By Andrew Starke
Wesfarmers yesterday (Apr 22) reported a slowdown in sales growth across its Coles supermarket division with liquor sales particularly sluggish.
Total Coles’ food and liquor sales for the third quarter were $5.465 billion, up 3.9 percent on the prior corresponding period.
However, finance director, Terry Bowen, singled out the liquor as the sector of slowest growth, citing the impact of last year’s fiscal stimulus on this division.
The government’s stimulus package saw a strong performance by Cole’s liquor division a year ago.
Wesfarmers also announced that one 1st Choice and one Liquorland store were opened during the quarter, while seven smaller format liquor stores were closed.
The company’s shares were trading at $30.06 at 1pm today (Apr 23), down from $32.39 seven days ago.