Description
This description relating to to give the people of australia a shop they trust, delivering quality, service and value.
CHAPTER
TEN
CHAPTER
TEN
2008–2014
PROUD TO BE COLES
CHAPTER
TEN
CHAPTER
TEN
2008–2014
PROUD TO BE COLES
116
F
ollowing the Wesfarmers acquisition, and as things began
to settle down after the leadership shufe, a feeling
of optimism began to bubble through the Coles team.
Wesfarmers needed a return on its investment, but retained a
long-term view when it came to building a sustainable, proftable
and customer-focused food retailing organisation. And it was a
good job they did, because in 2008 the global fnancial crisis
took hold.
The GFC created an environment that crippled many banks
and fnancial institutions, but as the business world collapsed
around it, Wesfarmers stayed true to their investment and their
plan. Coles would still be getting its makeover.
The new Coles management team set to work to develop a six-
point plan that would deliver Coles’ goal ‘to give the people of
Australia a shop they trust, delivering quality, service and value’.
That plan became known as Coles’ Circle for Success, which
has united 100,000 team members and provided a clear and
consistent message about Coles’ priorities.
The Coles boss has an entrepreneurial spirit, but it’s backed up
by considered thinking and constant measurement. He did his
research before his frst day in the new job, then hit the ground
running. ‘You have to start as you mean to go on and that very
frst day was the beginning of our consistent messaging to our
team and to the public. I didn’t even go into my ofce the frst
day; instead I went out to stores unannounced to see how things
were going – I still do it every week and I believe Edgar Coles
did the same thing when the supermarkets business kicked of
in the sixties.
‘When I did go into the ofce, someone apologised to me
because they hadn’t changed the car park numbers around
and I only had number sixteen until they could change it. I
immediately told him to scrap the numbers altogether – if you
want the closest car park, then you can get into work early and
grab it. I also knocked all the walls down in what was still known
as head ofce; no-one was going to have a closed-in ofce. We
had to make a clean break from the hierarchical, stale corporate
structure – I’d heard that there was a corporate bathroom on one
of the top foors and one day I was at work late on a weekend, so
I went for a wander and I found it on level six, complete with pink
marble and gold taps. As far as I was concerned, it represented
everything that had gone wrong with Coles over the last couple
of decades. There was even a heli-pad on the roof! None of that
lasted; we’re here to serve the stores, not the other way around,
because our stores serve our customers.
‘The old head ofce was quickly renamed Store Support Centre
and that reinforced our message – this whole enterprise has to
point towards what customers want. For example, I remember
in my frst weeks the then–IT manager presented his case for
a new IT system. I stopped him after just a few minutes of
technical talk and said, “Show me how all this technical stuf will
help the stores. Could you go away and draw a picture of a store
and show me where in the store the IT investment will support
stores and make their job easier?” and he went away to revise
his work. Those sorts of conversations happened all the time in
the frst year or two. Every piece of thinking needed to stem from
Coles giving Australians a shop they trust, that delivers quality,
service and value.’
Having the patience to constantly reinforce the same message
– that the business is all about the customer – has been a key
element of the turnaround. ‘You can never unsay what’s already
been said, so I made sure to get it right from the start and stick
to it. Before I started, Richard Goyder [Wesfarmers’ Managing
Director] had Coles’ senior and middle managers write to him
about what they saw as the problems and I spent days reading
those letters. Their issues could be broken into four main ones:
tired stores; poor culture and spirit; they’d lost the way to interact
with one another; and a lack of leadership.
‘In those frst few weeks I addressed hundreds of people, and
those letters are what I kept referring back to. I didn’t want to
preach and it was no good to crack the whip, so I used the
team members’ words instead – they were the ones who knew
what needed to be done. Then I focused on how we were going
to behave; on how management was here to serve the stores,
not the other way around. On the bottom of every slide I had
“Proud to be Coles” and on the last one I overlaid a picture of
our founder, GJ Coles, with how I wanted us to work together;
Lead Efectively, Act Collectively, Support Consistently, Motivate
Universally and Care Passionately. It became our “Ways of
Working” and that remains as true as ever today. By the end of
every presentation, the audience knew that I genuinely felt that
this was a fght worth fghting.’
To further communicate the process of change, Ian initiated the
‘retail round-up’. ‘The idea of the retail round-up was to celebrate
‘TO GIVE THE PEOPLE OF
AUSTRALIA A SHOP THEY TRUST,
DELIVERING QUALITY, SERVICE
AND VALUE.’
117
some quick wins, and every month we’d have one to let people
know how we were going; we still do it now. It wasn’t compulsory,
but sometimes we’d have seven or eight hundred team members
turn up. There were serious things to communicate, but it was
also a chance for a bit of fun and to have a laugh at ourselves
as managers. We encouraged people to celebrate incremental
wins because the turning circle of a big tanker is long and slow.
That way we could keep up the momentum of change, not just
give it lip-service. We could show how we were closing the gap
on the competition and actually growing faster; something we
have done for four years now.’
Practically speaking, numerous initiatives were kicked of in
that frst year. Range change was designed to improve on-shelf
availability of products for customers, better meet customer
needs, remove duplication and improve customers’ shopping
experience. Customers responded well to Coles’ house brand
ofer, with the brands recording a 14 per cent growth in sales in
the frst year. During that year Coles reinvested $100 million into
the business through a combination of price decreases and the
absorption of cost increases to deliver value to customers.
The frst senior manager that Ian McLeod employed was John
Durkan. As merchandise director, he was responsible for
reinvigorating the company’s merchandising and logistics. He
is English, but in many ways it felt like coming home when
he few into Australia to start his new job. ‘I’d been coming
to Australia a lot over the years – my wife and I actually ran
away from England to get married in Watsons Bay years ago.
Joining the Coles turnaround was exciting and challenging,
and I’d already developed an afnity with the country and its
people and importantly, I understood how they interact with
their supermarkets.’
John is the kind of retail guy who would tell his family he was
of to buy something from the shops, then return three hours
later empty-handed, but with a head full of ideas. So what did
he see when he examined the Australian market, and where did
Coles ft into that picture? ‘The Australian market for fresh food is
diferent to the UK’s. There is much more cooking from scratch
here and most of the produce is loose – many of our stores look
like the markets of a century ago and in percentage terms, pre-
packaged food sales is really low compared to Europe. There are
challenges associated with the size of the country, and perhaps
because of that, it seemed to me that the food retailing industry
was more focused on supply chains than the end customer;
Coles had defnitely gone down that path. There was a great
opportunity to turn everything around so that it all pointed at the
customer again, and that’s been the bedrock of our strategy ever
since the turnaround began.
‘I knew Coles was an iconic Australian business, but I was
initially amazed at how much the company was talked about in
the wider community. Our decisions were really scrutinised by
the media because we discovered that people really care – there
is nothing more fundamental than food, and Coles had become
a part of the fabric of the community because it provides
that food.
‘What was also very obvious from the start was that we had an
amazing group of people in the stores and that many of them
were long-termers. Collectively, they wanted and needed a lift. I
lost track of how many people told me, “Ten years ago we were
really fying”, with such great fondness. The depth of feeling
among the Coles people surprised me, but it gave us such a
great platform to afect the change that was needed.’
But as iconic as it may have been, the Coles ofer was tired. The
company lagged behind its major competitor and injecting the
energy required to afect a turnaround wasn’t a task for the faint-
hearted. ‘Despite its fading reputation through the early 2000s,
Coles was still a huge business with lots of stores. That said, in
the frst weeks it became apparent that there was more to do
than I’d frst expected. The lack of investment was greater than
I’d imagined, the availability of product wasn’t good enough,
cleanliness was an issue and things like broken slicers and
malfunctioning ovens hampered team members trying to serve
customers well. The frst thing was to fx the basics; to renew and
rejuvenate the stores and make Coles a place you’d want to go to
shop. That took twelve to eighteen months to get under control.
‘We also needed to get back to being customer facing; the
company had drifted away from the core retailing principle
of making sure the items customers wanted were there for
them to buy, rather than just ofering them what suppliers had
available. In the frst few weeks we held hundreds of meetings
with suppliers to get feedback, and whilst they clearly wanted a
resurgent, successful Coles, they had to also accept that they
would have to supply what the customers wanted rather than
what suited them to supply. There were speed bumps along that
road, but we just kept coming back to the same mantra: do what
is right for the customer. It’s simple, and we’ve stuck to it from
day one.’
1. Coming to the aid of Tasmanians impacted by bushfres
in 2013, Coles provided the biggest corporate donation to
the Red Cross Appeal.
2. Te Governor General Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce
AC presented the Foodbank Patron’s award to Coles’
Managing Director Ian McLeod in May 2013, recognising
Coles for more than ten years of food donations.
3. SecondBite collects surplus fresh fruit, vegetables and
bakery items from Coles stores nationally, and delivers
these to over 1000 community agencies.
4. Coles stores fundraised in support of the Queensland
Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal in 2011 when Queensland
was devastated by foods and Cyclone Yasi.
5/7. Coles’ former Healesville store manager was the face of
Coles’ Bushfre Appeal Fundraising day in 2009. Coles
donated a day’s proft to assist victims of the Black
Saturday bushfres in Victoria, which sadly claimed the
lives of 173 people.
6. Coles’ Ambassador Curtis Stone, helped out at the
launch of Coles Community Food with SecondBite at the
Salvation Army’s ‘Street Level’ program in Surry Hills,
NSW, in 2012.
1.
4.
7.
5.
2. 3.
6.
It is estimated that 1.2 million Australians
don’t have access to a safe, regular, and
afordable food supply, which is why Coles
partners with SecondBite.
