Wesfarmers Closes the Retail Reporting Week After Woolworths Beats Consensus | It’s On Sale Daily Brief, 27 August 2026

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

Thursday morning briefing for Australian shoppers. Wesfarmers closes the biggest retail reporting week of the year at midday today, releasing FY26 for Bunnings, Kmart, Officeworks, Target and Priceline. The Wesfarmers number lands the day after Woolworths Group beat consensus with NPAT before significant items up 15.4 per cent to 1.6 billion dollars, a full year dividend of 97 cents up 15.5 per cent, and BIG W back to positive EBIT of 64 million. Away from the ASX, the RBA August meeting minutes released this week revealed the Reserve Bank board actively debated a rate hike, and Coles suffered a nationwide website crash on Friday after a viral Reddit thread exposed a pricing bug that had beer and spirits selling at up to 80 per cent below shelf price. Today s live sale scan pulls up Colette by Colette Hayman at 75 per cent off fashion accessories as the standout pick.

Wesfarmers Files FY26 at Midday: What to Watch at Bunnings, Kmart and Officeworks

Wesfarmers releases its FY26 full year result to the ASX today at 10am Australian Western Standard Time, which is 12 midday on the east coast. The half year already delivered group revenue of 24.2 billion dollars up 3.1 per cent and NPAT of 1.6 billion up 9.3 per cent, with the interim dividend at 1 dollar 02 up 7.4 per cent. Consensus for the full year sits at group revenue of around 47.1 billion dollars, EBIT near 4.46 billion, and full year EPS of about 2 dollars 50, per James Mickleboro at The Motley Fool Australia. Brokers surveyed by the Fool have a mixed view with two Buy calls, two Hold and one Sell, largely reflecting the 29 times PE multiple after a strong share price run into results.

The consumer read: this is the last of the three big supermarket and discount department store results, so the shape of the FY26 number tells us how promotions will run through spring and Father s Day. Bunnings is the bell weather. If Bunnings home improvement lifts second half sales growth from the 2.9 per cent it printed in the first half, watch for the Bunnings weekend Trade Table promotions and Special Buys catalogues to stay sharp through September on tools, outdoor furniture, garden and grill lines. If Bunnings softens, expect deeper clearance on winter heating and lift in the PowerPass member exclusives. Kmart usually holds its Anko own brand pricing flat regardless of the result, so kitchen basics, storage, bed linen and kids clothing should stay stable. Officeworks tends to run its sharpest promotions on printer ink, technology and Apple education pricing through September once Wesfarmers ticks the FY26 result off. And Priceline s Sister Club will continue its 3x and 5x points weekends on skincare and beauty. The single most useful action for shoppers today is to check your Bunnings PowerPass and OnePass Kmart status before the midday release, since both retailers occasionally launch member locked flash offers in the 72 hours after results to lock in loyalty momentum.

Woolworths Beat Consensus Yesterday: Big W Returns to Profit, F27 Off to a Fast Start

Rewinding one day: Woolworths Group reported FY26 group sales of 71.54 billion dollars up 3.6 per cent, EBIT before significant items of 3.11 billion up 12.7 per cent, and NPAT before significant items of 1.60 billion up 15.4 per cent, per Kerry Sun at Market Index. Statutory NPAT after 698 million dollars of significant items (largely a 710 million salaried team member remediation provision covering historical underpayments) was 1.14 billion up 18.1 per cent. The full year dividend lifted 15.5 per cent to 97 cents per share with a fully franked final of 52 cents, per Owen Raszkiewicz at Rask Media. Australian Food sales grew 4.6 per cent to 53.85 billion with EBIT up 8.5 per cent, group eCommerce sales lifted 15.9 per cent to 10.60 billion, and BIG W returned to positive EBIT of 64 million against a loss of 33 million in FY25. The market rewarded the print, with Woolies shares surging 6 per cent to a five year high on the day, per Ausbiz Capital.

What this means at the shelf: Woolies has told the market that F27 opened even stronger, with Woolworths Food Retail sales up 7.6 per cent across the first eight weeks (assisted by about 1.5 to 2 percentage points from the return of the Ooshies collectible campaign). That volume tailwind means Woolworths is comfortably profitable, so shoppers should expect Everyday Rewards Boost offers to sharpen this weekend and the extended Lower Shelf Price program to add more lines. On the loyalty front the strategic gap over Coles Flybuys narrows: Everyday Rewards Extra members can now stack a 10 per cent monthly credit on top of Boost offers, and expect that member locked pricing to expand ahead of Christmas. Practical action for a Thursday shop: check the Everyday Rewards app before you write your list, and use the personalised Boost offers to load up on the ambient pantry lines you were going to buy anyway. BIG W being back in profit is also a green light on same day DoorDash orders through spring, particularly for the school holidays in late September.

