose technology platform that is appropriate for a discount department store and is the right thing to do for BIG W and the group. Turning to slide 39, our third priority is to grow our complementary businesses and services. This includes PFD and Petstock, as well as our group-wide services businesses such as Cartology, Everyday Rewards, and Primary Connect.
PFD and Petstock have material opportunities to leverage the group's capabilities to grow and create value in fragmented sectors. Cartology, Everyday Rewards, and Primary Connect are established capital-light businesses leveraging group assets to provide services to suppliers and customers while also offering significant third-party revenue and earnings growth. Finally, turning to slide 40, we want to be clear with the market on our medium to long-term financial aspirations. Through sustainable growth in Woolworths Retail, supplemented by higher growth from our complementary businesses and services, we expect to deliver mid to high single-digit EBIT growth and solid free cash flow growth. With a strong balance sheet, disciplined capital allocation, including no material M&A, and a payout ratio of between 70% and 75% of earnings, we are confident that we can deliver double-digit TSR. Turning to slide 42, and now talking about current trading and outlook.
In the first eight weeks of FY 2026, Woolworths Retail total sales increased by 2.1%. Excluding tobacco, total sales increased by 4%, with e-commerce sales remaining strong. New Zealand sales growth in the first eight weeks has been impacted by short-term competitive promotional activity, with sales increasing by 2.6%. In BIG W, sales were broadly flat, cycling significant clearance activities in the prior year. On outlook, we expect Australian Food to return to mid to high single-digit reported EBIT growth in FY 2026, driven by progress on our strategic priorities, benefits of our above-store cost savings, cycling one-off items in the prior year, and a more stable operating environment.
However, we are also facing some near-term challenges, which will impact FY 2026, including a material acceleration in the decline of tobacco sales and an expected impact of AUD 80 million- AUD 100 million, and costs related to the end-of-life replacement of core retail systems like UKG, which is the Kronos workforce management system, of approximately AUD 60 million. We will continue to lower prices where required to restore price perception through a more balanced mix of everyday low prices and sessions. Investment in lowering prices through our lower shelf program is expected to have an annualized impact of over AUD 100 million in FY 2026. While sales growth remains below our ambition, we are confident that the improvement in customer scores we're seeing will lead to an improved trading performance.
In summary, we expect an improved financial performance in FY 2026, driven by Australian Food, a continued recovery in New Zealand Food, and a return to profitability in BIG W. However, FY 2026 will be a transitional year as we focus on rebuilding momentum and restoring customer trust. Over the medium term, our ambition is to deliver sustainable mid to high single-digit EBIT growth through consistent growth from Woolworths Retail, improved profits from Woolworths New Zealand and BIG W, and incremental growth from our complementary businesses and services. Together, this will support our double-digit total shareholder return aspirations. We will continue to build customer trust through compelling value and retail execution excellence, simplify the way that we work, and become a more focused, lower-cost retailer with a differentiated food offer at our core.
Some of this will take time, but I'm confident that the strength of our brand, assets, and team will see us deliver a much improved performance. I look forward to reporting back on our progress in the coming months. I will now turn the call over to the operator for questions. To give everyone a chance, can I please ask that you limit it to one question per person and then rejoin the queue with any follow-up questions? Thank you.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on a speaker phone, please pick up your handset to ask your question. First question today comes from Adrian Lemme at Citi . Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, Amanda and Steve. I just wanted to pick up on your comments about wanting to improve the profitability of online. Should we take this as a sign that you're open to introducing a service fee for regular click and collect, and is there any other things you're looking to do to improve online profitability, please?
Thanks, Adrian, for that question. As you know, our e-commerce business, we're delighted with the scale of the business and in particular the loyalty that that generates with certainly offers like our delivery unlimited subscription. As you know, we also see with our e-commerce customers that they shop our stores and on average spend about 2.2 times more than a customer who only shops stores. They're incredibly valuable, important customers for us. We do believe that we can continue to improve the profitability of our e-commerce business with a number of different things. Of course, it's scale, but it's also the opportunity that we have to continue to optimize the way in which we pick and pack and deliver our orders for customers.
In the year that's just gone, we've made some substantial improvements in terms of picking paths, for example, throughout our network and the introduction of some further algorithms to make actually that pick path for team a lot, lot shorter. That's the improvement that we're seeing from some of those initiatives flow through. We want to continue to see as we go forward in this year how we can continue to optimize picking and packing, optimize the last mile in terms of the routing and deliveries, but also upfront in terms of the way in which our customers shopping with us. We have this fabulous opportunity to be utilizing our personalization capability and help customers add items to baskets. We know that our e-commerce customers use our lists and shopping, and as a result, add more items.