In May 2013, Coles celebrated donating over
2.5 million kilograms of fruit, vegetables
and bakery items for people in need – the
equivalent of 5 million meals.
In the same month, Coles was recognised
for providing more than ten years’ of food
donations to Foodbank, receiving the Patron’s
Award from the Governor General Her
Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC. The award
is given to companies that have demonstrated
leadership, innovation, creativity and impact
over time in their partnerships with Foodbank.
Food security
Meanwhile, as the turnaround gathered pace, the company
supported a range of local and national community activities and
charities, such as Landcare Australia Limited, Cancer Council
Australia, Foodbank, Australian Red Cross, Guide Dogs and
SecondBite, to fund national programs relating to health and
the environment. Through its work with Landcare, the company
funded school and community gardens, encouraging young
people to become more aware of the environment and where
food comes from.
The worst bushfres in Victorian history ravaged the state in
2009. To play its part, Coles contributed nearly $10 million to the
Victorian Bushfre Appeal, of which nearly $5 million was store
profts donated from Coles’ Bushfre Appeal Day. The inspiring
response to the tragedy was not lost on Ian McLeod, writing in
a letter to team members, ‘It is with immense pride that I can
share with you our fnal proft fgure – and record donation –
raised during yesterday’s Bushfre Appeal Day. With the help
of customers and team members alike, we have achieved a
donation of $4,870,889. This, combined with product donations
valued at $260,000, brings Coles’ contribution to bushfre
victims to over $5 million – a fantastic result.’
It’s people who make a community
To drive the new, store-focused culture, Coles employed the best
retail leaders available from around the world, and also launched
its Retail Leaders program to foster promising store team
members. Another of the new breed hired early by Ian McLeod
was Stuart Machin, who was brought into the leadership team as
operations director. Stuart joined Coles in 2008, having worked
previously in Britain with Tesco, Sainsbury and ASDA-Walmart.
He was brought in to lead reform in Coles’ operations and in
2011, he also added store development to his responsibilities
– put simply, he was ultimately responsible for 90,000-plus
people and the smooth operation of 750 stores. In April 2013,
he was appointed managing director of Target.
His job during the early years of his appointment is tricky to get
your head around, but like all members of the executive team,
Stuart likes to keep things simple. ‘We’re a supermarket – it’s not
rocket science. The keys are people, product, stores; take care
of them, and the fnancial returns will come. Our frst step was
to fx what we called “hygiene factors”, like decreasing queue
times for customers, opening the entrances, making sure the
trolleys worked, putting a stop to checking everyone’s bags as
though they were criminals, and putting in place some collective,
common procedures. It was obvious stuf, but the difculty was
implementing the changes across so many stores and so many
team members. Culture is changed in small steps so we made
sure we were consistent with our messages and our actions and
over time, everyone in the team got the sense of where we were
heading and happily jumped on board.’
Stuart really hits his stride when talking about the development
of people. ‘Too many companies don’t stop and ask, “Why do
people choose to work where they work?” Research shows
conclusively that the number one motivator is a sense of
purpose, followed by money, security, fexibility and the chance
of advancement. I was concerned that we weren’t thinking
about this enough, and just like we adjusted the entire company
to point to the customer, we reformed our view of our team to
answer the question, “Why do people work at Coles?” How can
we create an environment that gives a wider sense of purpose?
How can we provide industry-leading pay and rewards combined
with security, fexibility and the opportunity for advancement?
‘A sense of purpose comes from a wider sense of belonging,
so we worked hard to create a feeling of community across our
100,000 team members. For example, we discovered that a big
issue for our team members was how much food waste we’d
been creating, so we got involved in the SecondBite program
where we donate food that isn’t up to our in-store standards of
122
quality, but is still safe and nutritious to eat. It greatly decreases
our waste and helps feed people in need, and team members
can help out in their local community with the program. By
midway through 2013 we had over 400 stores involved with the
program, and that’s a big win all around.’
Meanwhile, Coles placed renewed emphasis on motivating
and engaging team members, using the idea of ‘selling and
serving with personality’ to excite them about the future. Once
more, a great deal of consideration and scrutiny underpinned
an apparently simple concept – getting and keeping team
members fred up and purposeful. ‘The areas of pay, security
and fexibility are also high on the agenda for our team’, says
Stuart Machin. Flexibility is the most difcult one in stores, and
we’re still working on it, but in 2008 we realised that it would
be extremely difcult for us to afect cultural change when
around 70 per cent of the team members in stores were casual
employees who didn’t know if they were going to be called into
work the next day or not. And how could we provide the levels
of quality and service we aspired to when we were calling in
casual team members for busy times who hadn’t been in a store
for weeks or even months? We started a process of providing
security through permanent employment and these days, only
30 per cent of our team are casual employees. Absenteeism
and staf turnover have plummeted and our level of service to
customers has sky-rocketed.
‘The chance of career advancement has always been a strong
point of Coles’ – the idea is to recruit people internally and
provide all the necessary guidance and training to help them
succeed, without providing so much guidance that it actually
becomes bureaucratic and restrictive. It’s never your employee’s
fault if they don’t reach their potential; it’s the company’s for not
providing the correct environment for them to shine.’
Coles’ range continued to change in 2009 based on customer
feedback. Specialised training was implemented to improve
customer service, and a more team-focused culture was
initiated, unifying the army of people out in stores. Coles also
continued to enhance their fresh food focus by working with
local suppliers, simultaneously supporting the company’s
‘Australia frst’ philosophy.
Stuart Machin enthusiastically explains a new initiative
introduced in 2010 that refects the community-driven outlook
of this new era. ‘In 2010, of our 105,000 team members, only
sixty-fve were indigenous Australians, which was just ghastly.
We have always had a broad church of people who represent
multicultural Australia, but we are an Australian business and
we needed to create opportunities for indigenous Australians
to work with us. We have been subtle and taken our time
introducing a program to rectify the situation, not because we
didn’t want to move fast, but because we needed to be culturally
sensitive and build trust slowly. We had team members complete
cultural awareness programs to help create an environment in
which Aboriginal people would gain a sense of purpose, then
we let word-of-mouth spread. We needed to be genuine and
consistent, and happily, it’s starting to work: after three years,
we now have almost a thousand indigenous employees. We also
run leadership programs in Aboriginal communities; there is so
much we can all learn from each other.’
Turning around
Coles’ massive turnaround gathered pace through 2010. Sales
increased by nearly 6 per cent compared with the 3 per cent rise
posted by rival Woolworths: the tide was turning.
By 2010, ffty of the new-format Coles stores had been completed
and the revised store-ordering platform had been rolled out to
over 200 stores. A highlight was the opening of the national
fagship supermarket at Tooronga, Victoria on August 12. GJ
Coles’ youngest daughter Jan Barry and grandson Donald Coles
took part in a symbolic ribbon-cutting ceremony with Coles’
Managing Director Ian McLeod. Replacing the original Coles
Tooronga that had been operating on the Toorak Rd site for four
decades, the new, 4000–square metre store had an in-store
butcher and fshmonger, a market-style layout, traditional and
self-checkouts, and convenience meal solutions, as well as
an in-store bakery ofering a full range of breads and cakes.
The store sent a positive message to the public about Coles’
turnaround path.
Practising what it preached about giving the customers what
they want, management introduced uniform state-based prices
across all stores. It was a central initiative designed to showcase
the company’s commitment to transparent pricing for customers,
and brought about an annual price defation of more than one
per cent. Coles’ improved value and price transparency was
communicated to customers through marketing and promotions
campaigns that included ‘Feed Your Family for under $10’,
‘Down Down, Prices are Down’ and ‘Dollar Dazzlers’.
123
Coles’ frst Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Plan was launched in 2011 and
has gone from strength to strength.
Within just over a year, the number of
indigenous team members had reached
800 and over 450 team members and
senior leaders had taken part in cultural
awareness programs.
Engaging indigenous
Australians
Letting people know
One of Coles’ most successful marketing alliances was extended
in July 2010 when the company signed a new two-year deal as
the exclusive supermarket sponsor of Network Ten’s MasterChef
Australia. Initially, MasterChef had gotten of to a slow start
and had no sponsor, but Coles knew of the show from the UK
equivalent and so agreed on initial sponsorship at a discounted
rate. The show frst went to air in April 2009 and was an instant
success, giving Coles a huge advantage over its competitors;
Coles’ name was more visible than ever in homes Australia-
wide. The show became the most watched television series
in Australia, with the season two fnale being the third-most
watched show in Australian television history.
Just a few weeks before the alliance extension was signed,
Coles launched an innovative in-store marketing campaign
featuring the line “To cook like a MasterChef cooks, shop where
a MasterChef shops”. As part of the campaign, Coles made sure
recipe cards featuring all the show’s most popular recipes were
available in stores the morning after each episode, as well as
prominent displays of ingredients featured in the shows, which in
turn led to unprecedented sales and customer satisfaction. As a
positive side-efect, more people began cooking at home, relying
less on take-away meals and dining out, and instead taking a
greater interest in serving appealing and nutritious meals using
a wider range of fresh produce. The ‘foodie’ movement had a
place to call home.
Coles’ Marketing and Store Development Director Simon
McDowell plays a pivotal role in creating and developing
all aspects of the brand, inside and outside the store. As an
Australian, Simon spent over sixteen years of his career working
overseas in general management and marketing roles before
then coming back to join the Coles executive team in 2009.
‘I remember Coles as Coles New World from when I was a kid
growing up in Sydney. I hadn’t realised the extent of the brand
decline since then and when I came back home, Coles had
really come of the boil. It was an exciting challenge to help
revive the famous brand that had lost its lustre and do my bit to
help. It feels like I’m working in a $35 billion start-up company
with a team of 100,000 people. We had to be entrepreneurial
to give ourselves a chance, and we still have that kind of
bold spirit.’
