Food and Liquor sales were up 0.4 per cent to $11.1 billion for the quarter ended October 4.
But the company said the division's comparable sales had continued the decline foreshadowed at its full-year results announcement in August.
“At the FY15 results announcement we indicated that comparable Food & Liquor sales had declined by 0.9 per cent for the first eight weeks of FY16,” the company said.
“The remainder of the quarter continued at a similar rate with comparable sales for the quarter declining by 1.0 per cent.”
However, Woolworths CEO Grant O’Brien said he was pleased with the positive steps taken to transform the business.
“At our FY15 results announcement in August, we advised that FY16 would bear the impact of our significant investment in price, service and customer experience resulting in lower margins in Australian Supermarkets,” he said.
“Since then, we have chosen to accelerate this investment whilst also absorbing significant cost inflation in categories like meat and relaunching our Woolworths Rewards loyalty program.
“We are encouraged that our investment is being recognised by customers with a consistent improvement in key customer metrics like Net Promoter Score since the beginning of the year,” he said.
In a set of results that was dominated by upheaval in the supermarkets and hardware divisions, Friday’s opening of the 200th Dan Murphy’s in Wollongong was the only point of interest for liquor.
“Dan Murphy's is proud to bring its 200th store to Wollongong. This is a wonderful milestone and we know the community has been eagerly awaiting our arrival. We are pleased to be bringing our extensive drinks range, unbeatable prices and ultimate convenience to local customers,” Dan Murphy’s General Manager Campbell Stott said in a statement.
Hotel sales for the quarter were $412 million, an increase of 3.3 per cent on the previous year, with comparable sales increasing 2 per cent.
“While trading conditions remain challenging, sales momentum has improved on previous quarters with New South Wales continuing to be the best performing state,” Woolworths said of the Hotels business.
Overall, Woolworths Limited announced first quarter FY16 sales of $15.7 billion. Sales increased by 0.8 per cent on the previous year, excluding petrol, or 2.5 per cent including petrol, which was impacted by changes to the Woolworths-Caltex alliance and declining fuel prices.
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