The Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) share price is under the spotlight, falling 2.5% after reporting its FY26 first quarter.
Coles has supermarkets, liquor stores (inclidung Liquorland, Coles Liquor, First Choice Liquor Market and Vintage Cellers), Coles Financial Services and a 50% stake in Flybuys.
FY26 first quarter sales
The business reported total group sales increased by 3.9% to $10.96 billion, supermarket sales rose 4.8% to $9.97 billion, liquor sales fell 1.1% to $842 million and other revenue declined 17.9% to $156 million.
Coles’ supermarket e-commerce sales soared 27.9% during the first quarter, leading to e-commerce penetration being 13.3%. Liquor e-commerce sales increased 6.8% and this meant liquor e-commerce sales reached 7.6% of total sales.
Excluding tobacco, Coles supermarket sales rose 7%. Interestingly, there was inflation at Coles supermarkets, with a 1.2% increase excluding tobacco.
Pleasingly, the supermarket business also said that sales density per square metre increased 3.9% to $20,003.
Outlook for the Coles share price
The company then revealed how it’s progressing in the second quarter.
Supermarket sales revenue growth has remained at “similar levels” as the first quarter. Coles said the market continues to be competitive. It wants to provide “inspiration for entertaining at home and delivering value” to customers.
In the liquor segment, the market remains “challenging”, with consumers remaining “budget conscious”. It’s focused on ensuring it has the right range and value proposition to cater for all entertaining occasions.
Management comments
The Coles CEO Leah Weckert said:
We remain committed to ensuring customers can find great value when they shop at Coles. We have designed our Christmas range to cater for every taste and budget and we are continuing to focus on our omnichannel customer experience to enable customers to shop with ease either in store or online during this busy period.
Is the Coles share price a buy?
The share price has drifted lower over the last several weeks, making it look better value. It’s clearly performing better than Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) and Coles would be my preferred choice of the two.
Along with a steadily rising dividend record, there’s a lot to like about Coles shares as one of the appealing ASX dvidend shares.
