Business Research Report : Woolworths Supermarket

Woolworths is the largest supermarket/grocery store chain in Australia, owned by Woolworths Limited. It is the largest retail company in Australia and New Zealand by market capitalization and sales. Along with Coles, Woolworths form a near duopoly of Australian supermarkets, together accounting for about 80% of the Australian market. Woolworths currently operates 933 Woolworths stores across Australia.

Woolworths Limited was foundedin 1924, and is Australia's second largest employer. Colloquially referred to as 'Woolies', the company has grown to be Australia's leading supermarket retailer. Woolworths has also gained a strong foothold in the retail markets in New Zealand. Woolworths officially listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) on 12 July 1993, and trades with the issuer code 'WOW'. Woolworths Limited (Woolworths) is Australia's most recognised and trusted retail brand.

Financial statements depict a picture of the financial well-being of a business and are used for financial performance analysis (Nelson, 1942; Stichler, 2008). First, the statement of financial position consists the assets that are owned by the HCO, the liabilities that the HCO has to the outsiders, and a portion of the HCO’s assets that belong to its owners (Finkler et al., 2013). It is a balance sheet indicating what the HCO has and what the HCO owes at a specific

The information found in financial statements outlines the financial activities of that company, and can help managers, creditors, and investors make many important decisions.

"The Framework states that the objective of financial statements is to provide information about the financial position, performance and changes in financial position of an entity that is useful to a wide range of users in making economic decisions."

The financial statements give you a global look of the financial status of a company in the short and the long term (Presentation of Financial Statements).

Gregory the information that the financial statement provide gives management more backing when making decisions (Edmonds, Tsay & Olds, 2011). The information presented in an income statement allows companies to gauge their financial performance (Analysis of Small-Business Financial Statements Using Neural Nets, 1995). The company is able to make judgments and changes after comparing financial statements over a period of time.

The management and the understanding of the key processes is one of the instrumental things in the management of the business. It is important for the firm to understand that the goals of the enterprise is to ensure expansion of each and every aspect so that the same can improve the overall process of management of the business. The firm valuation and the details relating to the same is also important considering the overall use and the discussion for the enterprise. For the firm it is important to consider the overall needs and requirements so that the decision making and the processing of the enterprise decisions can be implemented properly and the same can lead to effective management of the business of the enterprise.

The information reflected in the financial statements actually is expected to be of high quality and useful to support the quality decision-making of market stakeholders due to the far-reaching and very costly consequences. It is important in this context to properly identify and discuss the user needs and thereby we refer to the actual requirements of all information users amongst them the management, which uses the financial information to steer, regulate and co-ordinate the business.

Woolworths is a conventional supermarket owned by Woolworths Limited. It started as a basement store in Pitt Street in 1924, and is now one of the leading competitors in the supermarket business. With over 850 stores in Australia, and 110,000 Woolworths staff, they provide

The first Woolworths store opened on the 5 December 1924 in Pitt Street Sydney. In 1993 Woolworths Ltd was offered to the public in the largest share float in Australian history and investors responded by applying for 2.65 billion. In 2007, Woolworths opened its first new “Green” supermarket, which incorporated equipment that reduced energy usage, water usage and waste generation and minimises the use of materials that can cause environmental harm. Furthermore, in 2008 Woolworths set about rebranding their Safeway products and stores in Victoria to the Woolworths brand. Finally, in 2010 Woolworths celebrated their 86th year in the retailing business.

Accrual accounting is a system of accounting that is based on the accrual principal accounting. This principal requires revenue to be recognized and recorded when earned. Expenses are to be recorded when they occur. The accrual basis of accounting is used by most companies. Very small businesses and individuals use cash basis accounting.

Woolworths Limited (Woolworths) was founded in 1924 and has strong presence in Australia and New Zealand, headquartered in New South Wales. Woolworths, is a supermarket leader with diverse portfolio of investments in areas such as petrol stations, hotels and general merchandise, Big W. At present, Woolworths has 872 supermarket stores servicing approximately 13 million customers daily with over 111,000 employees (Woolworths Limited 2015).

Woolworths Limited is an Australian company. It is the largest retail company in Australia and New Zealand by sales and largest food retailer in Australia. As of now it more than 180,000 employees that represents about 1.5 % of Australia’s population. Woolworths majorly focuses in retail and liquor sector but has it’s own petrol stations and it recently entered in home improvement sector. Woolworths first store was opened in 1924 and it was the first store in the world to use cash register to print receipts for customers.

Woolworths Limited was found in Sydney in 1924 (Woolworths Limited a, 2012). During serval years development, Woolworths set foot in a number of sectors which are supermarket, liquor, petrol, hotel, cloth, financial service and general retail (Woolworths Limited b, 2012). In 2009, Woolworths Limited unveiled that it was going to enter the Australian hardware and home improvement industry which was worth $24 billion (Durie, 2009). Woolworth acquired a hardware chain named Danks Holdings Limited and completed a joint venture with Lowe’s which was the second biggest home improvement chain in American and owned one-third shares of the joint venture. The joint venture named Masters Home Improvement opened the first store in Braybrook in Victoria in 2011 (Woolworths Limited c, 2012), and 63 stores across the country during the 5 years development. But in 18 January 2016, Woolworths Limited announced that it intended to exit the hardware and home improvement sector by selling or winding up Masters Home Improvement and Home Timber & Hardware chain after more then $600 million losses (Vitorovich, 2016).