Hard to swallow: defiant Banducci insists he wasn’t forced to the Woolies checkout

Woolworths has been forced to hit back at accusations outgoing boss Brad Banducci was forced out prematurely amid growing anger over high prices.

Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci tucks into a steak sandwich and chips at a Surry Hills cafe on Wednesday after his retirement announcement. Picture: Michael Bilbe-Taylor

Woolworths will turn to low-profile executive, Amanda Bardwell, to steer the nation’s largest supermarket chain out of political turmoil, as the retailer denied that outgoing boss Brad Banducci was forced out prematurely following a spate of controversies.

Mr Banducci will depart in September after 8½ years as chief executive with the prospect he may still pocket more than $24m worth of Woolworths shares upon checkout. His unexpected departure sent Woolworths shares sinking, closing down 6.6 per cent to $33.50 and shaving $2.9bn off the company’s value.

Ms Bardwell, the head of Woolworths’ loyalty and e-commerce division, will inherit a stack of challenges, from slowing food and grocery sales to a ­looming Senate inquiry, another probe by the competition regulator and political heat on its profits amid cost-of-living pressures for shoppers.

Woolworths chairman Scott Perkins was forced to step in and defend accusations that Mr Banducci had been punted from the role after a disastrous television interview that aired on Monday night during which he walked off the set.

Mr Banducci was spotted by The Australian on Wednesday at a Surry Hills cafe in inner Sydney, eating a steak sandwich and chips. He remained defiant over his TV conduct. “I’m not going to give it energy,” he told The Australian’s Margin Call column.

“I don’t care what people think about me – I care what they think about Woolworths.”

He did joke, however, of one lesson clearly learned. “I’ll stick to radio in the future,” he said.

Mr Banducci, who prefers yoga over the public spotlight, had a beer with the retailer’s state ­managers on Tuesday night at the Fiddler in Rouse Hill, a short drive from the company’s Bella Vista headquarters after a day of board meetings.

Mr Perkins denied that public pressure on Mr Banducci and a series of problems and own goals had accelerated his planned retirement, declaring work had begun last year on succession planning.

“Absolutely the timeline has been completely unaffected by external events of the last couple of weeks,” Mr Perkins said. “I can be absolutely emphatic on that point. This process has been in train. There was no change to the timetable, no expedition at all.”

Mr Banducci said he would “take his lumps and lessons” from the recent furore around his ­television interview comments, the decision not to stock Australia Day merchandise and the ­allegations of price gouging and various probes into the ­supermarkets.

“There is always things we can be better at, that’s what gets us up in the morning,” he said.

Mr Banducci revealed he phoned former ACCC chairman Rod Sims to apologise immediately for dismissing him on TV as “retired”, in a disastrous interview that made national headlines this week. “The most important thing from the Four Corners interview, and I learned a lot from that, is that I immediately phoned Rod Sims and apologised afterwards … and to me that was important for who I am and what I stand for and what I would like to achieve,” he said.

Mr Banducci said he got “miffed with myself” when he doesn’t do as well as he needs to do”.

Ms Bardwell has worked with the company for 23 years including most recently as the managing director of WooliesX. She was born and raised in the semirural suburb of Samford, 20km north of Brisbane, where she took on her first job at a food store aged 14 years and nine months, doing everything from check-outs to stocking shelves.

The incoming Woolworths boss will be paid $2.15m a year including superannuation in her new role, as well as short-term ­bonuses of up to $3.23m and long-term bonuses of nearly $3.7m if approved by shareholders.

In an emotional note sent to Woolies staff on Wednesday morning, Mr Banducci said the timing of his decision to retire “felt right”, but declared he was not intending “to go quietly into the night”, with six months still to run in the top office.

Mr Banducci recently sold a vineyard he owns in central Otago, New Zealand, and told The Australian he planned to spend his 60th birthday later this year in his family’s village of Gattaiola in Tuscany.

Mr Banducci said his retirement underlined his world view of the “circle of life”.

“It’s eight years since I got this privilege and kind of felt right to close that circle the way it started,” he said.