Woolworths as the Largest Company in Australia (1924)

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Executive summary
Woolworths is one of the largest companies in Australia that has been started in the year 1924 by Percy Christmas. The company has over 200,000 employees working in its over 3000 units around Australia and New Zealand. Its winning formula lies in the wide product and services, ranging from petro, hotels, consumer electronics, discount stores, food, groceries, and liquor and night clubs among others. The company has been planning to take part in the international market and some of the investment opportunities in the world relate to the emerging Chinese and Indian markets. In the past, the Western countries including the USA and the European block have been the top economies, but this has now changed. Since the recession, these economies have been quite slow and China and India are picking up. These two are the fastest growing economies and are the best investment opportunities. For Woolworths to secure the future, they would have to consider them in their strategic plans. This also means that they have to have their contingency plans ready, noting that most of the emerging markets are riddled with bottlenecks.
Company background
Founded in the year 1924 by the founding CEO Percy Christmas, the Woolworths Limited is one of the largest companies in Australia. With its headquarters in Bella Vista, New South Wales, as of the year 2011, the company was home to more than 200,000 employees that work in its huge number of retail shops totaling upwards of 3000 units. The bulk of the company’s income comes from the retail shops that are found in both Australia and New Zealand. It is known playing a major role in the retail of liquor, food and groceries, petrol, hotels, home improvement such as electronics and other consumer goods (Investmart, 2014).Other than the consumer merchandise, hospitality and energy industries, the company also ventures in the gaming sector.
Foods and liquor are sold through their supermarkets, Thomas Dux groceries, BWS and the Langton’s in Australia. As an extension of the liquor business, the company also owns and operates chain of night clubs and pubs in Australia. There are also some of the common house brands that include the baked products, branded meat products, fresh produce as well as the other food products. Most of the supermarkets in New Zealand are operated under certain brands that are recognizable, such asWoolworth, Supervalue, Countdown, Foodtown and the Fresh Choice. In the energy sector, the company has formed a joint venture with Caltex to form petrol stations operated under the brand names Caltex Safeway and the Caltex Woolworths. In total there are more than 550 petrol stations under this partnership and the number may grow in the future.
In Australia, there are more than 160 discount departmental stores called the BIG W. Through this outlets, the company retails merchandizes such as the sporting goods, toys, books, clothing, software, beauty products, pet foods, stationery, hardware, homewares and automotive spares.
The consumer electronics in both Australia and New Zealand are retailed through various electronic shops such Dick Smith Electronics Powerhouse, Tandy Electronic retails shops and the Dick Smith ...