Woolworths sales dip at supermarkets as CEO apologises for MyDeal hack

The retail major confirmed its sales performance at its AGM, showing a slight dip at its supermarkets, while the CEO apologised for cyber data breach at its MyDeal business.

Woolworths Group chief executive Brad Banducci apologised for the MyDeal hack at the AGM in Brisbane. Picture: Dallas Kilponen

Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci has apologised for a security breach which exposed details of 2.2 million users of the supermarket group’s MyDeal subsidiary, but says its own customer data was not compromised.

Mr Banducci told shareholders at the Woolworths annual meeting in Brisbane on Wednesday that the company had taken swift action to deal with a breach by hackers at is newly acquired online marketplace business.

“We unreservedly apologise for the considerable concern that this has caused our affected customers. Importantly, no payment, driver’s licence or password details were accessed,” he said. “While this was an isolated incident, we take cyber security and data privacy for the entire group very seriously and we need to remain vigilant when it comes to the protection of customer data.”

There has been a string of data breaches affecting personal information at Australian companies, with Optus and Medibank both reeling from major cyber attacks.

Mr Banducci told shareholders that sales in the first eight weeks of the 2023 financial year at its Australian food arm, led by supermarkets, were down 0.5 per cent as it cycled two consecutive years of elevated sales growth.

Woolworths detailed its trading performance for the first eight weeks at its full-year results released in August and will release its full first quarter sales performance next week, with JP Morgan tipping first quarter sales for Woolworths to fall 0.3 per cent for the period.

On Wednesday, Coles reported its first quarter sales, which were up 1.3 per cent.

Mr Banducci said Big W sales growth had been strong in the first eight weeks of 2023, increasing by just under 30 per cent. In New Zealand, supermarket sales fell 1 per cent in the first eight weeks.

“And we said in August that New Zealand (earnings) for the first half of 2023 was expected to be materially below the prior year reflecting the residual operating impacts of Covid, the growing impact of inflation, the challenges of commissioning new processing and supply chain assets and a very competitive trading environment.”

Mr Banducci told the meeting that while Woolworths was working hard to embed its position as Australia and New Zealand’s largest first party
e-commerce retailer, it had also focused on growing a third party presence through its Everyday Market platform, and more recently through MyDeal.

Woolworths shares closed 3.2 per cent lower at $32.33.