1. Woolworths Ltd - Profile Company Report
Australia
26-06-2011, 16 pages
Woolworths Ltd is an Australian owned, listed public company that derives the bulk of its
income from retailing food & groceries, liquor, petrol, general merchandise and consumer
electronics in Australia and New Zealand. The company employs close to 190,000 people in over
3,000 locations across Australia and New Zealand, and is listed on the Australian Securities
Exchange under the code WOW. Woolworths is headquartered in Bella Vista, New South Wales.
Woolworths Limited operates as a food, liquor, petrol, consumer electronics and general
merchandise retailer, and also operates in the hospitality and gaming sector. The group's main
business divisions are as follows:
Australian Food and Liquor:
The company operates Woolworths supermarkets, Thomas Dux grocery stores and liquor stores
trading as Dan Murphy's, BWS, Woolworths Liquor and Langton's throughout Australia. Also
included in this division are Woolworths' house brands, which include Woolworths Fresh
branded meat, bakery goods and fresh produce, Woolworths Select specialist food products and
merchandise, and Woolworths Home Brand discount household goods and food products.
New Zealand Supermarkets:
Operating under the following brands, Woolworths, Countdown, Supervalue, Fresh Choice and
Foodtown throughout New Zealand.
Petrol:
Woolworths operates over 550 petrol stations jointly with fuel retailer Caltex, co-branded as
Caltex Woolworths and Caltex Safeway.
BIG W:
The company operates over 160 Big W discount department stores in Australia, retailers of
hardware, stationery, books, homewares, toys, sporting goods, clothing, recorded media,
software, automotive goods, pet food and health & beauty products.
Consumer Electronics:
The Consumer Electronics business includes Dick Smith Electronics, Dick Smith Electronics
Powerhouse and Tandy consumer electronics retail chains. These stores sell mobile and land
phones, faxes, audio visual equipment, computers and peripherals, home electrical goods, tools

2. and accessories. This division also has a business venture in India with TATA, operating stores
under the Coma brand.
Hotels:
Through 75% owned subsidiary Australian Leisure & Hospitality Group, the company operates
over 280 licensed venues and gaming operations across Australia.
Other:
Woolworths operates online grocery store Greengrocer.com.au, as well as Statewide Independent
Wholesalers, a grocery wholesale business based in Tasmania. The company also owns a 75%
stake in hardware buying group and administrative services company Danks and has recently
purchased Gunns retail division in Tasmania which included five hardware stores, one timber
joinery and one truss manufacturing plant.
IBISWorld Company Profile Reports
Company profile reports provide key information on the Top 2000 earning companies in
Australia. Reports include a written description of a company, its history, brands and products,
contact details and key personnel, operating and legal structure, financial data, industries of
involvement and business service providers.
This Company has Operations in the Following Industries:
Supermarkets and Other Grocery Stores in Australia
Liquor Retailing in Australia
Department Stores in Australia
Recorded Music Retailing in Australia
Computer and Software Retailing in Australia
Domestic Appliance Retailing in Australia
Houseware Retailing in Australia
Hardware Retailing in Australia
Toy and Game Retailing in Australia
Photographic Equipment Retailing in Australia
Watch and Jewellery Retailing in Australia
Automotive Fuel Retailing in Australia
Hotels and Resorts in Australia
Pubs, Taverns and Bars in Australia
Restaurants in Australia
Cafes & Coffee Shops in Australia
Telecommunications Resellers in Australia
Financial Asset Investors in Australia
Horse and Sports Betting in Australia
Online Shopping in Australia

3. From basement to continent
Woolworths started out in 1924 as a single basement store (known as Woolworths Stupendous
Bargain Basement) in Sydney, and has grown to become the largest supermarket and retail chain
in Australia. It is the 25th-largest retailer in the world and the third largest in the Asia Pacific
region, according to the Deloitte 2008 Global Powers of Retailing report.
http://complaintreviews.com/department/retail/woolworths/
complaints in Woolworths
The first problems exist in the Woolworths in the customer services
Poor Service from Woolworths Online
I ordered a few things on the Woolworths online store for delivery today between 10am and
1pm. I even phoned the online contact center this morning to confirm that it will be delivered
between 10 and 1! The help desk agent assured me that it will definetly be there before one,
because I am leaving from work just after that time. She also said that the driver doing the
delivery will phone if he will be late. I AM STILL WAITING!!! This is poor service and to be
lied to is not something I particularly like very much! why should you choose between witch
times and date you want your goods delivered if the do not keep to it anyway!
Woolworth’s Accused Me of Theft and Robbery
To Whom it my concern, I was shopping at BIGW at Broadmeadows shopping center. My wife,
two kids and my self deicided on buying a coffee machine and were trying to see which one was
suitabl for us when a female customer also came towards the item that we were intrested in.
There was two machines and the price tag read origanal price $198.00 NOW $120.00 so I and
the Female customer took the Item to the registers to purchase them. The girl at the counter
scaned my Item and it showed $198.00 , so I appoligised and told her that it was marked down to
$120.00.
Worst cashier I’ve ever experienced in Woolworths
I really love shopping at Woolworths but today this cashier I had was giving me an attitude that
I’ve never experienced else where! This is the Walmer Park, PE branch at the food section. Her
name is Kim, she just started her shift and was being very rude I must say. She didn’t bother to
greet, never mind mentioning smiling back at me. The way how she was scanning my food and

