Woolworths Limited
 |
|
| Public | |
| Traded as | ASX: WOW |
| Industry | Retailing |
| Founded | September 22, 1924 |
| Founder | Percy Christmas Stanley Chatterton Cecil Scott Waine George Creed Ernest Williams |
| Headquarters | Bella Vista, New South Wales, Australia |
|
Area served
|
Australia, New Zealand, India |
|
Key people
|
Gordon Cairns, Chairman Brad Banducci, CEO |
| Revenue |
 A$59 billion (2016)
|
|
A$1.6 billion (2016) |
|
| Profit |
A$ -1.2 billion (2016)
|
|
Number of employees
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202,000 (2011) |
| Divisions | Supermarkets (Woolworths, Countdown (supermarket), Thomas Dux, Food For Less, Flemings) Petrol (Caltex Woolworths) Liquor (BWS, Dan Murphy's) General Merchandise (Big W) Home Improvement (Masters) Hotels & Gambling (ALH Group) |
| Website | www.woolworthsgroup.com.au |
Woolworths Limited is a major Australian company with extensive retail interest throughout Australia and New Zealand. It is the second largest company in Australia by revenue, after Perth-based retail-focused conglomerate Wesfarmers, and the second largest in New Zealand. In addition, Woolworths Limited is the largest takeaway liquor retailer in Australia, the largest hotel and gaming poker machine operator in Australia, and was the 19th largest retailer in the world in 2008.
Despite similar names, Woolworths Limited has no affiliation with the F.W. Woolworth Company in the United States, the now-defunct Woolworths Group in the UK or the South African chain of retail stores, Woolworths Holdings Limited. Its main operations include supermarkets (under the Woolworths brand in Australia and the Countdown brand in New Zealand), liquor retailing (as BWS and Dan Murphy's in Australia), hotels and pubs under the Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group (ALH Group) umbrella, and discount department stores under the Big W name in Australia.
The company announced a loss of $1.235 billion for the FY16 financial year on 25 August 2016, the biggest in more than 20 years since it has been publicly listed on the ASX, mainly due to more than $2 billion in write-downs of the failed Masters business & losses in the Big W business.
Woolworths opened its first store, the Woolworths Stupendous Bargain Basement, in the old Imperial Arcade Pitt Street, Sydney, where Westfield Sydney now stands, on 5 December 1924. Its nominal capital was just £85,000 and although 85,000 shares were offered to the public, only 81,707 shares were subscribed for by 119 people, including the five founders – Percy Christmas, Stanley Chatterton, Cecil Scott Waine, George Creed and Ernest Williams. One of the foundation investors was Preston Lanchester Gowing, the then chairman of Gowings. The name on the draft prospectus drawn up by Cecil Scott Waine was "Wallworths Bazaar" – a play on the F.W. Woolworth name (the owner of the Woolworth's chain in the United States and United Kingdom). However, 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. Accordingly, Woolworths Ltd in Australia has no connection with the F.W. Woolworth Company in the United States, nor the Woolworths Group of UK.
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Wikipedia