The Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) share price is up 4% after reporting solid growth in its FY26 result.
Woolworths is the largest supermarket business in Australia. It also owns BIG W, Countdown (a New Zealand supermarket business), a business food supply division (including PFD) and a majority of Petstock.
FY26 result
Here are the highlights from the report for the 12 months to 28 June 2026:
- Sales grew 3.6% to $71.5 billion
- Underlying EBITDA (EBITDA explained) grew 6.7% to $6.1 billion
- Underlying EBIT rose 12.7% to $3.1 billion
- Underlying net profit rose 15.4% to $1.6 billion
- Statutory net profit increased 18.1% to $1.14 billion
- Final dividend up 15.6% to $0.52 per share
- Full-year dividend up 15.5% to $0.97 per share
What happened in this result?
It was the Australian food division that drove this result because of solid sales and EBIT growth.
Australian food
The Australian food division grew sales by 4.6% to $53.8 billion, which helped drive 8.5% growth of EBIT to $2.95 billion.
Woolworths noted that its growth figures were positively impacted in this result by the industrial action and supply chain implementation costs in the first half of FY25. Excluding that, FY26 sales and EBIT would have increased by 4.1% and 4.8%, respectively.
The supermarket business said investment in value, fresh and convenience, as well as improvements in execution, helped the improved sales momentum. Australian food e-commerce sales increased by 18.6%.
The division saw a 2 basis point (0.02%) decline in the gross profit margin, though the cost of doing business (CODB) ratio improved by 22 basis points to 23.1%, helping the EBIT margin increase 20 basis points (0.20%) to 5.5%.
Other divisions
New Zealand food saw sales decline in Australian dollar terms by 3.1% to $7.3 billion, but increase 2.5% in New Zealand dollar terms by 2.5% to $8.5 billion. NZ EBIT rose 2.9% in AUD and jumped 8.8% in NZD.
Australian business to business food sales grew 4.2% to $6 billion and the EBIT jumped 13% to $155 million.
W Living (which includes BIG W) saw sales rise 1.7% to $5.7 billion, while the EBIT improved from a $31 million loss to a $116 million profit.
Outlook for the Woolworths share price
The company said that in the first eight weeks of FY27, Australian food sales were up 7.6%. Sales momentum was further strengthened during the period by the success of the Disney Ooshies collectibles, which is estimated to have added between 1.5% to 2% to sales growth.
Elsewhere, for the first eight weeks of FY27, New Zealand food sales were up 4.2%, with some benefit from Disney Ooshies.
BIG W total sales for the first eight weeks were down “modestly” amid cost of living pressures on households.
Overall, this was a solid performance by the supermarket division, which led to good numbers for the overall business. I’d be happy as a shareholder.
However, the Woolworths share price has risen to close to its all-time high, so I wouldn’t call it cheap. It could still perform well from here if earnings continue to rise, but I’d look at other ASX dividend shares instead.
