![\"COLES](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/8de1bf56ca240d3823bf154ec4807788.jpeg\")
Coles released half-year financial results on Friday. Photo: NewsWire \/ Gaye Gerard <\/p>\n Coles released half-year financial results on Friday. Photo: NewsWire \/ Gaye Gerard <\/p>\n
Coles will use AI to target sales at specific demographics following the supermarket being sued by the consumer watchdog over allegedly fake discounts.<\/p>\n
Coles executives discussed the company\u2019s use of AI sales ideas during a conference call with analysts on Friday, following the release of half-year financial results.<\/p>\n
Coles has recorded a $511m profit for the second half of 2025, down 11.3 per cent.<\/p>\n
This week, the Federal Court heard closing arguments in a case brought by the consumer watchdog over Coles\u2019 \u201cDown Down\u201d sales prices.<\/p>\n
Asked on Friday how the brand would rebuild trust with consumers following the lawsuit, and what colour price stickers shoppers would see on the shelves \u2013 denoting different sale campaigns \u2013 chief commercial officer Anna Croft said AI would drive Coles\u2019 sales regime.<\/p>\n
Coles chief executive Leah Weckert says the grocery and liquor industries are highly competitive. Picture: Martin Keep \/ NewsWire <\/p>\n
\u201cSome categories we\u2019ve had to move onto (the everyday low prices campaign) \u2026 we\u2019ve been doing fewer, bigger bolder promotions,\u201d Ms Croft said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just really focused on actually using data and AI on \u2018how do we get the right promotions to meet the right customer cohorts\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt comes back to making sure we\u2019re doing the right thing across the basket, not in any particular category, but lowering the cost of shopping and giving customers the right value, in the right way, in the right categories.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Croft said commenting on the lawsuit would be \u201cinappropriate\u201d and Coles would work through the outcome \u201cwhatever that may be\u201d.<\/p>\n
Releasing financial results to the Australian sharemarket on Friday, the supermarket company recorded an 11.3 per cent dip in profits compared with the same period last year.<\/p>\n
At Coles supermarkets specifically, the company\u2019s gross margins increased from 27.1 per cent to 27.8 per cent.<\/p>\n
Coles\u2019 legal council delivered closing addresses in the Federal Court of Victoria this week. Picture: NewsWire \/ Luis Enrique Ascui <\/p>\n
In a statement to the ASX, chief executive Leah Weckert said Coles\u2019 industry was highly competitive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have delivered another strong set of results in a highly competitive operating environment, successfully cycling the competitor industrial action disruption in November and December 2024,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would also like to recognise that over the last two months our teams have done an incredible job in managing the impacts of extreme weather events in parts of Australia, ensuring essential items reach local communities in need.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as the physical supermarkets, Coles Group runs Liquorland, Vintage Cellars, First Choice Liquor, an insurance division, credit cards and loans. The business has 1800 stores and 115,000 staff.<\/p>\n
At the supermarkets, for the second half of 2025 revenue rose 3.6 per cent to $21.4bn \u2013 excluding tobacco.<\/p>\n
Excluding tobacco, price inflation hit 1.7 per cent in the final three months of the calendar year.<\/p>\n
\u201c \u2026 with the increase primarily driven by dairy and red meat and easing deflation in non-food categories,\u201d the company said in the results.<\/p>\n
Coles is in the middle of being sued by the consumer watchdog over allegations consumers were deceived by \u2018sale\u2019 prices. Picture: NewsWire \/ Gaye Gerard <\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst red meat shelf prices rose, the full impact of beef and lamb livestock cost of goods sold was partially absorbed by Coles as part of our investment in value for customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the liquor stores, sales revenues were down 3.2 per cent compared with the second half of 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe market remained subdued and competitive intensity increased, particularly in the second quarter,\u201d Coles said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNotwithstanding this, we saw positive sales growth across our convenience portfolio, which accounts for approximately 90 per cent of our store fleet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Headlined in the financial results as \u201cother\u201d, Coles points to a decline in tobacco sales as the main cause of a 22 per cent dip in \u201cother\u201d sales revenue.<\/p>\n
Despite the 11.3 per cent dip in Coles Group\u2019s first-half profit, shareholders will get a $0.41 interim dividend, up from $0.37 the year before.<\/p>\n
Based on Coles\u2019 own customer surveys, item availability, quality, and store look and feel perceptions all rose considerably, and price perceptions improved but less so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coles released half-year financial results on Friday. Photo: NewsWire \/ Gaye Gerard Coles will use AI to target…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,104,73200,108672,46634,105],"class_list":["post-506616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-coles","tag-coles-group","tag-consumer-watchdog","tag-newswire","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}