Woolworths shares fall as it flags $50m impact from strikes
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More news: Woolworths shares were lower in afternoon trade, paring earlier gains after it announced that continued industrial action has cost the supermarket chain $50 million so far.
Woolworths shares were down 0.53% to $30.16 at 3:05pm AEDT.
E&P analyst Phillip Kimber said it was disappointing that the industrial action had dragged on for almost two weeks.
Kimber noted that the estimated one-off impact to date of $50 million equated to a 0.3% impact for both NPAT and EBIT for FY25.
Woolworths takes $50m hit due to industrial action
The news: Woolworths has flagged that its Australian food sales arm has taken a $50 million hit due to ongoing industrial action in relation to enterprise agreements.
The context: The United Workers Union (UWU) started indefinite strike action at three distribution centres in Victoria and one in NSW on 21 November.
Woolworths said the industrial action was expected to continue impacting sales until it was resolved, with the total financial effect still unknown.
The supermarket said it had deployed a range of contingency plans including building inventory at stores, leveraging the wider distribution network and some suppliers delivering direct to stores. However, the extended disruption had led to stock flow limitations which impacted product availability.
What they said: “This one-off impact was not factored into the forecast earnings range provided for Australian food for H1 F25 in October,” the supermarket said.
The source: ASX announcement
