![Woolworths Limited Logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Woolworths_Limited_Logo.svg)
Woolworths Group Limited is an Australian
trans-Tasman
Trans-Tasman is an adjective used primarily to signify the relationship between Australia and New Zealand. The term refers to the Tasman Sea, which lies between the two countries. For example, ''trans-Tasman commerce'' refers to commerce betwee ...
retailer headquartered in
Bella Vista,
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, with extensive operations throughout Australia and
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. It is the largest company in Australia by revenue and the second-largest in New Zealand.
[
]
Founded in Sydney in 1924 as
variety retailer Woolworths Limited, the company entered the New Zealand market in 1929 and has traded in every Australian
state and territory since 1960. Woolworths experienced steady growth throughout the 20th century and began to diversify its business, closing the last of its variety stores in the 1980s to focus on its portfolio of other retail brands. Since 2012, Woolworths has undergone significant consolidation, divesting its
shopping centre
A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre ( Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof.
The first known colle ...
, electronics retailing, home improvement, fuel retailing, liquor retailing and hospitality businesses to concentrate on
supermarket
A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...
retail.
Woolworths currently owns
Woolworths Supermarkets
Woolworths Supermarkets (colloquially known in Australia as "Woolies") is an Australian chain of supermarkets and grocery stores owned by Woolworths Group. Founded in 1924, Woolworths today is Australia's biggest supermarket chain with a ma ...
, customer loyalty program
Everyday Rewards
Everyday Rewards, formerly Woolworths Rewards, is a customer loyalty program owned and operated in Australia by Woolworths Group. Members can earn points in the program from Woolworths Group companies (Woolworths Supermarkets, Big W, BWS, etc) ...
and discount department store
Big W
Big W (stylized as BIG W) is an Australian chain of discount department stores, which was founded in regional New South Wales in 1964. The company is a division of Woolworths Group and as at 2019 operated 176 stores, with around 22,000 employee ...
in Australia and the
Countdown
A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...
,
SuperValue and
FreshChoice
FreshChoice is a franchise of locally owned and operated supermarkets across New Zealand.
The stores are operated under franchise agreements with Wholesale Distributors Ltd (WDL), a division of Woolworths New Zealand
Woolworths New Zeala ...
supermarkets in New Zealand.
History
Founding and early growth (1924–1957)
Woolworths opened its first store, the Woolworths Stupendous Bargain Basement, in the old Imperial Arcade
Pitt Street
Pitt Street is a major street in the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. The street runs through the entire city centre from Circular Quay in the north to Waterloo, although today's street is in two disjointed sec ...
,
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, where
Westfield Sydney
Westfield Sydney is a large, upmarket shopping centre in the Sydney central business district. It is located underneath the Sydney Tower and is located on Pitt Street Mall, adjacent to the MidCity, Glasshouse and near The Strand Arcade.
Histo ...
now stands, on 5 December 1924. Woolworths Ltd's nominal capital was
£185,000, and although 85,000 shares were offered to the public, only 81,707 shares were subscribed for by 619 people, including the five founders – Percy Christmas, Stanley Chatterton, Cecil Scott Waine, George Creed and Ernest Williams. One of the founding investors was
Preston Lanchester Gowing
Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to:
Places
England
*Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement
**The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement
**County Boro ...
, the then chairman of the department store chain
Gowings
Gowings was a department store chain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, established in 1868. Set on several floors, it specialized in men's casual clothing, camping gear and novelty items. It had a men's barber and a dining restaurant.
C ...
.
The name on the draft prospectus drawn up by Cecil Scott Waine was "Walworth's Bazaar" – a play on the name of
F.W. Woolworth
Frank Winfield Woolworth (April 13, 1852 – April 8, 1919) was an American entrepreneur, the founder of F. W. Woolworth Company, and the operator of variety stores known as "Five-and-Dimes" (5- and 10-cent stores or dime stores) which featured ...
, the owner of the Woolworth's chain in the United States and United Kingdom. According to Ernest Robert Williams, Percy Christmas dared him to register the name Woolworths instead, which he succeeded in doing after finding out the name was available for use in
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
.
The new Woolworths store was the first variety store in the world to use cash registers that print receipts for customers.
During the late 1920s the company grew, with a second store in Sydney and stores in
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...
,
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
and
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
in New Zealand. The company grew further in the 1930s, despite the depression, until by the end of 1933 it had 23 stores. In 1933 the first store in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
was opened and on 1 April 1936 the company bought eight stores from Edments Ltd and opened its first store in
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
. Following the opening of the
Hobart
Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
store in 1940, Woolworths had a store in every state in Australia.
