Woolworths names former liquor boss Brad Banducci as CEO; reports first half loss $972m
New Woolworths’ CEO Brad Banducci takes over an embattled business
The task of rebuilding the battered Woolworths brand has been handed to the former boss of its liquor division, Brad Banducci, who came to the business five years ago.
The announcement came as the retailer posted a $972.7m loss, driven in part by the failure of its Masters Home Improvement joint-venture with Lowes.
Woolworths is being forced to pay out Lowes’ share of the business before it exits the sector later this year. The loss is the first since the company listed on the ASX more than two decades ago.
I’m a Woolworths shareholder and try to keep supporting the store by shopping there. But when I walked into one 2 days ago in affluent Peppermint Grove the store looked shoddy: shelves promoting bargains were totally empty, staff were distracted, big trolleys to stock shelves were just lying around, blocking access to aisles. it reeked of a place not well-run. Can see why Coles is running rings around their rival just now. Woollies, lift your game! And stop wasting our money on poor decisions like paying fat fees to substandard advisors and former execs!
Good luck. Watch your back. Aldi is coming at you hard !
………after a worldwide search for a new CEO we have appointed one of the team who helped us turn a good profit into a spectacular loss. Yup, that would be right..
Thanks Brad. Forty of us are now unemployed because no matter how hard we tried, nothing was ever good enough for you and your team. The comms we produced were driven by your team. Your spectacular failure as a brand was not our agency’s fault. You never listened and rejected some of the finest retail ideas I have ever seen. If you think changing agencies is the solution to your problems then there’s a huge surprise waiting in the wings. Woolies will continue to slide into an irrelevant brand. The problem lies in the fact that you guys don’t have a good business strategy and no agency, no matter how good they are, will help you out of the mess you’re in. You treat your farmers and suppliers appallingly and it shows in store. Karma is patient and knows your address.
Ok is anyone else feeling as confused as I am? Is this really what the global search led to?? I was really expecting more from Gordon or is it that no one else wanted the job? Woolworths now has one of the worst loyalty programs ever which was launched under Brad and things seem to have gone from bad to worse under him. Im not so sure this was the right choice but good luck to Brad. Rightio.
I say, I say, I say, what’s Woolworth? ……….Well, it used to be a very successful retail chain, then a swag of supermarkets employing marketing managers and selling groceries, including many thousands of cans of beans….. Then came the bean counters and the axe-men, and the bigger than big ideas which developed into arrogance and later supreme arrogance…followed by a huge bungle, a stumble and a tumble. Quo Vadis?
Aldi isn’t the problem. Woolworths is the problem. Good luck Brad. Doing anything with the supplier and customer in mind would be a step change.
Jacqueline, your post reminds me so much of a presentation Ian McLeod made at a conference I attend a few years ago. He basically showed photos of Coles shelves being half empty, out-of-date bread, no milk in the dairy cabinet, boxes and crap everywhere, and trolleys that weren’t even fit for the dump.
Why did he show them? Because one of the first things he did when he came to Australia he ‘walked the aisles’.
The next thing he did was shook Coles out of their sloth and quickly shifted them to #1. So, on this basis there is hope for Woolworths – though I suspect that promoting internally and not being open to ‘the shock of the new’ means the boat might be sailing.