Australian retail conglomerate Woolworths Group Ltd. saw net profit climb 9.2% for the fiscal year ended June 30, exceeding market expectations.
For the 53-week period, net income, excluding one-off items, came in at A$1.75 billion compared to last year's A$1.61 billion. The figure beat the S&P Global Market Intelligence consensus net income estimate of A$1.70 billion.
Diluted EPS from continuing operations before significant items also rose 8.4% year over year to A$1.33 from A$1.23 and surpassed the Market Intelligence normalized EPS estimate of A$1.31.
Woolworths recorded a 5.3% year-over-year increase in net sales to A$59.98 billion from A$56.94 billion, following strong sales across all segments throughout the fiscal year.
The Australian Food division, which consists of Woolworths' domestic supermarket operations, saw net sales jump 5.3% year over year to A$39.57 billion from A$37.59 billion, while the company's supermarket business in New Zealand posted a 6% sales growth to A$6.29 billion from A$5.93 billion.
The Endeavour Drinks segment, which includes the Dan Murphy's, BWS and Cellarmasters liquor stores, recorded A$8.66 billion in net sales during the fiscal year, up 5% from A$8.24 billion a year ago. The Big W chain of discount department stores also sales climb 6.5% to A$3.80 billion from A$3.57 billion last year.
Woolworths' revenue from its hotel business under Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group Pty. Ltd. posted a 3.7% increase in sales to A$1.67 billion from A$1.61 billion.
The company noted that group sales during the fiscal fourth quarter jumped 13.8% year over year to A$14.50 billion from A$12.74 billion.
During the fiscal year, Woolworths opened 16 supermarkets in Australia, of which six are Woolworths stores and 10 are Metro outlets. In New Zealand, the group's Countdown chain closed three stores and opened two.
Woolworth also opened a total of 30 BWS and three Dan Murphy's liquor stores, as well as five hotels.
"We made good progress on our transformation across all of our businesses in [fiscal 2019] with improving sales and EBIT momentum in [the fiscal second half]," Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci said in a statement.
During the year, Woolworths completed a number of transactions, including the sale of its petrol business to the U.K.'s EG Group, which does business as Euro Garages Ltd.. Woolworths returned A$1.7 billion of the total proceeds of the sale to its shareholders.
In July, it also announced plans to unite its liquor and gaming business with the intention of separating from the merged entity in 2020.
For fiscal 2020, Banducci said Woolworths expects the uncertain consumer environment and input cost pressures to remain. It also anticipates results to be affected by new enterprise agreements.
"Despite this, we are energized by the material opportunities we have across the group to deliver value for both customers and shareholders in [fiscal 2020]," Banducci said.
The company declared a final dividend of 57 Australian cents per share, up from the interim dividend of 45 cents per share paid on April 5.
Woolworth's stock slipped 2.16% to A$35.72 following its earnings release.
