WOW

Australian conglomerate Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) has increased sales for grocery chain Coles. Wesfarmers chief executive, Richard Goyder, has said market share looks stable. Fourth quarter sales figures has revealed that sales have risen from last years figures by 4.2 percent compared to 1.8 percent with competitor, Woolworths (ASX:WOW) at a 3.4 percent gain.

Here are the Top 100 Australian Companies bottom 10 stocks which lost the most percentage points of company value on the share market, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) this 29th week of 2010 (last week):

Woolworths (ASX:WOW), owner of retailers such as the Woolworths grocery chain, Safeway, Big W, Dick Smith, Petrol stations, Liquorland, Powerhouse and Tandy, have seen a slowing retail sales trend. Fourth quarter Australian food and liquor sales rose 3.8 percent to $7.78 billion compared to the previous year.

Australian supermarket rivals, Woolworths (ASX:WOW) and Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) owned Coles are aggressively spending on marketing. The results of the marketing war will be revealed once the two grocery competitors release fourth quarter sales figures in the coming weeks.

Australia based retail group Woolworths (WOW) is expected to come up with solid indication today regarding how the retail sector was priced during the Christmas trading period when the company will present its second quarter sales figures. Analysts are assuming that the retailer might report a 6.5 percent sales growth apart from petrol, towards the lower end of the forecasts of the company sales growth within the range of 5 and 9 percent in the current financial year.

In fear of getting wiped out from the business, the independent hardware store operators have urged the competition regulator to block Woolworths (WOW) from entering the home improvement industry. Retailers Association, which represents more than 5000 entrepreneurs of the industry stated that it will not be a wise thing to allow the hardware industry to turn into something like a super market sector.

According to Merrill Lynch analyst David Errington, Woolworths (WOW) might lose as much as $623 million within five years after kicking off with its new big-box hardware store project which is scheduled to be launched in late 2011. Woolworths and Lowe’s- the US ba'sed hardware company is expected to introduce a chain of warehouse-sized hardware outlets in the market which might challenge the dominance of Wesfarmers owned Bunnings, which is the current market leader in the industry.

The Australia based retail group Woolworths (WOW) has revealed its plan to go for an assault over the country’s $24 billion worth of hardware industry. The plan includes a tie-up with US based group Lowe’s- the second biggest company of the world and also a roll-out of stores at a large format aimed at launching a strike over Wesfarmer’s Bunnings which is currently the market leader.

Despite the global economic crisis, Woolworths (WOW), a renowned Australia based retail group has recorded a sales growth of 7.5 percent for this year till June 30 due to a turnover in clothing and consumer electronics which had seen a double digit growth.

Australia's biggest retailer, Woolworths Ltd., met its full year profit forecast even as the country reels under rising fuel prices and escalating borrowing costs which slowed down the fourth quarter sales to just 7.5 percent. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) is expected to grow faster than sales as net profits seem to fall in the growth range of 21 percent to 25 percent. The retailing giant marked rise in total sales for 53 weeks ended June 29 to $47.035 billion or 10 percent higher. On normalised basis, that excludes extra trading week in the year, the sales were up by 8.7 percent.