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Woolworths Australia to close dozens of stores, cut 500 jobs

It did not include Countdown Waihi, which has already been shut.

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Commercial discussions prevented him naming the other four Countdowns.

He declined to name the other five supermarkets, but said one would only close temporarily while a replacement was built.

The number of staff impacted by the closures was not given, but Walker said Countdown would work to transfer staff to other locations where possible.

Woolworths will close its Hume Distribution Centre in Victoria in FY’19 and in addition to the above redundancies, has impaired its assets and provided for an onerous lease charge for the lease period beyond the planned closure of the site.

A shopper walks out of a Woolworths store in Sydney May 12, 2016.

These writedowns add up to $4.2 billion for 2016.

Banducci today announced the results of his review into the Woolworths operating model, instigated following his February appointment as CEO.

Ezibuy has stores in Auckland, Wellington, Palmerston North and Christchurch.

Woolworths Limited Chief Executive Officer, Brad Banducci, said in a statement on Monday that the restructure was part of his plan to “improve our culture and rebuild momentum”.

The group are ‘currently exploring options for the sale of the business (EziBuy)’.

The restructure will see the supermarket giant close a total of 27 underperforming stores – 21 in Australia and six in New Zealand.

“We’re making good progress in rebuilding our business”, he said.

It also intends to close 30 under-performing stores across the group – including 17 Australian supermarkets but excluding troubled discount retailer Big W – and is considering another 34 for the chop when their leases expire.

“The synergies expected at the time Woolworths bought EziBuy were not realised and performance has been below our expectations”, he said.

Mr Banducci said the restructure was a potential line in the sand after failed forays into the home improvement and online retail sectors.

And while sales are stagnating at Woolworths, the latest quarterly results at main competitor Coles show growth of 5.9%.

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The company noted that it in process of finalising its fiscal year 2016 results to be reported on 25 August 2016 and expects EBIT from Continuing Operations before Significant Items of A$2.550 billion- A$2.570 billion.

Woolworths shares posted their biggest one-day gain in nearly 20 years