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
slowed the growth of the company, with the Australian and United States militaries commandeering Woolworths' warehouses in Sydney for storage. After the war expansion was once again rapid and in 1955 Woolworths opened its 200th store, in the Civic Centre in
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
.
Diversification, expansion and takeover (1957–1993)
In 1957, Woolworths began to diversify from variety retailing when it opened its first food store at
Dee Why
Dee Why is a coastal suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, 18 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district. It is the administrative centre of the local government area of Northern Be ...
, Sydney.
The company further diversified in 1960, opening it first purpose-built supermarket at
Warrawong
Warrawong is a suburb of Wollongong in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on the northeast corner of Lake Illawarra.
Warrawong is 74 kilometers from Sydney CBD.
Warrawong is home to Warrawong Plaza, one of thre ...
, purchasing the Rockmans chain of women's clothing stores and commencing selling liquor at some outlets.
In the 1970s, the company started to open discount department stores under the brand
Big W
Big W (stylized as BIG W) is an Australian chain of discount department stores, which was founded in regional New South Wales in 1964. The company is a division of Woolworths Group and as at 2019 operated 176 stores, with around 22,000 employee ...
.
Woolworths also began converting its variety stores to supermarkets and removing many of its variety products from sale. In 1979, Woolworths sold its New Zealand operations to
LD Nathan & Co.
In 1981, Woolworths purchased 60 percent of consumer electronics retailer
Dick Smith, acquiring the rest of the company in 1983 for a total price of A$25 million.
In 1985, the acquisition of 126 Safeway supermarkets in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland (including Food Barn branded stores) made Woolworths the largest food retailer in Australia. As part of the purchase of Safeway's Australian stores,
Safeway Inc
Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, d ...
acquired a 20 percent interest in Woolworths Limited. In 1989, the last of the Woolworths Variety stores was closed and Woolworths "Family Centres" were split into separate Big W discount stores and Woolworths branded supermarket stores.
Woolworths Limited was acquired by
Industrial Equity Limited
The Adelaide Steamship Company was an Australian shipping company and later a diversified industrial and logistics conglomerate. It was formed by a group of South Australian businessmen in 1875. Their aim was to control the transport of goods b ...
in 1989, a consortium of
Adelaide Steamship Company
The Adelaide Steamship Company was an Australian shipping company and later a diversified industrial and logistics conglomerate. It was formed by a group of South Australian businessmen in 1875. Their aim was to control the transport of goods b ...
,
David Jones Limited
David Jones Pty Limited, trading as David Jones (colloquially DJs), is an Australian High-End department store, owned since 2014 by South African retail group Woolworths Holdings Limited.
David Jones was founded in 1838 by David Jones, a Welsh ...
and
Tooth & Co
Tooth and Co was the major brewer of beer in New South Wales, Australia. The company owned a large brewery on Broadway in Sydney from 1835 until 1985, known as the Kent Brewery. It was historically one of Australia's oldest companies, having be ...
.
IPO and further diversification and expansion (1993–2012)
In 1993, Industrial Equity floated Woolworths on the
Australian Securities Exchange
Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...
in what was then the biggest
initial public share offering in Australia's history.
In 1996, Woolworths entered the petrol retailing market, initially with wholly-owned "
Plus Petrol" outlets located in shopping centre parking lots. Woolworths expanded its liquor retailing portfolio with the acquisition of the
Dan Murphy's
Dan Murphy's is an Australian liquor store owned by Endeavour Group, with over 250 stores across the country. The business was founded in 1952 by winemaker Daniel Francis Murphy. Dan Murphy's competes principally with Coles Group brands First ...
liquor barn stores in 1998. In 1999, Woolworths began a joint venture with the
Commonwealth Bank called Woolworths Ezy Banking, which was scaled back by 2006.
In 2001, Woolworths expanded its consumer electronics retailing interests with the purchase of the Tandy chain in Australia from
InterTan
InterTAN was created by Tandy Corporation in 1986 to operate Radio Shack stores in Canada, Europe and Australia. After the UK locations, which were branded 'Tandy', were sold to Carphone Warehouse in 1999 and the Australian locations (which were a ...
. Also in 2001, Woolworths established the smaller format liquor retailing chain
BWS to complement its big-box liquor retailer Dan Murphys.
