Supermarket giant credits sales boost to ‘magic’ collectibles

A supermarket giant’s Harry Potter-based toy collectable campaign is being credited with helping boost sales for the quarter.

Supermarket giant Coles has posted a $9.2bn first quarter sales revenue, an increase of 4.7 per cent, crediting the result partly to one of their collectable toy campaigns.

That’s a boost of $412m for the past three months, which the company has also attributed to more Australians opting to eat at home instead of going out, with interest rate rises still on the cards.

Coles has credited its Magical Builders collectable campaign for posting $9.2bn in Q1 revenue sales. Picture: Coles

“Supermarkets sales revenue of $9.2bn for the first quarter increased by 4.7 per cent as the business cycled the highly successful Magical Builders collectable campaign in the prior corresponding period,” Coles said in its Q1 results.

Magical Builders was a range of 35 “innovative, fun and truly sustainable” paper figurines modelled on Harry Potter characters which were available at Coles supermarkets and Coles Express stores.

“Excluding tobacco sales, which continued to decline in line with industry trends, sales revenue increased by 5.9 per cent,” the report said.

The company also credited the cost of living crisis for the result, with more people opting to eat at home to save money. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

“Gross retail sales of $9.5bn increased by 5.7 per cent and comparable sales grew by 4.6 per cent.

“Customers have shared that they are increasingly eating and entertaining at home, seeking out loyalty points and bonus offers, and looking for more affordable alternatives as they seek more value in response to cost of living pressures.”

But the report also showed shoplifting continues to be a problem, with a 20 per cent rise in stock losses during the reporting period.

The report comes one day after major rival Woolworths posted their own results from July to September, showing a $12.96bn in food retail sales – an increase of 6.1 per cent on Q1 2022.