Woolworths has re-opened the four distribution centres affected by 17 days of industrial action. The retailer reached a new enterprise agreement with employees that was endorsed by the United Workers Union on Saturday (7 December).
The new agreement provide team members with wage increases over three years of approximately 11 per cent in total, which provide team members with competitive rates of pay that are also sustainable for the business, with the individual increases varying by site and year. It also addressed employee concern about performance metrics.
Woolworths Group CEO, Amanda Bardwell, said they were pleased to have reached an agreement.
“With just over two weeks until Christmas, we are now moving products out of the DCs and only supermarket shelves as quickly as possible for our customers. We are fully focused on restoring stock levels and getting products to stores where they are needed most,” Bardwell said.
Woolworths said sales within its Australian Food business had been impacted by $140 million, with roughly $90 million incremental since 3 December.
“The one-off negative impact of this dispute to date on Australian Food EBIT is approximately $50-60 million, reflecting the impact of lost sales, additional transport and supply chain contingency costs and elevated levels of stock loss,” Woolworths said, adding the one-off had not been factored into the 1H25 forecast earnings range for the business unit.
Woolworths expects there will be more sales and earnings to come in Q2, due to the “time and effort” required to rebuild stock levels at the DCs and stores ahead of the Christmas period.
The full extent of the financial impact is unknown but will be provide a full update in its half yearly results in February.