It's really a case for us of continuing to grow our overall share of wallet with our e-commerce and in-store customers, continuing to optimize the way in which we can most efficiently deliver picking and packing across our store network. Of course, we have Auburn now live as well, and then in the last mile, continuing to do that. In terms of your specific question on service fees, we already, as you know, charge customers on the basis of convenience, and we'll continue to optimize those settings as we go forward. I think that's what is important, is these are services that our customers value, and as a result, certainly demonstrate a willingness to pay for a good, consistent service. We'll continue to review that as we go forward.
Thanks very much, Amanda.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Michael Simotas at Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Good morning. You're clearly lagging your major competitor by a fairly large margin, probably the largest margin we've seen in quite some time. Historically, it takes a lot of investment to turn these businesses around, and we've seen that a couple of times over the last 10 or 15 years from Coles and Woolworths. What gives you confidence that you've set aside enough investment to drive the consumer perception and outcome that you need to? I'll pick up on the point you made, Amanda, about AUD 100 million of price investment through the P&L in FY2026. It doesn't actually sound like that big a number, and I'm not sure that is any more than what your competitor's got planned based on what they had to say yesterday, noting it's only about 20 basis points of your sales in your Australian Food business.
Thanks, thanks Michael for that question. I'll start by saying what we're focused on and what we've called out today is setting the business up for the mid to long term and ensuring that we deliver for our shareholders a sustainable return at the levels that we expect and they expect. This is about a long-term strategy for us. Importantly, in the first half, we called out that we want to see a better balance in terms of everyday low pricing and lower shelf and our special program. We shared today also that we've seen some really pleasing early signs of customers recognizing increased value for money at Woolworths. As you rightly call out, it takes time for that to translate through into momentum.
In terms of our overall tracking of customer sentiment, voice of customer, their engagement with lower shelf prices, we're certainly very pleased with the momentum that we see there. We know that what we're importantly doing is listening to what customers are telling us, which is they want reliable and consistent pricing with some specials, but they want reliable and consistent pricing. That's what we're focused on delivering. That will take time to translate through to momentum.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from David Errington at Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Morning, Amanda. This is probably directed to Steve more so, but I'd love to hear your comments as well, because I think if you're doing a strategic review, you probably need to take into account the amount of money you're putting into this business. Steve, if we go to slide 25 with your CapEx. I've been a little quiet on this in the last couple of years, but I've been worried about this for about 10 years, if you like, and how much money goes into this business. I just want to bring onto the record a couple of numbers. FY 2023, your food EBIT, I think, was AUD 2.865 billion. This year, it's AUD 2.753 billion. Coles' EBIT was AUD 1.765 billion. Yesterday, they reported AUD 2.108 billion. Your EBIT's gone backwards by 4%, and Coles has gone up by 20%. They don't spend anywhere near the amount of money that you're spending.
Can we please delve into today what this sustaining CapEx is, this AUD 1.5 billion that you spend every year on sustaining CapEx? What I'm worried about, Steve, I'm not making an allegation, please. This is not an allegation. It's a question. Should a very large chunk of that sustaining CapEx be part of your P&L? I'm worried that your P&L, your profit, is overstated because a large chunk of this sustaining CapEx should actually be OpEx. Can you go into that, please? Like IT. IT, you're spending nearly AUD 300 million. Yet you're chewing up an extra AUD 60 million or whatever it is because of this replacement of this retail system. What's this supply chain? What's this productivity? What's this stay in business?
There's almost AUD 1 billion in what could arguably be OpEx, which means that your profit should be a lot lower than what you're actually reporting because what you're treating as CapEx should actually be OpEx. Can you give us a bit of color there, please? It's come to a time today. Today's result has disappointed the market so much, and I can't understand why it's so disappointing given how much money you're putting into this business. If you could give us a bit of color on what this sustaining CapEx is, please, and justify why it is CapEx and why it's not OpEx, that would be really appreciated. Thanks.
Thanks, David. I appreciate the feedback of the comments, and I share your sentiment in terms of not being happy about the earnings result compared to where we were, you know, two and three years ago. As to your question on the capital and should it be in the P&L, we look very carefully at what we capitalize and are very strict about only capitalizing things that have future cash flows. We have referenced some more OpEx going through the P&L on systems replacement because actually, as you move to SaaS platforms, there are more of those costs that do need to go through the P&L, and we've called that out for FY 2026. What is going in here are specifically assets that will have future cash flow value and drive value in the organization or are replacement of existing assets.
Bearing in mind, you know, this is a spend across the group, and any comparison to other retailers or our nearest competitor in Australian Food needs to be in comparison to the spend in our Australian Food business. In terms of the components of the spend, though, areas like supply chain, you know, we've got long-dated programs of work that are replacing assets that have been used for 20, 30 years, right? We do have an elevated degree of spend in supply chain at the moment as we're finishing the Moorebank program and, you know, modernizing our fresh supply chain in New South Wales. The fresh food people having a quality fresh supply chain is imperative. These are long-dated investments.
