Coles CEO and MD, Leah Weckert addressed the Coles Group on Tuesday, 11 November and spoke of successes in the group’s liquor business including e-commerce growth, the national rollout of Simply Liquorland and improved sales.
Despite ongoing softness in the liquor market and a drop in liquor sales revenue in the first quarter of FY26, Weckert told shareholders there are positives in the liquor business.
“In FY25 our e-commerce sales growth was 24.4 per cent in supermarkets, and 7.2 per cent in liquor,” she said.
“In our Liquor business, we commenced the national rollout of ‘Simply Liquorland’, which is progressively bringing all our liquor stores under the Liquorland brand. We can already see the benefits through improved sales and customer experience in the converted stores.
“In the year ahead, our strategy will remain firmly focused on strengthening our core supermarkets and liquor businesses, particularly through the use of data and AI to unlock productivity, enhance customer experiences, and enable smarter, faster decision-making across our operations.”
She added: “E-commerce continues to perform strongly. In Q1, we reported e-commerce sales growth of 27.9 per cent in supermarkets, and 6.8 per cent in liquor, showing our investment in digital continues to resonate with customers.”
Weckert also spoke about increased violence towards retail staff.
“Sadly, the retail industry continues to experience a rise in violence and aggression toward frontline workers,” she said.
“We are actively working to reduce threatening situations through crime prevention initiatives, training, technology and post-incident support, as well as industry partnerships and advocacy.”