Wesfarmers has been hit by the lockdowns in Melbourne and Sydney, but its hardware division is still managing to outperform the market.
Bunnings has expressed optimism that the recovery in the retail sector is gathering momentum. They have seen strong sales growth in the areas that have started to reopen following the natural disasters that occurred in NSW and Queensland.
Officeworks, which is mainly focused on technology products and furniture, is making solid progress, with half of its sales being generated through online channels in the first four quarters of 2021.
Wesfarmers has been a standout performer during the pandemic, with its Bunnings stores helping to boost revenue and earnings during the period. In the past couple of weeks, Bunnings has been able to improve its sales performance.
Commercial customers have shown strong sales growth, which has partially offset the impact of the lower consumer sales growth.
Like-for-like sales grew across all sectors in the year to August 27, with the exception of the Kmart and Target stores, which experienced temporary closures.
E-commerce sales have been hindered by capacity constraints, but the group has been able to benefit from the heavy investment in its stores over the past few years.
Wesfarmers, Australia’s largest food and farming company, is planning on launching a healthcare division through its acquisition of Australian Pharmaceutical Industries.
The group has made it clear that it is committed to its plan to acquire API through a scheme of arrangement.
Wesfarmers has increased its offer for rival bidder Sigma, but the offer was overshadowed by a rival bid that was revealed two weeks later.
Stores like Freedom Furniture are also doing hoping to spike in sales as lockdown ends. You can save at Freedom with a Freedom Furniture discount code.