You know, we don't like the fact that you spend the capital for a number of years before you get the benefit, but we do believe that we will get the benefit. We actually look forward to taking you around some of our facilities, both supply chain automation and some of our e-commerce automation, hopefully later in the year. You know, clearly assets there. From a technology perspective, you do see both in IT and digital investment in systems, and increasingly, we use more technology across the organization. For example, when we're spending money on electronic shelf labels, you know, that's clearly an asset. You see it in the store. It shows the price. It's just a small example, but it comes with an investment in capital.
I think one of the things I'd point out is we've been very disciplined on the asset lives, and we're seeing particularly in technology where there's a shorter life cycle and in digital, much shorter asset lives. You see that in our growing depreciation. We do see all these costs in our P&L, but they come to match, in theory, the cash generated from the investment. In terms of SIB, we have refrigeration, we have chicken cookers, we have deli slicers. There is all sorts of equipment that sits across our stores, and they are replaced based on the life of that asset. When you've got an 1,100-store fleet in Australia and just under 200 in New Zealand, there is a lot of cost of just the replacement of existing equipment. Of course, you've got our renewal program, which is the modernization of our fleet.
In many ways, it is the representation of the brand experience for the customer who shops there two to three times a week. We have been committed to ongoing investment in renewals. We only really touch the store between seven and ten years average age, depending on the amount of traffic that goes through the store and the size of the store, but you need to set it up for the next decade. That often requires a replacement of particularly things like refrigeration that might run on a 20-year life cycle. We are confident that we're not putting things that should be in the P&L in CapEx. Actually, we're very disciplined on that. We do take the costs through the P&L in depreciation, which is getting shorter. We're quite strict on the life of our assets. Ultimately, your question is, are we getting the returns from this investment, right?
The results in the current year are not where they need to be. We do look at it very closely, the investments we make and the returns that we're delivering. Clearly, they're not where they need to be. You would have seen today in the guidance and indication of our sort of financial frameworks at the back of the pack, we're very focused on ensuring that we do deliver acceptable and strong and reasonable returns from our investments. Our expectation of growing returns every year is what our aspiration is. We want to grow that for our shareholders, and we would expect that these investments should be facilitating that. I don't know, Amanda, if you want to add any builds to that.
Steve, I would just say that what we've also called out is clearly a focus on cost and capital disciplines going forward. Of course, that's always been in place, but we're very clear with our team that we need to uplift our focus across the board on that. We're very focused on it.
Thank you both for those answers. They were very detailed, and I really appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Bryan Raymond at JPMorgan . Please go ahead.
Morning, Amanda, and the team. My question is around in-store execution. I think the online growth is still at a healthy run rate, and given the profitability in that channel, I think it's relatively comfortable, even though it's lagging Coles. I think where I'm a bit more cautious is around your bricks and mortar growth, and in particular, the feedback I'm getting from suppliers around in-store execution dropping away a little bit. You've had some changes in your commercial team as well, which coincided with this drop-off in sales in July/August. I'm not sure if they're related, but I'd just be interested in your thoughts on or your assessment on how in-store execution looks, how it compares to your competitor, and what you can do to address this bricks and mortar underperformance.
Yeah, thanks, Bryan, for that question. Look, I'd start firstly with how our customers are affecting us in terms of our in-store execution. As we've called out today, we're seeing certainly over the last half and including into the first eight weeks, you know, an improving voice of customer score. They're on really important parts of, as you know, a customer's determination as to where they shop. On value for money, we've called out a substantial improvement, actually, in terms of voice of customer on that score. On availability, you know, we obviously came out of the industrial action and into the second half, and we've seen ever-improving availability scores. I'll look at that in two different ways.
One is with regards to the voice of customer scores, which are up substantially quarter three to quarter four, but also just looking at our overall service levels, which are at an overall level back to pre-COVID levels. With that, though, what I would call out, and I very much focused on the execution, is there are certain times of the week, and I'd call out Sundays and Sunday afternoon in particular, and Annette, you might want to comment some more on this, where we've got a high volume of customers, particularly shopping in stores and online. We do need to, in certain stores, do better in terms of availability on the Sunday afternoon and into the Monday. There are some promotional activations, which again, we're very focused on. I'd say they're pockets, Bryan. It's not right across the network. There are certain times of the day and certain campaigns.
I'm just looking at Annette Karantoni, who we're delighted is now leading our W Retail business. Annette, were there any other comments you wanted to add?
