Growth And Sustainability Of SuperMarket Industry Woolworths: Assessment 2 Answer

Answer :

Woolworths  

Assessment 2: Company Report

Executive Summary

The supermarket industry, being a significant industry plays a great role in the economic status of a country. During the course of time for every organization, it is obvious that there would be some strengths and negative points that influence the entire business, its growth and sustainability. In this report, it has been stated how by the help of the strength an organization in the supermarket industry meets its business growth and the how the drawbacks can appear to be a sheer threat to it that it becomes so necessary to take initiatives in order to remove those factors.

1. Introduce to Supermarket industry Woolworths

Over the previous few years, there has been a radical change in the Supermarket Industry in Australia. As the influencing factors, the changing habits of shopping, the aggressiveness in the discounts and several eternal competitions can be counted. According to the report, Australian supermarket can be considered to be highly concentrated and “fiercely competitive”. However, Woolworths can be marked to be on the leading position even with an increasing rate of market share. 

Figure 1: Financial statement of Woolworths

Source: (Roy Morgan 2019)

In the year 2018, Woolworths has occupied 34% share in Australian supermarket where Coles group stands at 27.6%, Aldi at 11.4%, IGA at 7.1% the other supermarkets at 9.1% and the other Non-Supermarkets at 10.8% (Roy Morgan, 2019). As the key reason behind Woolworth's leading position in the market, its strategy to focus on selling fresh food can be considered which goes ahead of Aldi, IGA and Coles supermarkets. According the Supermarket & Fresh Food Currency Report, which was made based on the 50,000 face-to-face and in-home interviews, in Australian market, the intensity of Woolworths’s leading chain in supermarket has been increasing significantly with the key business strategy of selling fresh deli, fresh bread, fresh meat and the  fresh vegetables and fruit with that in market (Roy Morgan, 2019).

Figure 2: Financial Figure of Woolworths

Source: (Woolworths Group 2019)

In figure 2 taken from the annual report of the company, it is clearly shown that the total revenue of Woolworths is $ 56,726m Woolworths Group 2019.

Figure 3: Employee Diversity of Woolworths

Source: (Woolworths Group 2019)

From figure 3 taken from the annual report of the company, it can be stated that among all the employees (201,522), 54% in females and 46% are males Woolworths Group 2019.

2. The Company Woolworths2.1 Customer satisfaction

On an average Woolworths provides retail services to over 29 million consumers every week. The company has plans to introduce different segments in its business in terms of products and services across the Metro shopping stores. The Woolworths have improved their online and mobile application experience for the customers which are clubbed with the customer loyalty programs. The company has also made it easier for customers to make the payment process smoother. Woolworths has a customer voice score of 81% in both stores and e-commerce platforms (Woolworths Group 2019). There are existing 10.9 million reward members in the Woolworths loyalty program. 

Figure 4: Impact of Woolworth’s services on Customers

Source: (Woolworths Group 2019)

The overall priority of the customers is first for the supermarket company which is why they initiated the Pickup services where it is provided in 2900 location including food, drinks and other retail services across New Zealand and Australia. 2.5 million Consumers visit the company website and mobile application on a weekly basis for which improvements and other delivery options are improved each year (Woolworths Group 2019). The woollies program introduced by the company was intended to improve the e-commerce, loyalty and service terms of the Woolworths Group. Within one year of the implementation of the program. Woolworths found a 10% increase in the improvement of the voice of customers within the e-commerce and reward section. There are also three active customer fulfilment centres within Australia to help customers with their feedback and complaints. The Woolworths Rewards Cards provides its regular customer with a chance to register and save on additional discounts. The other benefits provided in this segment are the fuel discounts, special deals in both online and offline, using credit scores to Qantas Points and the saving of points to get additional discounts on special holidays like Christmas. The numbers of members of the Woolworths Rewards are about 11 million who are provided with points in each AUD spent (Woolworths Group 2019). 

Figure 5: Woolworths Affordable Healthy Eating Index

Source: (Woolworths Group 2019)

Woolworths takes into consideration the health concern of its customers, which is critical. The company provides cheaper prices on healthier food items which are generally expensive. The motivation of the customer to cooker healthier food and not indulge in fast-food consumption is promoted through this strategy

Figure 6: Health initiatives by Woolworths

Source: (Woolworths Group 2019)

Woolworths offers free fruit for every child that walks into a Woolworth's store. Twenty-six million fruit donations are made annually by the company Woolworths Group. Over a thousand healthy foods items have been reduced on prices to promote healthy eating among their shoppers, and more discounts can be obtained in bulk orders of those items. Health Star Rating of the Woolworths products are 99% with 2200 products containing the certification on their packages and out of these 860 products are over four-star (Woolworths Group 2019). 

