Fresh Stikeez campaign drives Coles revenue growth

Coles Supermarkets announced its 46th consecutive quarter of growth, with its 2.4 per cent comparable sales growth in the third quarter of the 2019 financial year put down to the ‘Fresh Stikeez’ promotional campaign, which it says enjoyed high customer engagement. 

Coles announced sales revenue for the third quarter of $7,272 million, up 3.2 per cent on the prior corresponding period, with further programs in the works to improve customer experience.

The Fresh Stikeez campaign was aimed at children and built on last year’s highly successful Little Shop campaign. 

Coles CEO, Steve Cain, said Coles is always looking to add value and it has an open mind when it comes to upcoming promotional campaigns. 

“For now, we are concentrating on our new environmental packaging campaign, but consumers are very excited by new ideas.” 

Coles Online grew 27 per cent, with sales of over $1 billion on a rolling 12-month basis, after an increased focus on improving profitability in the channel. 

Further investment in the Click & Collect channel was also made, which continued to contribute to online sales growth. Recently Coles announced it had entered into an exclusive partnership with Ocado Group to bring the online grocery platform, automated single pick fulfilment technology and home delivery solution to Australia. 

Under the agreement, two fully automated Customer Fulfilment Centres will be built, one located in each of Melbourne and Sydney prior to the end of the 2023 financial year. 

Coles also started trials with eBay and Uber Eats as a part of its ‘anytime, anywhere’ strategy. It aims to make life easier for customers by offering more convenient ways for customers to shop with Coles.

The supermarket giant reported strong growth in Coles Express food-to-go, despite the impact of year-on-year fuel volume declines. To this end, it commenced a new alliance agreement with Express’ fuel partner, Viva Energy, to restore growth in the Express business and better align both parties. 

To improve customer experience, Coles entered into a strategic partnership with Optus to deliver high-speed broadband to all stores, allowing the business to become more digitally enabled.

“We delivered a solid outcome for the third quarter. We know that customer expectations are changing faster than ever, and we are resolutely focused on delivering our Fresh Tomorrow strategy,” Cain said.

While Cain wouldn’t be drawn on upcoming campaigns, Coles recently overhauled its marketing department, with Tourism Australia’s Lisa Ronson to take up the reigns at Coles as chief marketing officer as of 1 May.

Michael Laxton also joined the Coles marketing team as general manager of brand and media in January.

Ronson will report directly to Cain, sitting on the executive leadership team and is the first dedicated CMO at Coles for some time. Over the past year, marketing has been overseen by chief operating officer, Greg Davis, who remains in charge of the merchandise business unit, store development and the Coles brand teams.

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