But for all of Simon’s excitement at the prospect of Coles’
turnaround story, it wasn’t an obvious step for him to take. ‘To be
honest, I’d been working internationally with some pretty famous
global businesses like Sony and Coca-Cola, and then here was
this opportunity back in Australia with Coles. But that led to me
thinking: why isn’t Coles the strong brand I remember? Why is
it just selling other people’s brands and not concentrating on
building its own? Why can’t we be the most compelling, trusted
and engaging brand in Australia?’ There is no doubting Simon’s
passion for rebuilding businesses with the customer and the
brand at the centre of his focus, but there is also no chance
that he’ll position the brand just because it satisfes some kind
of artistic urge. ‘Everything we do when communicating with
our customers or our team members must come back to our
triangle: point one, does it build our brand? Point two, does
it drive our trade? And point three, does it engage our team
members? If something doesn’t get a tick at each point, then its
probably not going to get through.’
Coles has become somewhat of a brand case study, but you
won’t fnd Simon trying to defne the evolution of the brand as
if in a textbook. ‘We know our brand when we see it or feel it,
and you can’t write that down. For example, if you randomly get
a group of team members together for a photo in most retail
companies, they’ll stand there with awkward smiles adjusting
their uniforms. Coles people don’t do that. They spread their
arms wide and they shout out “Ta-Dah!” Someone will probably
grab a big red hand from somewhere and they’ll start singing
the song. “Ta-Dah” is our signature, its our way of saying, “I’m
proud of what I do and I want to sell and serve our customers
with personality”. Of course we take our business and what we
do very seriously, but we never take ourselves too seriously.’
If you talk to Simon, he will tell you the job of building the most
famous brand in Australia has only just began.
Gaining momentum
As the turnaround kicked on, Coles registered a double digit
increase in fresh food sales with customers responding to better
1/2. On Australia Day 2013, Coles announced Redkite –
the cancer charity that supports children, young
people and families through cancer – as its charity
of the year. Coles committed to raise $5 million for
Redkite, which was partly funded by a 5 cent
donation from the sale of every loaf of Coles Smart
Buy and Coles Brand bread.
3/10. Coles encourages the use of reusable bags and
donates 5 cents to Junior Landcare from the sale of
selected shopping bags. Funds raised support a
garden grants program for schools and other
community groups to encourage students to learn
about the environment.
4. Since 1982, Coles has supported Guide Dogs
Australia through collection dogs instore.
Customer donations to the iconic dogs at Coles and
Liquorland help to raise, train and support guide
dogs across Australia.
5. Coles and its customers have supported Cancer
Council’s Dafodil Day for over eighteen years,
with money raised going to the Cancer Council
Helpline (13 11 20).
6/7. More than 7500 schools participated in Coles’
Sports for Schools program, launched in 2010.
8. Coles was introduced to Yaru Water through Supply
Nation, a regulation and certifcation body for
indigenous businesses. Coles supermarkets in New
South Wales now stock the premium water sourced
from Tweed Valley in NSW.
9/11. Over ten years ago Coles and Robins Foods
joined forces to foster indigenous enterprise
through the sale of the Outback Spirit range of
products. Ten cents from the sale of each product
goes to the Coles Indigenous Food Fund which
invests in horticultural projects such as commercial
plantings of bush tomato in central Australia,
Kakadu plum in the Top End and lemon aspen in
Cape York.
12. In 2011 Coles established a partnership with the
Department of Education, Employment and
Workplace Relations to boost the number of
indigenous team members working at Coles.
Trough this, Coles has been able to fund 405 new
roles and provide a mentoring support program.
1.
5.
9.
6.
2. 4.
12.
3.
10.
7. 8.
11.
126
quality fresh produce and greater availability. Woolworths began
foundering in the wake of people moving to shop at a Coles
supermarket.
Next, Coles took the proactive – and some would say aggressive
– step of lowering the prices of thousands of grocery items by
an average of 10 per cent in 2011. Critics of Coles’ success in
recent times claim the company has been throwing its weight
about to deny suppliers and farmers the rewards they deserve
for their work by pressuring them on price. Many critics also
say that ultimately, the end customers will be the ones who pay.
John Durkan refutes those claims with ease. ‘It’s an honour that
people want to try and pick apart what we have been doing,
but what we’re doing is not that complicated. We ask suppliers
to give us what we can sell to customers and if they do that,
customers will buy more of it and everybody wins. Australian
milk consumption hadn’t gone anywhere in ten years and now
it has, which means greater production for more farmers. We
started making commitments to growers so that they could invest
in innovation that would improve their output and proftability.
These steps are important for food sustainability in Australia, not
just for suppliers.’
To John Durkan, now chief operating ofcer, the message
remained simple. ‘The tensions brought about through the
pressure placed on suppliers to be more customer-facing helped
to create an environment for innovation and have also prompted
our competitors to lift their game as well. That’s just fne from
our perspective, because increased competition keeps us on
our toes and keeps the whole industry jostling for the customer’s
spend – and that must be good for the customer. Plus, there
are 30,000 independent grocers and food retailers in Australia,
which means customers can always vote with their feet.
‘We also make a point of working with the Australian farm
industry. We have an Australian frst policy – 96 per cent of our
fresh fruit and vegetables are Aussie grown, and it’s 100 per cent
for staples like eggs and milk. Food security is vitally important
for every community and we know that we play a major part
in that.’
Socio-economic refections aside, John is crystal clear about
Coles’ place in the community. ‘When you break it down, we’re
a food retailer and people expect to be able to buy groceries
from us. All we can do is provide them the quality, range, service
and value they deserve, then let them decide whether they want
to buy it. Realistically, that hasn’t changed over the history of
retailing, let alone one hundred years of Coles’ history.’
Coles’ discounting program was a considered strategy centred
around what is best for the people who matter most – customers.
Despite that simple philosophy, much of the media commentary
was scathing; bafingly so. Ian McLeod took heart from the
fact that Coles must mean a lot to people to attract so much
attention, but was surprised by the negativity. ‘We’re trying to
overcome some deep-rooted mistrust and apathy that people
have developed about Coles during the last ten to twenty years
and that’s difcult to do. The degree to which our business is
analysed is a compliment, really, and shows just how much
supermarkets are a part of the community’s everyday life.
‘From the start we’ve worked hard to give Australians what they
want and that’s resulted in changes to the way things had been
done previously; we shook things up because they needed to be
shaken up, and that’s been difcult for some people to accept.
It does get to me when I read mistruths about how we are
mistreating farmers or about how our customers are somehow
sufering because we are throwing our weight around. It riles
me because it’s plainly incorrect and infammatory. The simple
fact is that customers are getting better products at cheaper
prices, which has resulted in them buying more, which results
in the farmers producing and selling more. Suppliers who have
been innovative and understand what we’re doing have really
beneftted from that as well; a whole host of suppliers, large and
small, have seen their business grow signifcantly.
‘We are a one-hundred-year-old, 100 per cent Australian-owned
business serving the community and we are very proud of
that fact. We’re here to enhance our position in the Australian
community and to help it grow, not somehow bring it down.’
In February 2011, Coles announced further price cuts as part of
its ‘Down Down’ campaign to reduce the price of the products
customers bought most. In the preceding twelve months Coles
had cut more than 5000 prices, bringing signifcant savings to
Australian households. Most of these cuts were achieved without
reducing the amount paid to suppliers, contrary to the story often
told in the media, which attempted to portray Coles as a ruthless
giant taking advantage of its suppliers. Coles was vindicated
in July when the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC) announced that Coles’ ‘Down Down’ milk
By 2005, most of Coles’ fresh produce was
sourced from Australian suppliers and at least 85
per cent of the total grocery ofer was Australian-
made. As part of its commitment to sourcing
Australian products, Coles continued to develop
close relationships with key primary industry
producers, in particular with fresh food growers
and meat suppliers, the latter through the
Colestock program.
Colestock was developed early in the 2000s as
an alliance of producers, backed by a dedicated
on-farm quality assurance program and central
boning room. The outcome was a range of retail-
ready meat products in stores across the country.
Today, Coles has an ‘Australia frst’ sourcing
policy and holds ‘Meet the Buyer’ events all over
Australia to attract local producers and suppliers
with great products. In 2012, Coles Brand was
Australia’s only supermarket private label to ofer
100 per cent Australian-grown frozen vegetables
and in 2013 Coles Brand canned pineapple was
returned to being Australian sourced, with 4000
tonnes of pineapple now sourced from growers in
Queensland.
Coles Brand also carries more products
designated with the ‘Australian Made’ kangaroo
logo than any other brand in the country.
Australian made and grown
In 2010, Coles initiated a program to phase
out sow stalls in response to customers’
heightened awareness of the welfare issues
surrounding intensive pig farming – this was
completed for Coles Brand pork products
in early 2013. Today, all Coles Brand pork
only comes from approved farms that meet
specifc animal welfare standards.
Trevor Lee from Australian Country Choice
remembers the introduction of Hormone
Growth Promotant (HGP)–free beef.
‘Customers care about many things other
than price and the new management team
were determined to give them HGP-free beef
despite previous Coles management saying
that it was impossible to control the supply
chain to give the quality and consistency
in the product. They were determined and
worked with us to make it happen. “Whatever
it takes is what we’ll pay” is what they said,
and with them, we made it work. It was
released on shelves in January 2011 and is a
great example of what current management is
trying to achieve.’