![Woolworths Caltex (8059320667)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Woolworths_Caltex_%288059320667%29.jpg)
In 2003, Woolworths entered into an agreement with
Caltex to jointly supply food and groceries to Woolworths owned petrol stations and selected Caltex sites near Woolworths supermarkets, with petrol stations covered by the joint venture co-branded as
Caltex Woolworths
EG Australia is the Australian subsidiary of British company EG Group which operates the EG Ampol chain of petrol stations, selling Ampol (formerly Caltex Australia) fuel at its stations. , there are over 540 EG Ampol petrol stations. The servic ...
.
With
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
licensing laws dictating that liquor retail outlets must be operated by a hotelier, Woolworths moved into the hotel industry in 2004 by acquiring 75 percent of the Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group (ALH) in a joint venture with business partner Bruce Mathieson.
In 2005, Woolworths expanded its portfolio to 250 hotels by acquiring the Taverner Hotel Group.
Statistics provided during the acquisition of the Taverner group showed that over one-third of sales were made up of gaming/poker machine takings with the total number of poker machines owned by ALH after its acquisitions being 10,722.
In 2005, Woolworths re-entered the New Zealand market by purchasing the retailer
Progressive Enterprises, owner of supermarket brands including Countdown, in a deal that gave the company a 45 percent share of the New Zealand grocery sector.
In the same deal, the company also acquired 22
Action
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
supermarket stores in Western Australia,
bringing the total number of Woolworths supermarkets in Australia to near 750. In 2006, Woolworths announced that it had taken a 10 percent strategic stake in
The Warehouse Group
The Warehouse Group (TWG) was founded by Stephen Tindall in 1982, and is the largest retail group operating in New Zealand. It is a corporate group that consists of The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery, Torpedo7, Noel Leeming, 1-day and TheMark ...
in New Zealand and announced a joint venture with the
Tata Group
The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries, and operations in 100 countries across six continents ...
to introduce the Dick Smiths Electronics store format in India.
In August 2007, Woolworths announced that it was planning to launch a general purpose credit card in 2008. It is expected to offer credit cardholders reward vouchers redeemable through its store network.
HSBC was subsequently named as its credit card partner. Woolworths subsequently announced that the ''Woolworths Everyday Money MasterCard'' would be launched on 26 August 2008 and allows customers to earn shopping cards redeemable at Woolworths group retailers. It was suggested Woolworths could earn approximately $20m from credit cards in three years and that it was targeting 100,000 to 150,000 cardholders in the first year.
![Masters Home Improvement store at Majura Park in Canberra (1)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Masters_Home_Improvement_store_at_Majura_Park_in_Canberra_%281%29.jpg)
During 2009, Woolworths and American retailer
Lowe's purchased Danks Ltd owners of the
Home Timber and Hardware brand and then entered into a joint venture to launch a new hardware brand named
Masters Home Improvement
Masters Home Improvement was an Australian home improvement chain operated by retailer Woolworths Limited. It was established as a way for Woolworths Limited to enter the hardware retail market, which has been historically dominated by Bunnings W ...
. The first of these stores were opened to the public in
Braybrook, Melbourne, Victoria, on 1 September 2011.
Consolidation (2012–2019)
In 2012, Woolworths placed 69 shopping centres it owned into a
real estate investment trust
A real estate investment trust (REIT) is a company that owns, and in most cases operates, income-producing real estate. REITs own many types of commercial real estate, including office and apartment buildings, warehouses, hospitals, shopping cente ...
known as Shopping Centres Australasia Property Group (SCA Property Group), which listed as a separate entity on the ASX on 26 November 2012. Most of the locations contain a Woolworths owned store as an
anchor tenant
In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. W ...
, with the trust deriving most of its rental income from Woolworths Limited stores. Woolworths announced it was exiting the consumer electronics retailing sector in September 2012, completing the sale of its Indian electronics wholesale business to
Infiniti Retail for $A35 million and the sale of the Dick Smith Electronics chain to Anchorage Capital Partners for A$20 million. In May 2013, Woolworths acquired a 50 percent stake in analytics firm Quantium for $20 million. In December 2014, Woolworths acquired Summergate, an alcoholic drinks distributor in China for A$27 million.
In 2015, Woolworths' home improvement chain Masters posted a loss of
and on 18 January 2016 Woolworths announced that it intended to "either sell or wind up" Masters hardware and Home Timber and Hardware.
Chairman Gordon Cairns said that it would take years to become profitable and that the ongoing losses could not be sustained.
On 24 August 2016, it was announced that all Masters stores would close on or before 11 December 2016. It was also announced that Woolworths would sell the Home Timber and Hardware brand to Metcash. On 25 August 2016, the company announced a loss of $1.235 billion for the 2016 financial year, the biggest loss in the more than 20 years since it has been publicly listed on the
Australian Securities Exchange
Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...
