Coles Liquor Sales Flat As Reforms Continue

The transformation of Coles Liquor remains on track, Wesfarmers executives said on Thursday, while acknowledging the division had not achieved like-for-like sales growth.

Coles’ headline food and liquor sales were $7.6 billion for the first quarter of FY16, up 4.7 per cent on the previous corresponding period, with comparable store sales up 3.6 per cent.

Liquor’s underlying performance was “close to flat” on a like-for-like basis but still showed a significant improvement on the same time last year, Wesfarmers Finance Director, Terry Bowen told analysts.

The 1st Choice banner’s store network remained at 100 outlets over the quarter and Bowen said its performance was “relatively the same”.

“It’s the convenience business [Liquorland] and the Vintage Cellars business which have had more early action undertaken,” he said.

“We’ve spoken about range reviews and reformatting of some stores and that’s clearly having a positive impact with customers, so that’s where we’ve seen some benefit.”

Vintage Cellars opened one new store and closed one during the quarter, while Liquorland opened five new stores and closed four.

“The customer experience within Coles Liquor continued to improve during the quarter, and reflected the work completed over the past 12 months,” Coles Managing Director, John Durkan said in a statement.

“Whilst the early improvements are encouraging, more work needs to be done to improve the range, value proposition and store network.”

Image: Coles Managing Director, John Durkan

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