Around the same time, Coles announced
a range of responsible sourcing initiatives,
including a three year program with WWF
Australia, a leading authority on marine
sustainability, to deliver responsibly sourced
seafood across Coles Brand fresh, frozen
and canned fsh. Coles was also awarded the
RSPCA’s Good Egg Award in 2013 following
its initiative to switch to cage-free Coles
Brand eggs.
Better for animals and people
DID YOU KNOW?
Coles’ magazine is Australia’s most
widely distributed food magazine with
15 million copies issued each year.
131
prices were consistent with a competitive market and beneftted
consumers. In September that same year, Coles cut prices by as
much as 28 per cent on a range of popular meat products from
sausages and mince to steaks and chops. The move provided
welcome relief for many Australians contemplating an uncertain
spring in the face of rising household bills. By this time, more
than 6000 prices had been lowered since the Down Down
campaign was launched in 2010.
There is no doubting the impact of the Down Down campaign.
As is his way, marketing and store development director Simon
McDowell likes to explain the campaign’s impact through story.
‘One day I was in a store and there were two kids in a mum’s
trolley at a checkout, the both of them strumming away on
their fake guitars singing Down Down at the top of their voices
and having a great time. The mum and the person at the cash
register both smiled at the two of them, and you know what? I
wasn’t even inside a Coles store. That’s a brand story.
‘Another day I was at the footy and when one of the cheer
squad’s big banners went up for the players to run through,
it had the hand and “Down Down, you’re going down” on it,
making fun of the other team. That’s a brand story.
‘Our brand and our messages have to be compelling, engaging
and unique, and they have to be genuine in order to gel. We
can say, “There’s no freshness like Coles freshness”, because
we can back it up by explaining that we don’t inject our meat
with hormones and we don’t freeze and unfreeze our vegies.
Marketing can’t work without that “prove it”element.’
Simon’s attitude to the place and the impact of marketing is
refreshing, but credit must also go to his colleagues on the
Board. ‘There’s fve of us and we’re all confdent. To use a soccer
analogy, we’re all strikers and we’re all fghting over the ball. It’s
robust and it’s tough, but Ian’s our coach and he has the last
word. Recently, I got a whole lot of red cardboard hand guitars
printed and into stores to help launch the Status Quo song.
‘Ian cornered me and said, “How many of those things did we
get printed?”and I said, “Just a few”.
“How many?”
“Ohhh, just enough,”I replied evasively.
“I heard it was a million,”he said then, his eyes a bit squinted.
“OK… yes. That was the frst order.”
‘Then, over the next days he received hundreds of photos of
smiling kids playing with our team members in stores and it all
made sense. We are a business driven by dollars and cents,
but the team accepts this intangible marketing stuf and that
it works.’
The years 2008 to 2014 asked a lot of Coles’ team members as
the company underwent enormous – and necessary – change.
These days, the business is the largest and most proftable of
the Wesfarmers empire, vindicating the company’s acquisition
many times over.
The success of Coles in recent times mirrors that of decades
past. By remaining true to the core principles of providing the
Australian people the quality, service and value they deserve,
Coles has returned to the top of the pile.
But the job isn’t over. Change and development are now a part of
everyday life at Coles. Public and business commentary widely
recognises the turnaround as one of the great business success
stories of recent decades, but John Durkan and the leadership
team don’t see it that way. ‘We have clear, measurable targets
and we are in line with expectations, but we never give ourselves
a pat on the back. We are outperforming the market and that
is obviously very satisfying, but there is still so much headroom
and so many customers to reach out to. Change doesn’t stop
and the “turnaround” will never be complete; this is the new
normal and we will always have to review and adjust because
customer tastes will always evolve.
‘The people in the stores humble you everyday – there are so
many people who have worked here for twenty-fve years or
more and they have so much pride in what they do. Working for
a company that has been serving customers for one hundred
years is an honour – we’ve been giving customers a reason to
shop with us for three or four generations, and you’ve got to be
doing something right to survive that long.’
Jenny Bryant, Coles’ Human Resources Director, agrees. ‘Our
people are our strength, which is why we continue to invest in
a strong culture and recognise passionate and loyal service.
Almost 1700 team members have been with us for more than
twenty-fve years and a further 900 have been serving Coles
customers for over thirty years. A regular occurrence now is to
see teams coming together to cut a cake, celebrate and present
their colleagues with loyal service name badges, which are worn
with enormous pride. The sense of belonging that this creates
is priceless.
Coles’ red hand became ubiquitous and reinforced the
company’s one-hundred-year-old commitment to value.
132
‘We give “Care Passionately” pins to team members who go
above and beyond for customers and the community and we
celebrate the very best stories by recognising our Service Idols of
the year at celebrations in every state and nationally.’
When Richard Goyder looks back to 2007 and 2008 and sees
how his company’s expectations have not only been met, but
exceeded, he can’t help but be proud of the people who made
it happen. ‘We [Wesfarmers] may have had lots of questions
asked of us when we bought Coles for so much money, but
after fve years, it’s clear that the acquisition has been a good
one on a number of levels – good for Coles’ team members
through better job security and advancement opportunities;
good for customers through an improved range with better
quality and reduced rates; good for suppliers through increased
volumes and increased sales; and good for local communities
through greater employment and through our charity work. At
its broadest level, the Wesfarmers–Coles relationship is good for
Australia; food prices have been kept down and it’s not a difcult
case to argue that because of that, infation and the cost of living
have been arrested, keeping interest rates low and adding to the
strength of Australia’s economy.
‘We were able to employ a world-class management team to
start the turnaround, and now, that depth of talent extends far
into the organisation. It makes me proud to see what a dynamic,
innovative army of team members we now have at Coles and
that can only be positive for a bright future.’
This talent continues to grow and includes Rob Scott, who joined
Coles as fnance director in January 2013 from Wesfarmers
Insurance where he was managing director.
Looking back to power forward
As the clock ticks over into Coles’ centenary year, it’s clear that
the company has, to some degree, returned to its roots as it
looks to the future. GJ Coles and his brothers knew that growth,
constant innovation and listening to customer needs were the
keys to success and the Coles of 2014 retains those principles.
Providing quality, service and value to Australians remains as
important now as it ever was.
Diferent people place diferent emphasis on celebrating
one hundred years of history. As managing director of two
organisations celebrating a centenary, Richard Goyder has a
strong grasp on the value of heritage. ‘I enjoy thinking about how
many young Australians got their start at Coles and have gone
on to make a positive impact on the country. We have had one
hundred years of employing Australians, and refecting on the
long term impact of that for Australia feels good. It’s wonderful
that Coles and Wesfarmers can grow and thrive together and not
only share the past, but also the future. Reaching one hundred
years in business means you’ve had to be innovative and a
leader, and in the case of Coles, that has beneftted Australia
as much as Australians have beneftted Coles. We can all learn
from our history and use the lessons to keep serving customers
the best way we can.’
Founder GJ Coles’ nephew, Ken Coles, easily taps into his family
heritage and experience to pass on his thoughts for the new
generation of Coles team members. ‘I would say that you have
the great good fortune to have joined a wonderful organisation,
now one hundred years old. It has prospered well over that time
and this book bears evidence of that. It has survived two wars
and The Depression. It has plans to continue to expand and as
it does so there will be promotions available to those of you who
work hard, acquire the necessary skills and learn as much as
you can about the business. Always tell the truth, tell it before
you have to and tell more than you have to and you’ll never go
wrong. The future is up to you and I wish you well for it.’
As the key architect of the company’s turnaround, Ian McLeod
acknowledges the success of the turnaround campaign, but is
much happier talking about what is still left to do. Back between
2001 and 2003, he took a brief sidestep from retail to become
the CEO of the famous Celtic Football Club in Scotland. The
cut and thrust of a professional sporting organisation suited
his competitive nature, and you have to wonder if he misses
working in an environment where success is so easily measured
by points and ladder position as opposed to one where success
is an ongoing process of business renewal and revival.
‘Well, as soon as you’ve won a match, there’s another to win
the next week. And as soon as you’ve won a championship
title, there’s another one to go for the next season. When you’re
competitive, all you want to do is constantly improve and to keep
winning, and it’s no diferent to what’s happening here at Coles.
We celebrate milestones, but we don’t do it for long because
there is always more to achieve. There’s no full time whistle
when you are serving customers, and that’s just fne by us.’
Sir GJ would wholeheartedly agree.
Q1
10%
9%
8%
7%
6%
5%
4%
3%
2%
1%
0%
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Q2
ABS Food Growth
Coles Food & Liquor Growth
Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Coles’ food and liquor sales
growth has consistently
outperformed industry growth,
due to a focus on quality,
service and value.
THE TURNAROUND IN SALES GROWTH
2009 – Barack Obama is sworn in as forty-
fourth president of the USA.
2009 – Michael Jackson dies aged ffty.
2010 – Mary MacKillop is declared a saint.
2010 – Australia’s population exceeds
22 million.
2010 – A boat carrying eighty asylum seekers
crashes into a clif at Christmas Island, killing
at least thirty and once again throwing the
asylum seeker debate into harsh focus.
2011 – Widespread fooding in Queensland
continues to take lives and destroy properties
across the state.
2011 – Australian Cadel Evans wins the Tour
de France.
2012 – Australia introduces a carbon pricing
scheme following ‘Say Yes’ demonstrations
around the nation in favour of political action
on climate change.
2013 – His Royal Highness, Prince George of
Cambridge, is born. He is third in line to the
British throne.
Remember when...
SALES:
$17 billion* – $36 billion
PROFIT:
$475 million* – $1.5 billion
STORES:
2231 – 2294
2008*–2013
*Includes the period 23 Nov 2007 to 30 Jun 2008.
