Woolworths flags lower half-year profit on weak clothing sales

Source: Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko

The company, which also owns food stores in South Africa, said its headline earnings per share were expected to decline by 22% to 27% for the 26 weeks ended 29 December 2025, from 203.3 cents in the prior period ended 24 December 2023.

On Tuesday morning, shares in Woolworths were down 2.74% at R56.88.

Group turnover and concession sales for the period rose by 5.7%, and in constant currency by 6.2%, buoyed by the retailer's food business, which it said delivered market-leading sales growth of 11.4% and 7.3% on a comparable-store basis.

However, group sales growth for the last eight weeks of the period, particularly over Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the festive season, eased to 4.3%, partly due to a shift in the trading calendar for the period versus the prior period, Woolworths said.

Growth in its food business was "driven by positive underlying volume growth from improved availability, ongoing innovation, and our enhanced value proposition", the retailer said.

Fashion, beauty and home sales in South Africa rose by 2.5%, with sales growth in the last eight weeks constrained to 0.9%.

This was impacted in part by temporary delays in product flow arising from late supplier deliveries, as well as processes and system changes in its distribution centre related to its value chain.

In Australia and New Zealand, where it owns the Country Road fashion chain and where the clothing trading environment remains heavily promotional, driven by price-sensitive consumers, sales declined by 6.2%. However, in the last eight weeks of the period, the decline slowed to a 2.7% fall.

Both fashion businesses in the two markets are undergoing significant transformation, with Country Road reconfiguring its operating model following the sale of and separation from David Jones.