No, thanks, Amanda. I think I'd reinforce our customer scores. They're actually showing really good momentum, and you've called out a number of them. I'd just add checkout wait times. We're really seeing positive momentum and the quality of our fruit and veg. Our voice of customer score is definitely going in the right direction. I would also call out that in-store execution starts well before the store. There's a really big focus from the team around end-to-end delivery of both our BAU, our business as usual activity, as well as our activity that we have in terms of promotional execution excellence. We actually order our stores. We do a random selection of over 200 stores every fortnight, and we've seen those scores actually improve week on week. That's very important to our supplier base, who we collaborate very strongly with on some of that promotional activity.
We have seen really good momentum coming out of in-store execution. I would say it does start well before the store, and we're very focused on making sure we get it right end to end, and we'll continue moving forward.
I appreciate the voice of the customer scores as holding up, but it's not translating into sales. I know things take time, but if it's not execution, what do you think it is? I mean, the gap is very wide, as Michael mentioned earlier. I just feel like I'm missing something here in terms of what's driving this differential. If it's not that, what do you think it might be? That's why you're underperforming?
Yeah, thanks, Bryan. That's almost a second question, but I understand why you're asking it. Let me just talk through sales flow and how we've seen it across the half. In Australian Food, we came out of that quarter two and saw actually a relatively solid performance in terms of sales and units growth. We had, as you know, a non-comp collectible running, so we should expect to see that. As we've come into quarter four, we were very happy with the Easter trading and performance of Easter. As we've come through, we have started to see a little bit of softening, as you call out, in terms of that performance in quarter four and into the first eight weeks of the year.
We've got a lot of change happening at Woolworths , which you know, but we've also seen in terms of our first eight weeks, we were running a Disney collectible, and frankly, that hasn't performed at the levels that we would have expected. On the prior year, we had some really incredible results out of some of our everyday needs activations, and in particular, MCO Beauty just shot the lights out in terms of its prior year performance. We're cycling some of that. It is an incredibly competitive market right now. I just want to be very clear, this performance is not in line with our aspirations. We aspire to be growing in Woolworths Food in line with market growth and ideally above. There is more work for us to do to build on the momentum we have.
We're setting up for the long term here, and we don't want to be getting into a situation where we've got lots of short-term action being taken that doesn't actually set this business up for mid to long-term success. Yes, we've got work to do, but we've also got what I think is incredibly important, a very focused team. Our frontline team hasn't had a stronger voice of team scores for a very long time. They're feeling actually, frankly, good about how we're supporting them. We need to just build on those positive scores we're seeing from our customers in terms of their experience with us. Thanks, Bryan.
Thank you. Your next question comes from James Mears at UBS . Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. It's Shaun Cousins here. Sorry, it's a busy morning. Just curious around cost savings, just how the AUD 400 million is split sort of by division and maybe how you could think about that between, be it headcount, goods not for resale, and other programs. Just going to your earlier points, Amanda, around thinking about the business and long-term success, is there enough ambition on costs? Why not increase this to AUD 800 million to AUD 1 billion? We see Woolworths as having a larger headcount relative to its sales and earnings compared to Coles. There are some tweaks with that there, but I'm not convinced that Woolworths currently represents the lean organization that I think it arguably had when we first looked at the company, say, in the 2000s, where everyday low prices required everyday low costs. I'm just curious around, are you being ambitious enough on costs?
There's some details around the AUD 400 million that you provided, that you announced initially in February, please.
Yeah, thanks, thanks Sean, for that question. Firstly, I would say when we announced the AUD 400 million, we were announcing that publicly as a clear signal of our intention to have a very strong focus and discipline on managing a lot of the business on the go forward. It was also about clearly demonstrating that we understand the business has become more complex over the last couple of years, and there's an opportunity for us to simplify that, which we obviously went about doing over the last couple of months as we have restructured the organization, consolidated a number of leadership roles, and regrettably seen a number of redundancies flow through. We've also then, as you know, as part of that AUD 400 million that we committed to, also went right through a lot of our goods for not resale areas, reviewed and reduced our costs in that space.
In terms of our ambition on the go forward, we're really clear as an executive team and in the Woolworths Group that to be successful in the mid to long term, we need to be a low-cost business. That means that each and every year we need to be delivering the right level of cost profile. I think we do this very well in our stores and supply chain where we deliver strong levels of productivity year after year. We've shared with you today how some of those numbers have consistently over the last couple of years grown year on year.
Our above-store teams are clear that the expectation going forward is that we continue to look constantly in an always-on way to reduce our costs because that is exactly to your point how it is that we continue to be able to invest in low prices for our customers and deliver on the expectations that our shareholders have of us. We are very clear on how important it is for us to run as a lower-cost business. We're focused on it, and we'll continue to look for opportunities as we go forward to seek cost savings right across the business. Couldn't agree more.
Okay, great. Thank you. Thanks for the answer.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Craig Woolford at MST Marquee. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Amanda. I'd like to ask about the price investment. Obviously, you're using some other measures like voice of customer scores, but how do you know that the price investment you made is enough? The sales results would suggest otherwise. Do you need to make a bigger price investment to improve the sales background?
