Coles Boosts Final Dividend, Fiscal Year Profit Rises on Statutory Basis

By Mike Cherney

SYDNEY--Australian grocery chain Coles boosted its final dividend and said its annual net profit rose on a statutory basis, as it focused on delivering value to customers amid cost of-living pressures.

Coles said its net profit was 1.1 billion Australian dollars (US$750 million) in the 2024 fiscal year, which ended in June, a rise of 1.8% on a statutory basis from the prior year. Revenue rose 4.4% to A$43.7 billion, and earnings before interest and tax, or Ebit, rose 3.7% to A$2.04 billion.

Coles said its final dividend would be 32 Australian cents per share, compared to 30 cents in the prior year. That brings the total 2024 payout to 68 cents, compared to 66 cents in the prior year.

Coles said there was strong performance in its main supermarkets business, with underlying Ebit growth of 10.5% on a normalized basis--which removes the impact of an extra week in the 2024 fiscal year.

"The financial pressures on households and families have been front of mind for us this year and we have endeavored to deliver value across our supermarket, liquor and online offerings to help customers balance the household budget," Chief Executive Leah Weckert said.

Looking ahead, Coles said supermarkets sales revenue grew 3.7% in the first eight weeks of the 2025 fiscal year. It said liquor sales declined 1.4% to start the year, but attributed much of that to the CrowdStrike outage in July. Excluding the CrowdStrike impact, Coles said liquor sales declined 0.3% to start the year.

Coles added it is optimistic that investments in fulfillment and distribution centers will deliver benefits to customers, and that it is continuing to address the impact of theft through new technology initiatives.

Write to Mike Cherney at mike.cherney@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 26, 2024 19:43 ET (23:43 GMT)

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