Coles’ supermarket and liquor ecommerce sales grew 48% and 72%, respectively, during the first quarter of the FY22.
Australian supermarket giant Coles has reported its first-quarter results for the 2022 financial year, which showed that Australians returned to online shopping, mainly driven by extended COVID-19 lockdowns in New South Wales and Victoria. Total sales for the period came in at a steady AU$9.76 billion, where its supermarkets business pitched in AU$8.62 billion and its liquor business AU$874 million. The remainder was made up by its express business. Breaking that down further, supermarkets ecommerce sales, unsurprisingly, grew 48% with sales penetration of 9% and liquor ecommerce jumped 72% with a 4.5% sales penetration. These results were similar to the Q1 results reported by supermarket rival Woolworths on Wednesday. « As a result of the lockdowns, there was a return to local shopping at the expense of shopping centres, as well as increased demand for ecommerce, » Coles said. Coles said it also incurred COVID-19 costs of approximately AU$75 million in the first quarter with costs accelerating in August and September, largely due to the approximately 20,000 team members required to isolate in New South Wales and Victoria, additional door greeters to ensure QR code compliance in store, and lower productivity due to shift bubbles in distribution centres.