Thanks, Craig. I want to repeat what I've already shared in terms of the positive sentiment we're seeing from customers who are looking for that more consistent and reliable shelf prices. What I would also add to the comments I've already made is we're seeing really strong unit growth coming out of the program thus far, which tells us that it's absolutely resonating with customers, particularly our saver customers and families. We very, very deliberately in those early lines in the May release focused on key lines that matter for family baskets so that our customers would be able to see that when they're looking at the total for their shop. That's ultimately the way in which most customers assess value for money. Yes, at an individual item, but also at the total shop level. We'll continue to monitor the performance of lower shelf prices.
As you know, we've launched another tranche recently. Right now, we're comfortable that we've got the right program, the right focus, and we'll continue to run that alongside our specials program. At this stage, we've said we've got over AUD 100 million invested in the program, which, of course, was primarily our own brand. We'll continue to look to increase, certainly, the visibility of that across our stores. I'm just looking at Annette Karantoni. Were there any other comments?
Oh, again, just to that point around own brand, I think, Amanda, that that first tranche, the shape of those products was mostly invested by Woolworths. We're actually seeing our supplier partners really interested in the program. In the second tranche, the split between own brand and our vendor partners was actually much higher towards our branded products. We have seen really strong item growth, as you mentioned, right across that program. In fact, higher than the average growth across the business, and in particular in some of our fresh categories. It's been a very successful, much more to do, but so far, a really good investment.
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Annette. I would just close by saying this is about setting up price trust for the long term. That is going to take Craig some time to flow through, as you know and would have seen in the past.
Are you judging that price trust through the VOX scores or ultimately, I would say sales is the best measure?
Sales is absolutely an important measure. Clearly, we need the right level of momentum for the business, but you can generate sales in many different ways. It wouldn't have been, you know, this time last year, we would have been talking about whether or not we had a healthy sales activation shape in terms of the number of specials and the like that we're running. What we're focused on is making sure that we've got the right sustainable shape going forward in terms of those key sales drivers. As I say, it will take time for that to flow through.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Phillip Kimber at E&P Capital . Please go ahead.
Hi, Amanda. Just following on from that, if we take away your comment about all the changes over the last, you know, little period that are obviously impacting food sales. If we step back and look at it, I think I'm pretty sure that Woolworths, on average, has more SKUs than its largest competitors and is probably seen as not just as focused on price and, you know, maybe not as simpler an offer. Do you think that is an issue, particularly in the current environment and maybe something that needs to change, that you actually need to reduce your range and maybe simplify it a little bit more, which will help that perception issue? Thanks.
Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Phil, for that question. Range is an important differentiator for us. We do carry a larger range than our competitors, our both supermarket competitors, but also many of our non-soluble competitors as well. As we've looked at customer sentiment, but also the economics of the business, we do recognize that there's a real opportunity to simplify our range, but still tailoring for local communities. You're absolutely right. As we go forward, we will be optimizing our range. I don't know, Annette, you've been doing a lot of work with the team on this topic?
Yes, we've been doing a lot of background work to understand where we think we'd like to take out and optimize the range. I think it's very specific to individual categories. It's quite hard to share an overall range reduction. It just doesn't quite work that way, particularly to make sure we hold that diversity for our customers that we do need. Across the range universe, we do see an overall reduction over the course of the next 6- 12 months. I would say it's in some categories just more than others so that we make sure we still hold the range that our customers come to us for.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Ben Gilbert at Jarden. Please go ahead.
Hey, what are you?
I'm just thinking to the customer. If you look at which cohorts you aren't doing well enough in at the moment, I'd be really interested to know because I appreciate you're not running your business directly against Coles, but their comp rate sort of doubled in Q4 and yours was flat. Your items per basket on a like-for-like basis went backwards. It looks like there's a picked up and obviously a big gap for the trading update. Are there certain cohorts where it's not winning? I suppose I'm trying to understand, is it families? Is it the big basket shoppers? You've got both Chem Warehouse and Coles that have talked up accelerating Q4 trends and into fiscal 2026, and yours are sort of pretty stagnant. I just came to understand when you're talking to the customer, what is the issue? Is it a certain cohort? Is it ongoing leakage?
Is it price perception? What is the issue? How do you get back to basics and get them engaging and spending more with you?
Thank you, Ben, for that. What I would say is that certainly when we've looked at this, it's certainly young families and young couples who are under the most pressure when it comes to cost of living. That's continued to be the case even though we've seen some consumer confidence improve. They're the group that we've been particularly focused on. Our lower shelf program has been focused on particularly families. As we look at the specific cohorts, we're not necessarily seeing a vast difference between them. I would say that the way in which different cohorts engage with categories certainly differs. That's something that we're focused on with things like our Everyday Rewards loyalty program and the like, being able to make sure that we're engaging with particular cohorts. Again, it's the categories that we know they might not be shopping us as frequently.