100 years of
quality, service & value
doc_509756559.pdf
This description relating to to give the people of australia a shop they trust, delivering quality, service and value.
CHAPTER
TEN
CHAPTER
TEN
2008–2014
PROUD TO BE COLES
CHAPTER
TEN
CHAPTER
TEN
2008–2014
PROUD TO BE COLES
116
F
ollowing the Wesfarmers acquisition, and as things began
to settle down after the leadership shufe, a feeling
of optimism began to bubble through the Coles team.
Wesfarmers needed a return on its investment, but retained a
long-term view when it came to building a sustainable, proftable
and customer-focused food retailing organisation. And it was a
good job they did, because in 2008 the global fnancial crisis
took hold.
The GFC created an environment that crippled many banks
and fnancial institutions, but as the business world collapsed
around it, Wesfarmers stayed true to their investment and their
plan. Coles would still be getting its makeover.
The new Coles management team set to work to develop a six-
point plan that would deliver Coles’ goal ‘to give the people of
Australia a shop they trust, delivering quality, service and value’.
That plan became known as Coles’ Circle for Success, which
has united 100,000 team members and provided a clear and
consistent message about Coles’ priorities.
The Coles boss has an entrepreneurial spirit, but it’s backed up
by considered thinking and constant measurement. He did his
research before his frst day in the new job, then hit the ground
running. ‘You have to start as you mean to go on and that very
frst day was the beginning of our consistent messaging to our
team and to the public. I didn’t even go into my ofce the frst
day; instead I went out to stores unannounced to see how things
were going – I still do it every week and I believe Edgar Coles
did the same thing when the supermarkets business kicked of
in the sixties.
‘When I did go into the ofce, someone apologised to me
because they hadn’t changed the car park numbers around
and I only had number sixteen until they could change it. I
immediately told him to scrap the numbers altogether – if you
want the closest car park, then you can get into work early and
grab it. I also knocked all the walls down in what was still known
as head ofce; no-one was going to have a closed-in ofce. We
had to make a clean break from the hierarchical, stale corporate
structure – I’d heard that there was a corporate bathroom on one
of the top foors and one day I was at work late on a weekend, so
I went for a wander and I found it on level six, complete with pink
marble and gold taps. As far as I was concerned, it represented
everything that had gone wrong with Coles over the last couple
of decades. There was even a heli-pad on the roof! None of that
lasted; we’re here to serve the stores, not the other way around,
because our stores serve our customers.
‘The old head ofce was quickly renamed Store Support Centre
and that reinforced our message – this whole enterprise has to
point towards what customers want. For example, I remember
in my frst weeks the then–IT manager presented his case for
a new IT system. I stopped him after just a few minutes of
technical talk and said, “Show me how all this technical stuf will
help the stores. Could you go away and draw a picture of a store
and show me where in the store the IT investment will support
stores and make their job easier?” and he went away to revise
his work. Those sorts of conversations happened all the time in
the frst year or two. Every piece of thinking needed to stem from
Coles giving Australians a shop they trust, that delivers quality,
service and value.’
Having the patience to constantly reinforce the same message
– that the business is all about the customer – has been a key
element of the turnaround. ‘You can never unsay what’s already
been said, so I made sure to get it right from the start and stick
to it. Before I started, Richard Goyder [Wesfarmers’ Managing
Director] had Coles’ senior and middle managers write to him
about what they saw as the problems and I spent days reading
those letters. Their issues could be broken into four main ones:
tired stores; poor culture and spirit; they’d lost the way to interact
with one another; and a lack of leadership.
‘In those frst few weeks I addressed hundreds of people, and
those letters are what I kept referring back to. I didn’t want to
preach and it was no good to crack the whip, so I used the
team members’ words instead – they were the ones who knew
what needed to be done. Then I focused on how we were going
to behave; on how management was here to serve the stores,
not the other way around. On the bottom of every slide I had
“Proud to be Coles” and on the last one I overlaid a picture of
our founder, GJ Coles, with how I wanted us to work together;
Lead Efectively, Act Collectively, Support Consistently, Motivate
Universally and Care Passionately. It became our “Ways of
Working” and that remains as true as ever today. By the end of
every presentation, the audience knew that I genuinely felt that
this was a fght worth fghting.’
To further communicate the process of change, Ian initiated the
‘retail round-up’. ‘The idea of the retail round-up was to celebrate
‘TO GIVE THE PEOPLE OF
AUSTRALIA A SHOP THEY TRUST,
DELIVERING QUALITY, SERVICE
AND VALUE.’
117
some quick wins, and every month we’d have one to let people
know how we were going; we still do it now. It wasn’t compulsory,
but sometimes we’d have seven or eight hundred team members
turn up. There were serious things to communicate, but it was
also a chance for a bit of fun and to have a laugh at ourselves
as managers. We encouraged people to celebrate incremental
wins because the turning circle of a big tanker is long and slow.
That way we could keep up the momentum of change, not just
give it lip-service. We could show how we were closing the gap
on the competition and actually growing faster; something we
have done for four years now.’
Practically speaking, numerous initiatives were kicked of in
that frst year. Range change was designed to improve on-shelf
availability of products for customers, better meet customer
needs, remove duplication and improve customers’ shopping
experience. Customers responded well to Coles’ house brand
ofer, with the brands recording a 14 per cent growth in sales in
the frst year. During that year Coles reinvested $100 million into
the business through a combination of price decreases and the
absorption of cost increases to deliver value to customers.
The frst senior manager that Ian McLeod employed was John
Durkan. As merchandise director, he was responsible for
reinvigorating the company’s merchandising and logistics. He
is English, but in many ways it felt like coming home when
he few into Australia to start his new job. ‘I’d been coming
to Australia a lot over the years – my wife and I actually ran
away from England to get married in Watsons Bay years ago.
Joining the Coles turnaround was exciting and challenging,
and I’d already developed an afnity with the country and its
people and importantly, I understood how they interact with
their supermarkets.’
John is the kind of retail guy who would tell his family he was
of to buy something from the shops, then return three hours
later empty-handed, but with a head full of ideas. So what did
he see when he examined the Australian market, and where did
Coles ft into that picture? ‘The Australian market for fresh food is
diferent to the UK’s. There is much more cooking from scratch
here and most of the produce is loose – many of our stores look
like the markets of a century ago and in percentage terms, pre-
packaged food sales is really low compared to Europe. There are
challenges associated with the size of the country, and perhaps
because of that, it seemed to me that the food retailing industry
was more focused on supply chains than the end customer;
Coles had defnitely gone down that path. There was a great
opportunity to turn everything around so that it all pointed at the
customer again, and that’s been the bedrock of our strategy ever
since the turnaround began.
‘I knew Coles was an iconic Australian business, but I was
initially amazed at how much the company was talked about in
the wider community. Our decisions were really scrutinised by
the media because we discovered that people really care – there
is nothing more fundamental than food, and Coles had become
a part of the fabric of the community because it provides
that food.
‘What was also very obvious from the start was that we had an
amazing group of people in the stores and that many of them
were long-termers. Collectively, they wanted and needed a lift. I
lost track of how many people told me, “Ten years ago we were
really fying”, with such great fondness. The depth of feeling
among the Coles people surprised me, but it gave us such a
great platform to afect the change that was needed.’
But as iconic as it may have been, the Coles ofer was tired. The
company lagged behind its major competitor and injecting the
energy required to afect a turnaround wasn’t a task for the faint-
hearted. ‘Despite its fading reputation through the early 2000s,
Coles was still a huge business with lots of stores. That said, in
the frst weeks it became apparent that there was more to do
than I’d frst expected. The lack of investment was greater than
I’d imagined, the availability of product wasn’t good enough,
cleanliness was an issue and things like broken slicers and
malfunctioning ovens hampered team members trying to serve
customers well. The frst thing was to fx the basics; to renew and
rejuvenate the stores and make Coles a place you’d want to go to
shop. That took twelve to eighteen months to get under control.
‘We also needed to get back to being customer facing; the
company had drifted away from the core retailing principle
of making sure the items customers wanted were there for
them to buy, rather than just ofering them what suppliers had
available. In the frst few weeks we held hundreds of meetings
with suppliers to get feedback, and whilst they clearly wanted a
resurgent, successful Coles, they had to also accept that they
would have to supply what the customers wanted rather than
what suited them to supply. There were speed bumps along that
road, but we just kept coming back to the same mantra: do what
is right for the customer. It’s simple, and we’ve stuck to it from
day one.’
1. Coming to the aid of Tasmanians impacted by bushfres
in 2013, Coles provided the biggest corporate donation to
the Red Cross Appeal.
2. Te Governor General Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce
AC presented the Foodbank Patron’s award to Coles’
Managing Director Ian McLeod in May 2013, recognising
Coles for more than ten years of food donations.
3. SecondBite collects surplus fresh fruit, vegetables and
bakery items from Coles stores nationally, and delivers
these to over 1000 community agencies.
4. Coles stores fundraised in support of the Queensland
Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal in 2011 when Queensland
was devastated by foods and Cyclone Yasi.
5/7. Coles’ former Healesville store manager was the face of
Coles’ Bushfre Appeal Fundraising day in 2009. Coles
donated a day’s proft to assist victims of the Black
Saturday bushfres in Victoria, which sadly claimed the
lives of 173 people.
6. Coles’ Ambassador Curtis Stone, helped out at the
launch of Coles Community Food with SecondBite at the
Salvation Army’s ‘Street Level’ program in Surry Hills,
NSW, in 2012.
1.
4.
7.
5.
2. 3.
6.
It is estimated that 1.2 million Australians
don’t have access to a safe, regular, and
afordable food supply, which is why Coles
partners with SecondBite.
