Woolworths (supermarket)
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|
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 5 December 1924 |
| Headquarters | Bella Vista, New South Wales, Australia |
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Number of locations
|
961 |
|
Key people
|
Brad Banducci, Director – Australian Supermarkets and Petrol |
| Revenue |
 A$42.132 billion (2015) |
|
Number of employees
|
111,000 |
| Parent | Woolworths Limited |
| Website | Brand Site - woolworths.com.au, Online Ordering Site- woolworthsonline.com.au |
Woolworths Supermarkets (colloquially known as "Woolies") is an Australian supermarket/grocery store chain owned by Woolworths Limited. Along with Coles, Woolworths form a near duopoly of Australian supermarkets, together accounting for about 80% of the Australian market.
Woolworths mostly specialises in selling groceries (vegetables, fruit, meat, packaged foods, etc.), but they also sell magazines, DVDs and stationery items. Woolworths currently operates 1000 stores across Australia: 968 Supermarkets and an additional 19 convenience stores carrying the same logo. Some Woolworths supermarkets trade as 'Safeway' stores in Victoria, including three stores in Melbourne's suburbs and surrounding areas, and three in rural Victoria, as well as one in southern New South Wales.
Woolworths Limited was founded in September 1924, originally under the name "Wallworths Bazaar Ltd.", a play on the internationally renowned F. W. Woolworth name. After discovering the name had not been registered in Australia, and Woolworths had no plans for overseas expansion, the company became "Woolworths Limited" on 22 September 1924. Following the company's first "Bargain Basement" opening in the Imperial Arcade, on Sydney's Pitt Street, there was little interest in shareholders to accelerate the brand's growth. However, as trading continued and shareholders brought more capital, the dividends paid by the company increased from 5% to 50% after its third year of operation.
Consumer interest in the company grew after December 1924, as more branches of the store were established across Australia. Woolworths stores began selling a variety of goods, claiming the cheapest prices as well as money back guarantees. At the forefront of innovation in Australia, Woolworths stores became the first variety store in the world to install receipt printing cash register machines in 1926. Nearly twenty years after the company's establishment, Woolworths had a store in every state in Australia, following the opening of their Hobart store in 1940. With the company and its stores doing successfully, Woolworths began to experiment with expanding their grocery range; more stores began stocking fresh fruits and vegetables and a larger range of food. As Woolworths began to gradually transition to becoming exclusively a grocery store, this saw the creation of the first "Big W" store in 1955, the brand's department store counterpart. As of January 2017, approximately 99% of all Woolworths Supermarkets currently use the green apple Woolworths logo. Some suburbs still use the old logo in Australia.
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Wikipedia