We've talked, as you've called out there, a lot in the last year about everyday needs and the extreme competition that's happening in that space. I'd also say that it's less about customer cohorts and more about the different state profiles. Victoria and New South Wales certainly are the more challenged states for us as well. It's not consistent right across the country. There are particular regional aspects to this that we're also observing.
When you sort of say that Cantor, Sukarna, and Nielsen Lenser, you obviously get pretty good visibility on spending of, say, Coles customer versus your customer. Are there areas where you're seeing a particular shift across? I'm just trying to understand why the gap is expanding when in theory you've put more money back into price. You spent the money on the stores. It feels a bit countered, but there's obviously something that consumers are not seeing at your store at the moment that's making them go elsewhere.
Yeah, I wouldn't speak to the specifics of the tracking that we do in that regard. I'd again just reiterate, we've made an important move on lower shelf prices. That was always about a long-term investment in providing reliable, consistent shelf prices and continuing to build price trust after a very disruptive 12 or 18 months. That will take time to flow through. It is a really competitive market. Certainly, when we look at our overall promotional programs, we're satisfied that we've got a strong program. There's a lot of over and above activity that's happening across the marketplace that if you're seeking value, I would say many customers might be taking the opportunity to tap into some of those. I don't think that that's sustainable for those competitors.
Certainly, we're very focused on making sure that we've got consistent, reliable prices, a good promotional program, a good experience when you come to our store, and that we differentiate on things like fresh, convenience, continue to lead in e-commerce, and of course, execute that well. Thanks, Ben.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Tom Kierath at Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. You mentioned there that Disney collectibles wasn't all that successful. I understand these programs are pretty complex and expensive to run. How are you thinking about the future on the strategy around collectibles going forward? Is it something that Woolworths needs to continue to invest in?
Thanks, Tom, for that. As I did call out, the collectible program didn't deliver to our expectations in the first quarter so far. I think that's driven by a number of different factors. Certainly, we've run already a number of these Disney programs. I actually think it might be less about the collectible itself and more about the fact that there is an element of fatigue as it relates to some of these types of collectibles that we've run now multiple, multiple times. You can clearly see that across the markets, many competitors, both in Australia and New Zealand, run collectibles and continuity programs. They are an important part of the retail shopping landscape.
Okay, thanks.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Nicole Penny at Rimor Equity Research. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thank you for taking my question. Could you please expand more on the specifics of how the new Woolworths Retail structure will feed through to meeting customer outcomes and beyond being a cost function? What will ultimately drive those improvements in execution and tangible customer benefits you referenced will flow through more in FY 2027?
Yes, thank you. I might start, Nicole, with just an outline of what Woolworths Retail is. As I've shared, over the last four months, we've appointed Annette Karantoni to lead Woolworths Retail. That was both an important appointment and also important that we took the opportunity to consolidate a number of different teams and businesses that were separately reporting in different leaders across Woolworths. We've really simplified the reporting lines, and we've also taken the opportunity to flatten the structure so that Annette and her key leaders are able to really focus on the key categories that matter across our commercial and operations areas. As we've called out today, Australian Food sits at the core of the Woolworths Group, and this is a really important part of that food business. We've also shared our key focus areas.
That, in particular, is about recognizing we are the fresh food people, but we know that we can do better in terms of improving the quality of our fresh produce with many of the supply chain enhancements that we've got underway. We also believe that we can do a better job in terms of sharing knowledge with our teams in store and bringing that passion for fresh back. Range is a differentiator for Woolworths, and we look to continue to provide range as a differentiator, while also simplifying some ranges in some categories, which will make it easier for customers to shop and also make it more efficient for our supply chain. We haven't talked much about own brand today so far, but we also see own brand playing a really important role going forward.
One of the teams that we brought into Woolworths Retail so that it was close to the business and close to customers was our own brand group. We see real benefits in our category and own brand teams planning together, as successfully launching more ranges across own brand, particularly in that better tier. We've got great coverage in the opening price point space. We see a real opportunity in the better tier. We lead on e-commerce now. What we can see from customers is, despite the fact that we've got very value-conscious customers and market, they are valuing convenience. We're seeing really strong double-digit growth coming out of our e-commerce businesses, both for delivery and also for pickup. They're the things that we believe will differentiate Woolworths food going forward.
That, of course, needs to be underpinned with what we've talked a lot about today, which is consistent value, but also great customer and retail execution. That's what the team is very focused on. The ways in which we would measure that, we've also shared with you today. We'd be looking for an increase in fresh performance. In fact, our fresh performance, we're very pleased with over the quarter just concluded and into Q1. We want to grow our connected customers. They are those customers that shop in-store and online. We know that they're our most valuable. We know that they also spend more with us as a result. We want to introduce those own brand better tiers so that we can improve our margins, but also improve the range optionality for our customers. We want to improve value perception.