, mainly due to more than $2 billion in write-downs of the failed
Masters Home Improvement
Masters Home Improvement was an Australian home improvement chain operated by retailer Woolworths Limited. It was established as a way for Woolworths Limited to enter the hardware retail market, which has been historically dominated by Bunnings W ...
business and losses in the
Big W
Big W (stylized as BIG W) is an Australian chain of discount department stores, which was founded in regional New South Wales in 1964. The company is a division of Woolworths Group and as at 2019 operated 176 stores, with around 22,000 employee ...
business.
In April 2016, Woolworths Liquor Group was renamed Endeavour Drinks Group. December 2016, Woolworths announced it would sell its Caltex Woolworths branded petrol stations to British multinational oil and gas company
BP for AU$1.75 billion. BP pulled out of the deal in July 2018, saying that sale conditions imposed by the
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the chief competition regulator of the Government of Australia, located within the Department of the Treasury. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Trad ...
would make the acquisition commercially unviable.
On 9 November 2018, Woolworths announced it would instead sell its petrol stations to the British company
EG Group
EG Group is a British retailer headquartered in Blackburn, United Kingdom, which operates filling stations, convenience stores and fast-food restaurants in Europe, the United States and Australia. The group was created through the combination of ...
for $1.72 billion, with a 15 year agreement that
EG Australia
EG Australia is the Australian subsidiary of British company EG Group which operates the EG Ampol chain of petrol stations, selling Ampol (formerly Caltex Australia) fuel at its stations. , there are over 540 EG Ampol petrol stations. The servic ...
would maintain the Woolworths fuel discount program and enable Woolworths Rewards points to continue to be earned on fuel transactions in its stores. The acquisition was completed on 1 April 2019.
New ventures (2019–present)
In March 2019, Woolworths launched a stand-alone media business called Cartology to communicate with supplier partners and customers.
In April 2019, Woolworths established a venture capital arm called W23.
In July 2019, the Woolworths announced the merger of its hospitality and liquor interests, including
BWS, Cellarmasters, Jimmy Bring's,
Dan Murphy's
Dan Murphy's is an Australian liquor store owned by Endeavour Group, with over 250 stores across the country. The business was founded in 1952 by winemaker Daniel Francis Murphy. Dan Murphy's competes principally with Coles Group brands First ...
and ALH into a single company, Endeavour Drinks, with Woolworths holding an 85 percent stake in the new entity. Woolworths indicated that it would explore options to divest the newly created Endeavour Drinks business in 2020, subject to shareholder approval at an annual general meeting. Also in 2019, Woolworths admitted to having underpaid its employees by millions of dollars. In 2021, it was revealed that the Woolworths underpayment of staff was more extensive than first thought More specifically, it was discovered that Woolworths salaried managers over $700,000 and the Fair Work Ombudsman looked into this further.
In August 2020, Woolworths announced a A$552 million deal to purchase a 65 percent stake in foodservice distributor PFD Food Services, along with the entirety of PFD's property portfolio, as part of the company's push to expand into the business-to-business wholesale market.
In June 2021, the
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the chief competition regulator of the Government of Australia, located within the Department of the Treasury. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Trad ...
announced that it would not oppose Woolworths' PFD deal due to insufficient evidence that the deal would cause a substantial lessening of competition.
In 2020, Woolworths was found to have repeatedly ignored consumers who had tried to prevent receipt of marketing emails and had not attempted to improve, despite the AMCA notifying the company that they had received customer complaints. The company was fined
$1,003,800.
In September 2020, Woolworths and pet insurance company PetSure signed a deal to launch a new joint venture called PetCulture. The online business would sell pet insurance, pet food and pet-related products, and veterinary services. Woolworths owns 60 percent of the venture.
PetCulture launched in April 2021. That month, Woolworths also paid $223 million to increased its stake in Quantium from 47 percent to 75 percent.
Following the transaction, Woolworths and Quantium established a new joint data science and advanced analytics business called Wiq. In October 2020, Woolworths rebranded its supply chain function as Primary Connect with the goal of evolving it into an end-to-end service provider for the group as well as external businesses.
In February 2021, Woolworths restructured its red meat business, creating a new standalone division called GreenStock.
Having been delayed by the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, Woolworths successfully completed the
demerger
A demerger is a form of corporate restructuring in which the entity's business operations are segregated into one or more components. It is the converse of a merger or acquisition.
