Big news indeed @shadow

Apparently Brad's retirement was already in the works, but it has an extra dimension to it following the 4 Corners story.

Overall group margins look to have shrunk, with group EBIT up 3.3% on a 4.4% lift in sales. (btw Interesting to note the word margins only appears 5 times in the 48 slide presentation!)

That's because of some weakness in Big W and NZ, which collectively make up 18% of total sales.

The Australian Food Segment however -- which accounts for >70%, saw a near 1% lift in the gross margin, which was nearly a full percent higher.

I don't know if gouging is the right word, probably not, but hard to argue they aren't flexing their pricing power. Which, I suppose, is one of the key parts of a good bull thesis. The question is to what degree, if any, there will be any regulatory action.

I suspect little at the end of the day.

fwiw, the 'solution' to higher food inflation is to foster more competition, imo, rather than to over-regulate the incumbents (which, ironically, tend to ultimately benefit from the regulatory barrier that is constructed!)

I'm not sure you can take one data point and say that this half shows price-gouging, but Aussie supermarkets definitely have higher margins on average than their peers in the US. Compare Woolies supermarket segment with the average US supermarket (from McKinsey)

Average US supermarket margins