The Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) share price is in focus after the supermarket business announced its sales performance for the first three months of FY26.
Woolworths owns the supermarkets business under the same name, as well as BIG W, a majority stake in Petstock, a commercial food supply business (including PFD), retail media and more.
FY26 first quarter update
Woolworths reported that total FY26 Q1 sales increased by 2.7% to $18.5 billion.
Within that figure:
- Australian food sales rose 2.1% to $13.9 billion
- Australian business-to-business (B2B) sales increased 6.2% to $1.56 billion
- New Zealand food sales grew 2.5% to A$2 billion
- W Living sales rose 3.3% to $1.4 billion
Within the Australian food division, the company said that Woolworths food retail sales increased 3.8% excluding tobacco. It said that in September, it increased customer engagement through rewards offers, e-commerce investment and weekly promotions to drive traffic and sales, with item growth showing a “modest improvement” in the trend during the quarter.
The company noted that it added over 100 more products to its lower shelf price program, taking the total to more than 750 products, leading to low double-digit unit growth across the program.
In Woolworths supermarkets, average prices (excluding tobacco) compared to the prior year have now declined for seven consecutive quarters.
On the e-commerce side of things in Australian food, the business said the pick-up e-commerce sales grew 19.4% to $913 million and delivery e-commerce sales (including MILKRUN) improved by 8.9% to $1.3 billion. E-commerce sales were 16.2% of sales, up from 14.6% in the first quarter of FY25.
W Living total sales growth of 3.3% benefited from strong Petstock sales growth of 15.8% to $238 million, largely driven by network expansion of a net six stores and the inclusition of wholesale revenue from distributors Big Dog and TimePet. Petstock e-commerce sales grew by 23.5%, leading to online penetration of 11.2%.
BIG W total sales grew by 1% to $1.14 billion. While there was a 3.4% decline in items after cycling significant winter clothing clearance activity in the prior year, this was more than offset by higher average selling price growth from “increased full price sales driven by improved quality and weight of summer stock”.
Final thoughts on the Woolworths share price
Its sales growth wasn’t exactly strong considering its efforts to lower prices for customers.
It’s not growing quickly and it’s not giving investors strong, defensive dividends. Woolworths is a large business selling essential products, but it’s not an appealing investment to me.
There are other ASX dividend shares I’d rather buy.