In May 2013, Coles celebrated donating over
2.5 million kilograms of fruit, vegetables
and bakery items for people in need – the
equivalent of 5 million meals.
In the same month, Coles was recognised
for providing more than ten years’ of food
donations to Foodbank, receiving the Patron’s
Award from the Governor General Her
Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC. The award
is given to companies that have demonstrated
leadership, innovation, creativity and impact
over time in their partnerships with Foodbank.
Food security
Meanwhile, as the turnaround gathered pace, the company
supported a range of local and national community activities and
charities, such as Landcare Australia Limited, Cancer Council
Australia, Foodbank, Australian Red Cross, Guide Dogs and
SecondBite, to fund national programs relating to health and
the environment. Through its work with Landcare, the company
funded school and community gardens, encouraging young
people to become more aware of the environment and where
food comes from.
The worst bushfres in Victorian history ravaged the state in
2009. To play its part, Coles contributed nearly $10 million to the
Victorian Bushfre Appeal, of which nearly $5 million was store
profts donated from Coles’ Bushfre Appeal Day. The inspiring
response to the tragedy was not lost on Ian McLeod, writing in
a letter to team members, ‘It is with immense pride that I can
share with you our fnal proft fgure – and record donation –
raised during yesterday’s Bushfre Appeal Day. With the help
of customers and team members alike, we have achieved a
donation of $4,870,889. This, combined with product donations
valued at $260,000, brings Coles’ contribution to bushfre
victims to over $5 million – a fantastic result.’
It’s people who make a community
To drive the new, store-focused culture, Coles employed the best
retail leaders available from around the world, and also launched
its Retail Leaders program to foster promising store team
members. Another of the new breed hired early by Ian McLeod
was Stuart Machin, who was brought into the leadership team as
operations director. Stuart joined Coles in 2008, having worked
previously in Britain with Tesco, Sainsbury and ASDA-Walmart.
He was brought in to lead reform in Coles’ operations and in
2011, he also added store development to his responsibilities
– put simply, he was ultimately responsible for 90,000-plus
people and the smooth operation of 750 stores. In April 2013,
he was appointed managing director of Target.
His job during the early years of his appointment is tricky to get
your head around, but like all members of the executive team,
Stuart likes to keep things simple. ‘We’re a supermarket – it’s not
rocket science. The keys are people, product, stores; take care
of them, and the fnancial returns will come. Our frst step was
to fx what we called “hygiene factors”, like decreasing queue
times for customers, opening the entrances, making sure the
trolleys worked, putting a stop to checking everyone’s bags as
though they were criminals, and putting in place some collective,
common procedures. It was obvious stuf, but the difculty was
implementing the changes across so many stores and so many
team members. Culture is changed in small steps so we made
sure we were consistent with our messages and our actions and
over time, everyone in the team got the sense of where we were
heading and happily jumped on board.’
Stuart really hits his stride when talking about the development
of people. ‘Too many companies don’t stop and ask, “Why do
people choose to work where they work?” Research shows
conclusively that the number one motivator is a sense of
purpose, followed by money, security, fexibility and the chance
of advancement. I was concerned that we weren’t thinking
about this enough, and just like we adjusted the entire company
to point to the customer, we reformed our view of our team to
answer the question, “Why do people work at Coles?” How can
we create an environment that gives a wider sense of purpose?
How can we provide industry-leading pay and rewards combined
with security, fexibility and the opportunity for advancement?
‘A sense of purpose comes from a wider sense of belonging,
so we worked hard to create a feeling of community across our
100,000 team members. For example, we discovered that a big
issue for our team members was how much food waste we’d
been creating, so we got involved in the SecondBite program
where we donate food that isn’t up to our in-store standards of
122
quality, but is still safe and nutritious to eat. It greatly decreases
our waste and helps feed people in need, and team members
can help out in their local community with the program. By
midway through 2013 we had over 400 stores involved with the
program, and that’s a big win all around.’
Meanwhile, Coles placed renewed emphasis on motivating
and engaging team members, using the idea of ‘selling and
serving with personality’ to excite them about the future. Once
more, a great deal of consideration and scrutiny underpinned
an apparently simple concept – getting and keeping team
members fred up and purposeful. ‘The areas of pay, security
and fexibility are also high on the agenda for our team’, says
Stuart Machin. Flexibility is the most difcult one in stores, and
we’re still working on it, but in 2008 we realised that it would
be extremely difcult for us to afect cultural change when
around 70 per cent of the team members in stores were casual
employees who didn’t know if they were going to be called into
work the next day or not. And how could we provide the levels
of quality and service we aspired to when we were calling in
casual team members for busy times who hadn’t been in a store
for weeks or even months? We started a process of providing
security through permanent employment and these days, only
30 per cent of our team are casual employees. Absenteeism
and staf turnover have plummeted and our level of service to
customers has sky-rocketed.
‘The chance of career advancement has always been a strong
point of Coles’ – the idea is to recruit people internally and
provide all the necessary guidance and training to help them
succeed, without providing so much guidance that it actually
becomes bureaucratic and restrictive. It’s never your employee’s
fault if they don’t reach their potential; it’s the company’s for not
providing the correct environment for them to shine.’
Coles’ range continued to change in 2009 based on customer
feedback. Specialised training was implemented to improve
customer service, and a more team-focused culture was
initiated, unifying the army of people out in stores. Coles also
continued to enhance their fresh food focus by working with
local suppliers, simultaneously supporting the company’s
‘Australia frst’ philosophy.
Stuart Machin enthusiastically explains a new initiative
introduced in 2010 that refects the community-driven outlook
of this new era. ‘In 2010, of our 105,000 team members, only
sixty-fve were indigenous Australians, which was just ghastly.
We have always had a broad church of people who represent
multicultural Australia, but we are an Australian business and
we needed to create opportunities for indigenous Australians
to work with us. We have been subtle and taken our time
introducing a program to rectify the situation, not because we
didn’t want to move fast, but because we needed to be culturally
sensitive and build trust slowly. We had team members complete
cultural awareness programs to help create an environment in
which Aboriginal people would gain a sense of purpose, then
we let word-of-mouth spread. We needed to be genuine and
consistent, and happily, it’s starting to work: after three years,
we now have almost a thousand indigenous employees. We also
run leadership programs in Aboriginal communities; there is so
much we can all learn from each other.’
Turning around
Coles’ massive turnaround gathered pace through 2010. Sales
increased by nearly 6 per cent compared with the 3 per cent rise
posted by rival Woolworths: the tide was turning.
By 2010, ffty of the new-format Coles stores had been completed
and the revised store-ordering platform had been rolled out to
over 200 stores. A highlight was the opening of the national
fagship supermarket at Tooronga, Victoria on August 12. GJ
Coles’ youngest daughter Jan Barry and grandson Donald Coles
took part in a symbolic ribbon-cutting ceremony with Coles’
Managing Director Ian McLeod. Replacing the original Coles
Tooronga that had been operating on the Toorak Rd site for four
decades, the new, 4000–square metre store had an in-store
butcher and fshmonger, a market-style layout, traditional and
self-checkouts, and convenience meal solutions, as well as
an in-store bakery ofering a full range of breads and cakes.
The store sent a positive message to the public about Coles’
turnaround path.
Practising what it preached about giving the customers what
they want, management introduced uniform state-based prices
across all stores. It was a central initiative designed to showcase
the company’s commitment to transparent pricing for customers,
and brought about an annual price defation of more than one
per cent. Coles’ improved value and price transparency was
communicated to customers through marketing and promotions
campaigns that included ‘Feed Your Family for under $10’,
‘Down Down, Prices are Down’ and ‘Dollar Dazzlers’.
123
Coles’ frst Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Plan was launched in 2011 and
has gone from strength to strength.
Within just over a year, the number of
indigenous team members had reached
800 and over 450 team members and
senior leaders had taken part in cultural
awareness programs.
Engaging indigenous
Australians
Letting people know
One of Coles’ most successful marketing alliances was extended
in July 2010 when the company signed a new two-year deal as
the exclusive supermarket sponsor of Network Ten’s MasterChef
Australia. Initially, MasterChef had gotten of to a slow start
and had no sponsor, but Coles knew of the show from the UK
equivalent and so agreed on initial sponsorship at a discounted
rate. The show frst went to air in April 2009 and was an instant
success, giving Coles a huge advantage over its competitors;
Coles’ name was more visible than ever in homes Australia-
wide. The show became the most watched television series
in Australia, with the season two fnale being the third-most
watched show in Australian television history.
Just a few weeks before the alliance extension was signed,
Coles launched an innovative in-store marketing campaign
featuring the line “To cook like a MasterChef cooks, shop where
a MasterChef shops”. As part of the campaign, Coles made sure
recipe cards featuring all the show’s most popular recipes were
available in stores the morning after each episode, as well as
prominent displays of ingredients featured in the shows, which in
turn led to unprecedented sales and customer satisfaction. As a
positive side-efect, more people began cooking at home, relying
less on take-away meals and dining out, and instead taking a
greater interest in serving appealing and nutritious meals using
a wider range of fresh produce. The ‘foodie’ movement had a
place to call home.
Coles’ Marketing and Store Development Director Simon
McDowell plays a pivotal role in creating and developing
all aspects of the brand, inside and outside the store. As an
Australian, Simon spent over sixteen years of his career working
overseas in general management and marketing roles before
then coming back to join the Coles executive team in 2009.
‘I remember Coles as Coles New World from when I was a kid
growing up in Sydney. I hadn’t realised the extent of the brand
decline since then and when I came back home, Coles had
really come of the boil. It was an exciting challenge to help
revive the famous brand that had lost its lustre and do my bit to
help. It feels like I’m working in a $35 billion start-up company
with a team of 100,000 people. We had to be entrepreneurial
to give ourselves a chance, and we still have that kind of
bold spirit.’
