Food and fashion group Woolworths has increased its first-half earnings by more than half.
While load shedding's total impact on adjusted operating profit for the period came in at about R90 million, strong results from Australia saw a surge in sales off a low base due to Covid-19 lockdowns in the previous reporting period. This helped lift headline earnings 70% to R2.74 billion for its six months to 25 December.
It said higher inflation and interest rates were anticipated to bring more pressure to bear on consumer demand and costs, while in SA"an imminent resolution to the debilitating power crisis and stimulus for economic growth appears remote". It was also able to pass on selling price increases of 10.8%, adding this was positively affected by an"ongoing focus on full-price sales and the continued reduction in markdowns".
"This is not notwithstanding the considerable disruption caused by load shedding, which continues to have a pronounced impact in terms of foregone sales and increased costs."Woolworths said the"erratic and unpredictable nature" of load shedding meant the group was now focusing on developing a"longer-term business solution" to"mitigate both upstream and downstream impacts to this challenge".
_Business Due to the sale of their bags I'm sure...
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