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Woolworths Group Limited
Woolworths runs supermarkets and general merchandise stores, mostly in Australia and New Zealand, selling food, groceries and everyday household goods to ordinary shoppers.
Woolworths is Australia's biggest supermarket chain. Most Australians live within a short drive of a Woolworths supermarket, and millions walk through its doors every week to buy food, milk, bread, snacks, cleaning products, and the rest of the weekly shop. In New Zealand the same business trades as Countdown, so if you are in Auckland, the local supermarket might be a Woolworths in all but name.
The core business is simple: buy groceries and household goods from suppliers, truck them to stores, and sell them at a small markup to shoppers. Supermarkets are a game of tiny margins on huge volume. Woolworths makes a few cents on each item, but it sells so much that the pennies pile up into billions of dollars of revenue. Profits depend heavily on getting the details right — having the right stock on the shelves, keeping stores clean and pleasant, negotiating hard with big food suppliers, and keeping shelves stocked so customers don't walk out empty-handed. The company also owns Big W, a discount department store selling clothes, toys and homewares, and it runs wholesale and supply businesses serving hotels, restaurants and convenience stores. That mix matters: when supermarket profit is squeezed by price competition, the other parts provide some cushion. Its main rival is Coles, and the two of them together dominate Australian grocery. That dominance doesn't mean easy money, though. Budget chains like Aldi keep prices honest, and price wars between the big supermarkets squeeze margins. Legal fights with suppliers and regulators over pricing and competition have also drawn attention in recent years.
Woolworths turns a reliable stream of cash into dividends for shareholders, and it has spent money modernising stores and building out online delivery and click-and-collect. Online grocery is growing fast, but it is more expensive to run and thinner on profit than selling over a counter. The company's real advantage is scale and habit: customers know the store, the layout, and the brands, and switching to a rival on price alone is a chore most shoppers won't bother with. That habit is worth a lot, and it is what keeps the tills ringing.
Saved answer · last researched 12 Nov 2026