We've started that journey, but it is about building customer trust over time. All of that should deliver sustainable EBIT growth for the business and ultimately for our shareholders. That's what the Woolworths Retail business is absolutely focused on. Thanks, Nicole.
Thanks, Amanda.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Richard Barwick at CLSA. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi, Amanda. Just following on from Bryan's question. We were sort of quizzing the voice of the customer because there's lots of, I guess, responses from you and the team saying that the voice of the customer is heading in the right direction. Obviously, right now, you're not getting the sales that you want and investors want. I guess just to clarify this, if we can, does that mean that even though your voice of the customer might have been improving, in absolute terms, are those scores still below that of Coles? That's why you know that you have weaker momentum. Is there another factor here that perhaps is a bit of a mismatch?
The voice of the customer is a bit of a lagging indicator in that customers will tell you what they want, but good retailing is about anticipating what a customer wants before the customer knows they want it. Can you just provide a bit of background? Just so we can better understand the link between this voice of the customer, what's happening there, and the sales outcome.
Yeah, thanks, Richard, for that question. I understand. I would actually say that voice of customer and the tracking of things like price trust, value for money, they're lead indicators for us. It quite often takes some time for that to flow through and to momentum. The reason that we're talking to it is because we're focused as a team on setting up for the mid to long term. That is about building price trust and a sustainable business on the go forward. We see those metrics that we've talked about today, improving voice of customer scores on all the things that matter most, frankly, to customers as a good lead indicator. However, momentum matters in retail as well. That does need to be supplemented with the right promotional programs relative to what's happening in the market. It's clearly a highly competitive market.
What we want to do is stay focused on our plan, which is to set the business up for the long term, but make sure that we have got the right levels of momentum as we do that. We've shared today, you know, we're certainly not happy with the momentum that we're seeing in a relative sense, from the Australian Food business in the first quarter. To come back to your absolute question, we see those metrics as lead indicators, which is why you've probably heard us talk about them a lot today.
To round that out then, Amanda, obviously, as you say, they are lead indicators, but with a lag. Are you prepared to make a comment as to when you'd think you'd close that momentum gap?
Yeah, Richard, I wouldn't be talking about, you know, a closing of a gap as it relates to voice of customer and NPS. We're actually very satisfied with the steady improvements that we've called out from a voice of customer perspective. We're really clear and focused on the fact that we need to build momentum across this year, and that's what you should expect to see us deliver over this year and into the following years. I don't want to get caught in a, it's all about the quarter. This is about multi-year setting the business up in a sustainable way, and short-term action that doesn't deliver the right long-term outcomes for shareholders is not what we're going to be focused on. Thanks.
Thank you. Your next question is from Craig Woolford at MST Marquee. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi, Amanda. I just wanted to ask on BIG W. I'll make it a two-part question. One's just a clarification of the reduction in the funds employed, which did drop quite a bit. I think the fundamental question, I was intrigued by the comment about separating the IT systems. I don't know whether I'm drawing too long a bow here, but it does seem intriguing that you would do that. Can you give some further background on that as well?
Yeah, thanks, Craig, for the question. I'll take the second part of your question, and I'll throw to Steve on the ROFE. We have, as you know, completed a strategic review of all of our businesses and taken action across a number of different businesses, whether it's closures and consolidations. We've also looked at businesses like New Zealand and Petstock and PFD, where we see real potential going forward. From a BIG W perspective, we've been very clear that the result in FY 2025 was disappointing. The team has put forward a very clear, not just transformation plan, but execution plan to improve those results and deliver the profit in the year ahead and positive cash flow.
In terms of the system, what we're recognizing through those discussions with the team is that providing BIG W with the right level of flexibility and independence when it comes to technology platforms and processes actually sets BIG W up for success in the future. As you know, we always have an IT roadmap, and we're looking at different updates and upgrades that might be required. The one that's come up recently for us is in BIG W, we're seeing a huge amount of growth coming from digital and e-commerce. We had the opportunity to consider whether or not we do a full group solution on our e-commerce platform across Australian Food, BIG W, and our other businesses, or whether we recognize that BIG W could benefit from having its own e-commerce platform.
As we've assessed it, that is a good example where it's actually better for BIG W to have its own bespoke platform that will enable it to have the right agility to be able to respond in the discount department store space. That's what we're calling out today, the opportunity to be able to create flexibility for BIG W going forward. The team understand and, in fact, are very supportive of that change that we're making there. On your ROFE question, I might just throw to Steve to close that one out. Thanks.