But for all of Simon’s excitement at the prospect of Coles’
turnaround story, it wasn’t an obvious step for him to take. ‘To be
honest, I’d been working internationally with some pretty famous
global businesses like Sony and Coca-Cola, and then here was
this opportunity back in Australia with Coles. But that led to me
thinking: why isn’t Coles the strong brand I remember? Why is
it just selling other people’s brands and not concentrating on
building its own? Why can’t we be the most compelling, trusted
and engaging brand in Australia?’ There is no doubting Simon’s
passion for rebuilding businesses with the customer and the
brand at the centre of his focus, but there is also no chance
that he’ll position the brand just because it satisfes some kind
of artistic urge. ‘Everything we do when communicating with
our customers or our team members must come back to our
triangle: point one, does it build our brand? Point two, does
it drive our trade? And point three, does it engage our team
members? If something doesn’t get a tick at each point, then its
probably not going to get through.’
Coles has become somewhat of a brand case study, but you
won’t fnd Simon trying to defne the evolution of the brand as
if in a textbook. ‘We know our brand when we see it or feel it,
and you can’t write that down. For example, if you randomly get
a group of team members together for a photo in most retail
companies, they’ll stand there with awkward smiles adjusting
their uniforms. Coles people don’t do that. They spread their
arms wide and they shout out “Ta-Dah!” Someone will probably
grab a big red hand from somewhere and they’ll start singing
the song. “Ta-Dah” is our signature, its our way of saying, “I’m
proud of what I do and I want to sell and serve our customers
with personality”. Of course we take our business and what we
do very seriously, but we never take ourselves too seriously.’
If you talk to Simon, he will tell you the job of building the most
famous brand in Australia has only just began.
Gaining momentum
As the turnaround kicked on, Coles registered a double digit
increase in fresh food sales with customers responding to better
1/2. On Australia Day 2013, Coles announced Redkite –
the cancer charity that supports children, young
people and families through cancer – as its charity
of the year. Coles committed to raise $5 million for
Redkite, which was partly funded by a 5 cent
donation from the sale of every loaf of Coles Smart
Buy and Coles Brand bread.
3/10. Coles encourages the use of reusable bags and
donates 5 cents to Junior Landcare from the sale of
selected shopping bags. Funds raised support a
garden grants program for schools and other
community groups to encourage students to learn
about the environment.
4. Since 1982, Coles has supported Guide Dogs
Australia through collection dogs instore.
Customer donations to the iconic dogs at Coles and
Liquorland help to raise, train and support guide
dogs across Australia.
5. Coles and its customers have supported Cancer
Council’s Dafodil Day for over eighteen years,
with money raised going to the Cancer Council
Helpline (13 11 20).
6/7. More than 7500 schools participated in Coles’
Sports for Schools program, launched in 2010.
8. Coles was introduced to Yaru Water through Supply
Nation, a regulation and certifcation body for
indigenous businesses. Coles supermarkets in New
South Wales now stock the premium water sourced
from Tweed Valley in NSW.
9/11. Over ten years ago Coles and Robins Foods
joined forces to foster indigenous enterprise
through the sale of the Outback Spirit range of
products. Ten cents from the sale of each product
goes to the Coles Indigenous Food Fund which
invests in horticultural projects such as commercial
plantings of bush tomato in central Australia,
Kakadu plum in the Top End and lemon aspen in
Cape York.
12. In 2011 Coles established a partnership with the
Department of Education, Employment and
Workplace Relations to boost the number of
indigenous team members working at Coles.
Trough this, Coles has been able to fund 405 new
roles and provide a mentoring support program.
1.
5.
9.
6.
2. 4.
12.
3.
10.
7. 8.
11.
126
quality fresh produce and greater availability. Woolworths began
foundering in the wake of people moving to shop at a Coles
supermarket.
Next, Coles took the proactive – and some would say aggressive
– step of lowering the prices of thousands of grocery items by
an average of 10 per cent in 2011. Critics of Coles’ success in
recent times claim the company has been throwing its weight
about to deny suppliers and farmers the rewards they deserve
for their work by pressuring them on price. Many critics also
say that ultimately, the end customers will be the ones who pay.
John Durkan refutes those claims with ease. ‘It’s an honour that
people want to try and pick apart what we have been doing,
but what we’re doing is not that complicated. We ask suppliers
to give us what we can sell to customers and if they do that,
customers will buy more of it and everybody wins. Australian
milk consumption hadn’t gone anywhere in ten years and now
it has, which means greater production for more farmers. We
started making commitments to growers so that they could invest
in innovation that would improve their output and proftability.
These steps are important for food sustainability in Australia, not
just for suppliers.’
To John Durkan, now chief operating ofcer, the message
remained simple. ‘The tensions brought about through the
pressure placed on suppliers to be more customer-facing helped
to create an environment for innovation and have also prompted
our competitors to lift their game as well. That’s just fne from
our perspective, because increased competition keeps us on
our toes and keeps the whole industry jostling for the customer’s
spend – and that must be good for the customer. Plus, there
are 30,000 independent grocers and food retailers in Australia,
which means customers can always vote with their feet.
‘We also make a point of working with the Australian farm
industry. We have an Australian frst policy – 96 per cent of our
fresh fruit and vegetables are Aussie grown, and it’s 100 per cent
for staples like eggs and milk. Food security is vitally important
for every community and we know that we play a major part
in that.’
Socio-economic refections aside, John is crystal clear about
Coles’ place in the community. ‘When you break it down, we’re
a food retailer and people expect to be able to buy groceries
from us. All we can do is provide them the quality, range, service
and value they deserve, then let them decide whether they want
to buy it. Realistically, that hasn’t changed over the history of
retailing, let alone one hundred years of Coles’ history.’
Coles’ discounting program was a considered strategy centred
around what is best for the people who matter most – customers.
Despite that simple philosophy, much of the media commentary
was scathing; bafingly so. Ian McLeod took heart from the
fact that Coles must mean a lot to people to attract so much
attention, but was surprised by the negativity. ‘We’re trying to
overcome some deep-rooted mistrust and apathy that people
have developed about Coles during the last ten to twenty years
and that’s difcult to do. The degree to which our business is
analysed is a compliment, really, and shows just how much
supermarkets are a part of the community’s everyday life.
‘From the start we’ve worked hard to give Australians what they
want and that’s resulted in changes to the way things had been
done previously; we shook things up because they needed to be
shaken up, and that’s been difcult for some people to accept.
It does get to me when I read mistruths about how we are
mistreating farmers or about how our customers are somehow
sufering because we are throwing our weight around. It riles
me because it’s plainly incorrect and infammatory. The simple
fact is that customers are getting better products at cheaper
prices, which has resulted in them buying more, which results
in the farmers producing and selling more. Suppliers who have
been innovative and understand what we’re doing have really
beneftted from that as well; a whole host of suppliers, large and
small, have seen their business grow signifcantly.
‘We are a one-hundred-year-old, 100 per cent Australian-owned
business serving the community and we are very proud of
that fact. We’re here to enhance our position in the Australian
community and to help it grow, not somehow bring it down.’
In February 2011, Coles announced further price cuts as part of
its ‘Down Down’ campaign to reduce the price of the products
customers bought most. In the preceding twelve months Coles
had cut more than 5000 prices, bringing signifcant savings to
Australian households. Most of these cuts were achieved without
reducing the amount paid to suppliers, contrary to the story often
told in the media, which attempted to portray Coles as a ruthless
giant taking advantage of its suppliers. Coles was vindicated
in July when the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC) announced that Coles’ ‘Down Down’ milk
By 2005, most of Coles’ fresh produce was
sourced from Australian suppliers and at least 85
per cent of the total grocery ofer was Australian-
made. As part of its commitment to sourcing
Australian products, Coles continued to develop
close relationships with key primary industry
producers, in particular with fresh food growers
and meat suppliers, the latter through the
Colestock program.
Colestock was developed early in the 2000s as
an alliance of producers, backed by a dedicated
on-farm quality assurance program and central
boning room. The outcome was a range of retail-
ready meat products in stores across the country.
Today, Coles has an ‘Australia frst’ sourcing
policy and holds ‘Meet the Buyer’ events all over
Australia to attract local producers and suppliers
with great products. In 2012, Coles Brand was
Australia’s only supermarket private label to ofer
100 per cent Australian-grown frozen vegetables
and in 2013 Coles Brand canned pineapple was
returned to being Australian sourced, with 4000
tonnes of pineapple now sourced from growers in
Queensland.
Coles Brand also carries more products
designated with the ‘Australian Made’ kangaroo
logo than any other brand in the country.
Australian made and grown
In 2010, Coles initiated a program to phase
out sow stalls in response to customers’
heightened awareness of the welfare issues
surrounding intensive pig farming – this was
completed for Coles Brand pork products
in early 2013. Today, all Coles Brand pork
only comes from approved farms that meet
specifc animal welfare standards.
Trevor Lee from Australian Country Choice
remembers the introduction of Hormone
Growth Promotant (HGP)–free beef.
‘Customers care about many things other
than price and the new management team
were determined to give them HGP-free beef
despite previous Coles management saying
that it was impossible to control the supply
chain to give the quality and consistency
in the product. They were determined and
worked with us to make it happen. “Whatever
it takes is what we’ll pay” is what they said,
and with them, we made it work. It was
released on shelves in January 2011 and is a
great example of what current management is
trying to achieve.’
