Coles: Supermarket giant announces massive price drops as Aussies spend more with each shop

Supermarket giant Coles has announced bumper sales as Aussies return to the supermarket more often and with larger shopping baskets.

One of the country’s biggest supermarket chains has revealed normalised profits of $1.08bn for the 2025 financial year, up 2.3 per cent as the company returns to normalised 52-week earnings, down from 53 last year.

According to Reuters, this was below market expectations of $1.11bn in profits for the financial year.

The rise came as supermarket sales were up 4.3 per cent to $40bn for the financial year, thanks to an increase in both transactions and basket size for shoppers.

If it wasn’t for a slump in tobacco sales, supermarket sales would have increased by 5.7 per cent over the year.

On a statutory basis, net profits were down 3.5 per cent, dragged down on significant items, including the $35m cost of the closure and site reconfiguration of Coles’ Truganina Victoria site.

Coles chief executive Leah Weckert, said the result was due to consistent focus on the business strategy.

“We were clear that value, quality and availability remained important to our customers,” she said

“In addition, continuing to manage loss and delivering on our Simplify and Save to Invest commitments remained key to achieving our financial objectives.”

Coles said customers had responded positively to its discounting on items as well as expanding its everyday low prices range.

The supermarket arm of the business reported a 2.4 per cent increase in sales to $39.99bn, as customers responded positively to promotional periods throughout key holidays, including Christmas and Easter.

Coles also said both transactions and basket sizes were up due to a “focus on value, quality, availability and the overall customer experience”.

Margins for the supermarket giant also increased 76 basis points as strategy sourcing, its Simply and Save to Invest program and automated distribution centres all helped reduce costs.

Increased costs through wages and inflation were largely offset by savings through the Simplify and Save to Invest program.

Coles said it had been a strong start to the new financial year, with revenues up 4.9 per cent over the first eight weeks for its supermarket sector, but liquor sales remained flat.

Coles expects to open about 12 new supermarkets and close two in this financial year. It will renew another 70 stores.

Shareholders will receive a final dividend of 32 cents per share, the same as last year’s final dividend, which takes the full-year payout to 69 cents, up from 68 cents a year ago.