Yeah, thanks, Craig. Look, you would have seen in our significant items we did announce an impairment of BIG W of AUD 346 million. The main reason why you've got a reduction in funds employed in the ROFE calc is that impairment going through. We've also seen leases continue to go down as we reduce the weigh out on the sort of average lease term in BIG W, which is now less than six years.
Was it the impairment on leases as well? Was it there because we've just read that?
No, the impairment effectively is on assets, intangibles, and software above store, effectively. The lease reduction is just the lease book winding down as we've become very focused on shorter-term leases in BIG W.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Michael Simotas at Jefferies. Please go ahead. Pardon me, Michael Simotas. Your line may be muted. You are live into the call.
Sorry, can you hear me now?
Yes, we have you, Michael. Thank you.
Thank you. Just interested if there's much variability that you're seeing in Australian Food across categories. Amanda, you called out that you're quite pleased with how fresh is going. Are there any other categories you'd call out where you feel like your performance is quite robust? Are there any where you think you need to do a bit more work?
Yeah, thanks, Michael. We don't normally call out too much on category. I just talk at a broad level. We are pleased with the momentum we're seeing in sales growth in fresh, both in fruit and veg and in meat. We're also pleased with the progress we're seeing in some of our chilled categories. Everyday needs, as we know, has been challenging. That really is not deteriorating, but it's relatively muted, I would say. In pantry, there's actually a mixed result. Some categories are doing really well, and we're delighted to be seeing the growth we're achieving there. Others are not quite where we'd like to see it. It is a mixed performance across the different categories.
Is there a bit more sort of variability across categories than you would normally see in the business?
It's very dependent on really what's happening. If you take fresh, for example, we have seen a level of inflation, but also great quality of fresh coming through. As a complete aside, I just think it's fascinating what's happening with protein. At the moment, there's a real protein obsession, as we know. In the meat category, lean mince, steak, the net, I know you were calling that out the other day, are really growing incredibly fast. There are those sorts of variances we're seeing. If we want to follow the protein trend, you could take that through to chilled as well. No, I don't think it's vastly different to what we would normally see. You know the everyday needs category is obviously a category we're very focused on.
I'd say it's in a stabilized state at the moment, and there's more for us to do to be able to activate and grow that.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Bryan Raymond at JPMorgan . Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for taking the follow-up. Mine's on stock loss and I've had a fair bit of feedback around perfectly picking up at Woolworths as Coles has invested. Obviously, you guys have invested first. Coles has invested more recently. Have you seen much of a headwind on gross margins in the second half of 2025 or full year 2025? How's the current run rate and what does that maybe mean for FY 2026? How's that built into your guidance? Thanks so much.
Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Bryan. We've called out a couple of things. First is the increasing levels of acts of violence and aggression, which is just really disturbing and of great concern to us in terms of the safety of our team. You know, you turn up to do your everyday job and serve customers in your local community and should not be subjected to the levels of aggression and violence our team are. That is particularly concerning, and we've been very focused on improving the safety arrangements for our team. When it comes to stock loss, I would say stock loss in the first half was there or thereabouts in terms of previous trends. A small uptick, but nothing that I'd be wanting to draw too much attention to.
In the second half, we did see stock loss accelerate and actually move up or move to levels we've not seen for some time. It is of concern to us. We've taken action across our stores in the second half and looking ahead into this half to substantially upgrade and improve a number of stock loss initiatives, whether they be exit gates, trolley locks, etc., to just improve our performance as it relates to stock loss. Yes, it is something that we're very conscious of. I'm pleased to say those actions are actually seeing positive results. We'll continue to be upgrading many more stores as we go forward.
Can I just follow up with how is that built into your guidance for Australian Food that I think mid to high single-digit growth? What assumptions around theft?
Yeah, we're comfortable with the assumptions that we've made around stock loss. That's included within the guidance that we've shared today. We're continuing to track that, as you might imagine, very, very closely. So far, the actions that we've taken in the second half are seeing positive results in the first eight weeks of this year. Of course, we need to continue to monitor that.
I think, Bryan, you know there's a lot of moving pieces in GP, as you know. Stock loss is just one of them. I don't think we'd try to give a guidance statement on stock loss other than to say we're very focused on improving it.
Thank you.
Thank you. That concludes our question and answer session for today. I'd now like to turn the call back for closing remarks. Thank you.
Thank you for joining us today. We've shared that we're not satisfied with the performance that we've delivered over FY 2025. We've also taken the opportunity to share with you our long-term aspirations for the Woolworths Group and what you should expect for us on the go forward. We have an incredible asset base with iconic brands, a large customer base, a loyalty program that's much loved, a digital advantage, the widest network in Australia, an incredibly experienced team. We look forward to delivering improved results for our shareholders and for our customers going forward. Thanks for joining.
Thank you. That concludes our conference for today. You may now disconnect your lines.