4. throwing to the side, giving me the look like I did something wrong and banged the pen on the
surface for me to sign. Very unfriendly person and I think the manager there should keep up with
the service Woolworths provide.
Woolworths Employee – Problem with Supervisor
I am working in Woolworths on checkout as a part time employee.I want to do complaint about
one of my supervisor his name is KUMAR.Yesterday(31/10/11) he start yelling and abused me
in front of my customer and colleagues.If you want check you can see on the cameras its around
6.56pm.Its very shameful behavior by a supervisor,and its not a first time.I talk with another
managers about that but nothing changes.Before one of my colleague complaint about his rude
behavior before. He is friendly with some of employees and he never put them on full service.
Poor Service at Woolworths in Chatsworth
I purchased a dress for my daughter at Woolworths, Chatsworth on Saturday (10/09/2011). She’d
tried in on and the bodice of the dress was too high up. I took the dress back about three hours
later. When I walked into the store, I noted a young woman sitting at the front of the store and
approached her to ask whether I could just take it in or whether there was a specific procedure
for returns. Very abruptly I was told “I’m off duty, go the the security guard” without the
slightest bit off courtesy or politeness.
http://www.leonardo.com.au/downloads/Case%20Studies/Leonardo-Woolworths-casestudy.pdf
(The whole profile of the Woolworths)
The sample of complaints of bad customer service representation of the Woolworths
http://www.nocustomerservice.com/BROWSE/listcomments.asp?CompanyID=342
I am convinced that the following factors are probable causes for the current declining service
levels and increased customer complaints of my once proud Woolworths customer service
experience:
Lack of retail / management training and development on store-level
The solution is the training and development
http://www.woolworths.com.au/wps/wcm/connect/Website/Woolworths/About+Us/Our+Pe
ople/Training+and+Development/

5. bad customer service :
http://www.hellopeter.com/woolworths/complaints/bad-customer-service-877641
the video advewrtisement of Woolworth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBlEgZGk6sw&playnext=1&list=PL996A6C1BD21EBC
75&feature=results_main
training and development :
http://www.wowcareers.com.au/wowcareers/corporate/yourcareer/learninganddevelopmen
t/training+programs.htm
http://www.woolworthscrr09.reportonline.com.au/training_&_development.php
the recommendations same same scenarios :
The Recommendations
If Woolworths was to:
Reduce its carbon emissions by 10%, this would have the same effect as removing 9,772
medium-sized petrol cars from the road for a year.
Reduce its annual electricity consumption by 25%, this would save enough electricity to
power 7,522 middle-income homes for 1 year.
GCX recommends that Woolworths sets realistic annual targets to reduce its carbon emissions in
alignment with its Good business journey goal to reduce relative carbon emissions by 30% by
2012. Examples of such targets could be to:
Reduce carbon emissions per employee by 10% annually;
Reduce electricity consumption per m2 by 15% over 2 years;
Reduce distribution emissions by 20% in 2 years.

6. Next are some recommendations made to assist in reducing emissions in order to meet the
reduction targets.
Due to the high proportion of emissions arising from electricity consumption, as well as
the significant operational cost of electricity, GCX recommends that Woolworths conduct
a full energy efficiency audit as part of its emissions-reduction strategy starting with a
pilot audit of the head office and a distribution centre. The next step would be to address
Woolworths’ stores.
Implement systems that will allow for benchmarking and comparing stores/divisions
within the Woolworths group so that next year’s report becomes a useful management
reporting tool for the company.
Switch to ozone-friendly coolant gas for refrigeration and air-conditioning;
Introduce an incentivised employee travel plan with benchmarks and targets;
Make use of teleconferencing instead of business travel wherever possible;
Roll out the use of bio-diesel made from recycled cooking oil across the fleet nationwide.
Consider the implementation of a dynamic management system dedicated to the
monitoring of CO2
emissions within the organisation.
The problems in Woolworths is the high turnover rate of employees
http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=47453
HR planning practice on the turnover employees rise ,
The recommendations to reduce high employees turnover rate is the following link :
http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/534/73643.html
and
http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2012/08/thesis-chapter-5-on--1.html

7. Recommendations towards the customer representative service :
http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/customerservice/a/custservrules.htm or it can be also the
solution sof the problem of the customer service yaAAAAAAAAAAAAA BA