RBA Minutes: Board Actively Debated a Rate Hike in August

The Reserve Bank of Australia s August meeting minutes, released this week, revealed that policymakers debated a 25 basis point rate hike before ultimately holding the cash rate unchanged at 4.35 per cent, per Investing.com. Trimmed mean inflation printed at 3.6 per cent in the June quarter and the RBA now expects underlying inflation to remain above 3 per cent until mid 2027, above the 2 to 3 per cent target band. Headline inflation of 3.9 per cent came in below the RBA s May forecast of 4.8 per cent, but the improvement was concentrated in fuel and travel prices where prior year comparables were unusually high. On monetary policy the minutes concluded that the cash rate is still holding restrictive pressure on the economy, but the board is watching household consumption closely because that is where any premature easing would show first.

The consumer read: the takeaway is not that mortgage rates are about to rise, but that they are not falling any time soon. With trimmed mean inflation stuck at 3.6 per cent and the RBA expecting it to stay above 3 per cent for another 18 months, home loan rates are likely to hold at current levels through the rest of 2026. For household budgets that means the pressure that has been driving supermarket private label growth and lift in same day essentials deliveries is not easing. Practical action: the smart move for the next quarter is the same as the last (buy Australian owned, buy on sale, buy from a store that will still be there when you need to return it). That is why the daily Top 5 rankings only draw from Australian owned retailers with local fulfilment, and why the Today s Sales pool skips overseas marketplaces entirely.

Coles Website Crash: A Reddit Pricing Bug and the Lesson for Every Shopper

Last Friday the Coles online site crashed for several hours after a viral Reddit thread exposed a pricing error that had 24 packs of Smirnoff Ice, XXXX Gold cans and other alcohol lines showing at prices up to 80 per cent below the correct shelf tag, per Sarah Basford Canales at The Guardian. Screenshots posted to the r/coles subreddit showed Smirnoff Ice 24 packs at 29 dollars against the shelf price of 202 dollars, along with similar mismatches on beer and RTD lines. Traffic to the site spiked so hard that Coles took the checkout offline for maintenance. Coles has since said the mispriced orders will not be honoured and the affected accounts will be refunded, but the incident sent every retail systems team in Australia scrambling.

Consumer angle: pricing errors happen every day at every large retailer, and the Australian Consumer Law does not force a store to honour a price that is clearly a mistake. The practical move when you catch a genuine looking price online is to screenshot the product page (with URL and timestamp visible), add to cart, and only pay if the checkout also shows the low price. If the order is later cancelled, you have the receipt and can escalate for goodwill. And for volatile categories like alcohol, tobacco and electronics, always cross reference at least one alternative retailer before you buy, because a 60 to 80 per cent off number on those categories is almost always an error rather than a legitimate deal. For today s Top 5 we have deliberately capped verified discounts at real percentages on real Australian owned catalogues where returns and refunds are protected.

Amazon Prime Video ACCC Case Still Active in the Federal Court

The ACCC v Amazon Australia Federal Court proceeding (VID702 of 2026) remains before the Federal Court, with the regulator targeting five unfair contract terms said to have been used to add advertising to Prime Video and charge affected subscribers an extra 2 dollars 99 a month between November 2023 and August 2025. Sarah Thompson and Anthony Macdonald at the AFR report ACCC chair Gina Cass Gottlieb said Amazon left subscribers with no realistic choice but to pay more to keep the ad free service they had originally signed up for. The regulator is seeking penalties, declarations and refunds on behalf of more than one million Australian annual Prime subscribers affected during that window.

For Australian households the practical action is unchanged from earlier briefs: if you paid the ad free upcharge on an annual Prime subscription between November 2023 and August 2025, keep the billing emails, credit card statements and receipts. Any eventual refund order will depend on Amazon identifying affected accounts, and the paper trail is on the subscriber s side. In the meantime the safer choice for the Christmas retail run remains Australian owned stores with local fulfilment, predictable returns and Australian consumer law protection. Every store featured in today s Top 5, and every store in the Today s Sales pool, meets that Australian owned standard.