2.2 Sustainable Business of Woolworths

Woolworths Group is a member of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), which has a core set of values that is to be maintained in fighting anti-corruption, labour standards and human rights development issues. In 2017, the company launched its sustainability report, and three years later the company has successfully targeted the engagement of the stakeholders a well as customers in minimising ill environmental effects. Woolworths Company understands the importance of doing their business in a sustainable manner. Woolworths takes into account the economic, community and environmental sustainability in Australia through its business. The company provides a safe and inclusive working environment of its employees, indigenous representation and promoting gender equality. The environmental sustainability programs through the value chain of the company are provided through animal welfare, sustainable seafood merchandising, avoiding GMOs and deforestation (Woolworths Group 2019). 

Figure 7: Environmental Sustainability of Woolworths

Source: (Woolworths Group 2019)

The reduction of carbon emission and energy consumption also facilitates the response of Woolworths towards climatic change. The Company also take the initiative, by projecting 2020 tonnes of wasted food and its conversion to landfill. The method of waste reduction management plan contains organized way of trailing and examining the food directly from the farm delivered to the supermarket through the appliance of standard device that can test the temperature level of the food kept inside the containers. In fact, such a process has supported the Company in maintaining sustainable business (Rask media 2019). Beside, Woolworths has emphasized reducing plastic usage in the packaging of food and beverage products. In other words, the Company has focussed on meeting the customer needs in providing them thick reusable bags at various locations, as per the demands of the customers. Further, it has stressed on selling such bags at no extra cost (Business insider 2019). Therefore, such kind of initiative has been beneficial for the Organisation to gain maximum satisfaction level so far. 

On the other hand, Woolworths has later participated in an urban renewal program for community awareness in association with the liquor retailer. This kind of social development program brings Woolworths, as the second commercial occupant launched nearby the location of universities and hospitals to provide quality products to a number of consumers of that specific residential area (Inside the games 2019). Hence, this kind of events acted as an aid in the growth and development of sustainable business of the Organisation.

2.3 Safety Management Issue

Businesses in the supermarket and grocery retail consist of a wide range of products and segments. In other words, the safety management technique helps in operating the entire process of service systematically and safely under the surveillance of standard software (Koutsoumanis and Aspridou 2016). Woolworths is identified various times in trouble while operating safety measures. According to the view of the online article, (IT News 2019) Woolworths has been identified with the key concern of insufficient infrastructure in the IT services and SAP-based retail system as well. In addition, the organisation focussed on updating the software version of the NCR Retalix POS application later for managing the daily sales record in a systematic method. However, most of the store executives were unable to use such software applications, as training and knowledge were not sufficient. Further, the article forecast near about twenty-five thousand point-of-sale units and around seven thousand self-service checkouts. Despite that, the Company fails to afford detail records on supply and ticketing facet of the store management program. As a result, Woolworth financial results declined to some extent.

On the other hand, the safety issue has later impact on the retail operations of the organisation. In the online article, (Insider retail 2019) highlighted the issue of the safety measures and strategies taken by the higher officials of Woolworths in the retail stores in the right way. In relevant to that context, the management of the Organisation, is under pressure of scheming new ways through, which its retail shops can be secured completely by maintaining CCTV technological devices as well as through checkout lanes and providing suitable guidelines to the team members near about forty in numbers assigned in the retail locations for communicating with the customers well. In fact, this issue becomes major forecasted news for such a large supermarket retail organisation of Australia falling under such type of security problems.

3. Conclusion and Recommendations

Based on the above discussion on the successful business journey of Woolworths, it can be stated that business is not meant to receive the obvious growth and sustainability all the time. If there is growth that the company enjoys, there must be some drawbacks and difficult situations as well that the company has to deal with. Woolworths's excellent customer satisfaction and its Sustainable business clearly state the steady and continuous business growth of the company. However, security issues and theft should be mentioned that has been becoming a threat to the company. In this regard, the company will have to pay attention in order to reduce such theft and security issues in the supermarkets. It is important to identify where the losses and the threats are coming from (Mumani, Stone and Wang 2018). Customers and the employees all should be under observation. Educating Employees can also be a beneficial way in this regard. During certain periods such as opening, closing time or the peak hours, the staffs should be more conscious and aware. The customers, who roam around the shop or spend excessive time without buying anything regularly, should be under observation (Mumani, Stone and Wang 2018). In addition, in this regard, the fake cameras and the Systems of Video Surveillance can be a highly beneficial way out.