A demerger can take place through a spin-off by distributed or t ...
of its alcohol, hotel, and gambling businesses into a new ASX-listed company,
Endeavour Group
Endeavour Group Ltd (EG) is an Australian alcoholic drinks retailer, hotel operator, and poker machine operator that was spun off from Woolworths Group in 2021.
History
In 2019, Woolworths restructured its alcoholic drinks business to form En ...
in June 2021, with the new company holding the
Dan Murphy’s,
BWS, ALH, Cellarmasters and Jimmy Brings brands. After the float, Woolworths held a 14.6 percent stake in Endeavour Group. It sold some of its stake in December 2022, leaving it with a 9.1 percent stake.
In February 2022, Woolworths Group rebranded its logo to better represent "what its collective businesses and platforms stand for today". The company says that it showcases its impact on a "Better Tomorrow
ic. It was designed by Re, a business design division of UK-based advertising firm
M&C Saatchi
M&C Saatchi Group () is an international communications network headquartered in London, formed in May 1995. With more than 2,400 staff, the network spans 23 countries with major hubs in the UK, Europe, US, Middle East & Africa, Asia and Austral ...
.
In May 2022, Woolworths announced a $243 million bid to acquire an 80 percent stake in online marketplace MyDeal from its founder,
Sean Senvirtne. The acquisition was finalised in September 2022.
In July 2022, Cartology announced it had made a deal to acquire targeted advertising company Shopper Media for $150 million. In December 2022, Woolworths Group said it would acquire a 55 percent stake in pet business Petspiration Group for $586 million. That month, it also inked a deal with SuperPharmacy to acquire the company's technology and warehouse assets and rebrand SuperPharmacy's six retail stores as HealthyLife Pharmacy. Woolworths will also provide e-commerce and warehousing services to SuperPharmacy.
Brands and businesses
Consumer
*
Woolworths Supermarkets
Woolworths Supermarkets (colloquially known in Australia as "Woolies") is an Australian chain of supermarkets and grocery stores owned by Woolworths Group. Founded in 1924, Woolworths today is Australia's biggest supermarket chain with a ma ...
– Australia's largest supermarket chain, operating 995 stores across Australia
*
Woolworths New Zealand
Woolworths New Zealand Limited (formerly Progressive Enterprises) is the second largest grocery company in New Zealand (behind Foodstuffs), with revenue of NZ$6.2 billion for the year to June 2018. Alongside Foodstuffs, Woolworths NZ forms par ...
**
Countdown
A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...
– Woolworths NZ's flagship supermarket chain. 184 full-service supermarkets, operating across the North and South Islands of New Zealand.
**
SuperValue – franchised convenience supermarket
**
FreshChoice
FreshChoice is a franchise of locally owned and operated supermarkets across New Zealand.
The stores are operated under franchise agreements with Wholesale Distributors Ltd (WDL), a division of Woolworths New Zealand
Woolworths New Zeala ...
– franchised full-service supermarket
*
Big W
Big W (stylized as BIG W) is an Australian chain of discount department stores, which was founded in regional New South Wales in 1964. The company is a division of Woolworths Group and as at 2019 operated 176 stores, with around 22,000 employee ...
– Discount department store chain, which sell a wide range of general merchandise
*
Everyday Rewards
Everyday Rewards, formerly Woolworths Rewards, is a customer loyalty program owned and operated in Australia by Woolworths Group. Members can earn points in the program from Woolworths Group companies (Woolworths Supermarkets, Big W, BWS, etc) ...
– Customer loyalty program offering discounts, fuel savings and rewards
*Woolworth Financial Services & Insurance – A range of Woolworth's branded financial products across credit cards, gift cards and insurance
*MyDeal – Online marketplace acquired in September 2022
*PetCulture – Pet products, services and insurance online business established as a joint venture with PetSure in September 2020. Woolworths owns a 60 percent stake in the venture.
*HealthyLife – Health and wellness online business
Business
* Woolworths at Work – Online shopping platform aimed at small-to-medium businesses and organisations
* PFD Food Services – Food service distributor which Woolworths acquired a 65 percent stake in August 2020
Retail platforms
* Cartology – Media business established in March 2019
* Primary Connect – Supply chain arm established in October 2020
* Quantium – Analytics firm which Woolworths owns a 75 percent stake in
* Wpay – Payments platform launched in June 2021
Other
* W23 – Venture capital arm established in April 2019
References
External links
Woolworths Group
{{Authority control
Companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange
Conglomerate companies of Australia
Companies based in New South Wales
Conglomerate companies established in 1924
Retail companies established in 1924
Australian brands
Online retailers of Australia
Gambling companies of Australia
The Hills Shire