Around the same time, Coles announced
a range of responsible sourcing initiatives,
including a three year program with WWF
Australia, a leading authority on marine
sustainability, to deliver responsibly sourced
seafood across Coles Brand fresh, frozen
and canned fsh. Coles was also awarded the
RSPCA’s Good Egg Award in 2013 following
its initiative to switch to cage-free Coles
Brand eggs.
Better for animals and people
DID YOU KNOW?
Coles’ magazine is Australia’s most
widely distributed food magazine with
15 million copies issued each year.
131
prices were consistent with a competitive market and beneftted
consumers. In September that same year, Coles cut prices by as
much as 28 per cent on a range of popular meat products from
sausages and mince to steaks and chops. The move provided
welcome relief for many Australians contemplating an uncertain
spring in the face of rising household bills. By this time, more
than 6000 prices had been lowered since the Down Down
campaign was launched in 2010.
There is no doubting the impact of the Down Down campaign.
As is his way, marketing and store development director Simon
McDowell likes to explain the campaign’s impact through story.
‘One day I was in a store and there were two kids in a mum’s
trolley at a checkout, the both of them strumming away on
their fake guitars singing Down Down at the top of their voices
and having a great time. The mum and the person at the cash
register both smiled at the two of them, and you know what? I
wasn’t even inside a Coles store. That’s a brand story.
‘Another day I was at the footy and when one of the cheer
squad’s big banners went up for the players to run through,
it had the hand and “Down Down, you’re going down” on it,
making fun of the other team. That’s a brand story.
‘Our brand and our messages have to be compelling, engaging
and unique, and they have to be genuine in order to gel. We
can say, “There’s no freshness like Coles freshness”, because
we can back it up by explaining that we don’t inject our meat
with hormones and we don’t freeze and unfreeze our vegies.
Marketing can’t work without that “prove it”element.’
Simon’s attitude to the place and the impact of marketing is
refreshing, but credit must also go to his colleagues on the
Board. ‘There’s fve of us and we’re all confdent. To use a soccer
analogy, we’re all strikers and we’re all fghting over the ball. It’s
robust and it’s tough, but Ian’s our coach and he has the last
word. Recently, I got a whole lot of red cardboard hand guitars
printed and into stores to help launch the Status Quo song.
‘Ian cornered me and said, “How many of those things did we
get printed?”and I said, “Just a few”.
“How many?”
“Ohhh, just enough,”I replied evasively.
“I heard it was a million,”he said then, his eyes a bit squinted.
“OK… yes. That was the frst order.”
‘Then, over the next days he received hundreds of photos of
smiling kids playing with our team members in stores and it all
made sense. We are a business driven by dollars and cents,
but the team accepts this intangible marketing stuf and that
it works.’
The years 2008 to 2014 asked a lot of Coles’ team members as
the company underwent enormous – and necessary – change.
These days, the business is the largest and most proftable of
the Wesfarmers empire, vindicating the company’s acquisition
many times over.
The success of Coles in recent times mirrors that of decades
past. By remaining true to the core principles of providing the
Australian people the quality, service and value they deserve,
Coles has returned to the top of the pile.
But the job isn’t over. Change and development are now a part of
everyday life at Coles. Public and business commentary widely
recognises the turnaround as one of the great business success
stories of recent decades, but John Durkan and the leadership
team don’t see it that way. ‘We have clear, measurable targets
and we are in line with expectations, but we never give ourselves
a pat on the back. We are outperforming the market and that
is obviously very satisfying, but there is still so much headroom
and so many customers to reach out to. Change doesn’t stop
and the “turnaround” will never be complete; this is the new
normal and we will always have to review and adjust because
customer tastes will always evolve.
‘The people in the stores humble you everyday – there are so
many people who have worked here for twenty-fve years or
more and they have so much pride in what they do. Working for
a company that has been serving customers for one hundred
years is an honour – we’ve been giving customers a reason to
shop with us for three or four generations, and you’ve got to be
doing something right to survive that long.’
Jenny Bryant, Coles’ Human Resources Director, agrees. ‘Our
people are our strength, which is why we continue to invest in
a strong culture and recognise passionate and loyal service.
Almost 1700 team members have been with us for more than
twenty-fve years and a further 900 have been serving Coles
customers for over thirty years. A regular occurrence now is to
see teams coming together to cut a cake, celebrate and present
their colleagues with loyal service name badges, which are worn
with enormous pride. The sense of belonging that this creates
is priceless.
Coles’ red hand became ubiquitous and reinforced the
company’s one-hundred-year-old commitment to value.
132
‘We give “Care Passionately” pins to team members who go
above and beyond for customers and the community and we
celebrate the very best stories by recognising our Service Idols of
the year at celebrations in every state and nationally.’
When Richard Goyder looks back to 2007 and 2008 and sees
how his company’s expectations have not only been met, but
exceeded, he can’t help but be proud of the people who made
it happen. ‘We [Wesfarmers] may have had lots of questions
asked of us when we bought Coles for so much money, but
after fve years, it’s clear that the acquisition has been a good
one on a number of levels – good for Coles’ team members
through better job security and advancement opportunities;
good for customers through an improved range with better
quality and reduced rates; good for suppliers through increased
volumes and increased sales; and good for local communities
through greater employment and through our charity work. At
its broadest level, the Wesfarmers–Coles relationship is good for
Australia; food prices have been kept down and it’s not a difcult
case to argue that because of that, infation and the cost of living
have been arrested, keeping interest rates low and adding to the
strength of Australia’s economy.
‘We were able to employ a world-class management team to
start the turnaround, and now, that depth of talent extends far
into the organisation. It makes me proud to see what a dynamic,
innovative army of team members we now have at Coles and
that can only be positive for a bright future.’
This talent continues to grow and includes Rob Scott, who joined
Coles as fnance director in January 2013 from Wesfarmers
Insurance where he was managing director.
Looking back to power forward
As the clock ticks over into Coles’ centenary year, it’s clear that
the company has, to some degree, returned to its roots as it
looks to the future. GJ Coles and his brothers knew that growth,
constant innovation and listening to customer needs were the
keys to success and the Coles of 2014 retains those principles.
Providing quality, service and value to Australians remains as
important now as it ever was.
Diferent people place diferent emphasis on celebrating
one hundred years of history. As managing director of two
organisations celebrating a centenary, Richard Goyder has a
strong grasp on the value of heritage. ‘I enjoy thinking about how
many young Australians got their start at Coles and have gone
on to make a positive impact on the country. We have had one
hundred years of employing Australians, and refecting on the
long term impact of that for Australia feels good. It’s wonderful
that Coles and Wesfarmers can grow and thrive together and not
only share the past, but also the future. Reaching one hundred
years in business means you’ve had to be innovative and a
leader, and in the case of Coles, that has beneftted Australia
as much as Australians have beneftted Coles. We can all learn
from our history and use the lessons to keep serving customers
the best way we can.’
Founder GJ Coles’ nephew, Ken Coles, easily taps into his family
heritage and experience to pass on his thoughts for the new
generation of Coles team members. ‘I would say that you have
the great good fortune to have joined a wonderful organisation,
now one hundred years old. It has prospered well over that time
and this book bears evidence of that. It has survived two wars
and The Depression. It has plans to continue to expand and as
it does so there will be promotions available to those of you who
work hard, acquire the necessary skills and learn as much as
you can about the business. Always tell the truth, tell it before
you have to and tell more than you have to and you’ll never go
wrong. The future is up to you and I wish you well for it.’
As the key architect of the company’s turnaround, Ian McLeod
acknowledges the success of the turnaround campaign, but is
much happier talking about what is still left to do. Back between
2001 and 2003, he took a brief sidestep from retail to become
the CEO of the famous Celtic Football Club in Scotland. The
cut and thrust of a professional sporting organisation suited
his competitive nature, and you have to wonder if he misses
working in an environment where success is so easily measured
by points and ladder position as opposed to one where success
is an ongoing process of business renewal and revival.
‘Well, as soon as you’ve won a match, there’s another to win
the next week. And as soon as you’ve won a championship
title, there’s another one to go for the next season. When you’re
competitive, all you want to do is constantly improve and to keep
winning, and it’s no diferent to what’s happening here at Coles.
We celebrate milestones, but we don’t do it for long because
there is always more to achieve. There’s no full time whistle
when you are serving customers, and that’s just fne by us.’
Sir GJ would wholeheartedly agree.
Q1
10%
9%
8%
7%
6%
5%
4%
3%
2%
1%
0%
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Q2
ABS Food Growth
Coles Food & Liquor Growth
Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Coles’ food and liquor sales
growth has consistently
outperformed industry growth,
due to a focus on quality,
service and value.
THE TURNAROUND IN SALES GROWTH
2009 – Barack Obama is sworn in as forty-
fourth president of the USA.
2009 – Michael Jackson dies aged ffty.
2010 – Mary MacKillop is declared a saint.
2010 – Australia’s population exceeds
22 million.
2010 – A boat carrying eighty asylum seekers
crashes into a clif at Christmas Island, killing
at least thirty and once again throwing the
asylum seeker debate into harsh focus.
2011 – Widespread fooding in Queensland
continues to take lives and destroy properties
across the state.
2011 – Australian Cadel Evans wins the Tour
de France.
2012 – Australia introduces a carbon pricing
scheme following ‘Say Yes’ demonstrations
around the nation in favour of political action
on climate change.
2013 – His Royal Highness, Prince George of
Cambridge, is born. He is third in line to the
British throne.
Remember when...
SALES:
$17 billion* – $36 billion
PROFIT:
$475 million* – $1.5 billion
STORES:
2231 – 2294
2008*–2013
*Includes the period 23 Nov 2007 to 30 Jun 2008.
100 years of
quality, service & value
doc_509756559.pdf