Woolworths South Africa recorded sales growth that outperformed the market during a challenging trading period as cautious consumers continued to limit spending.
The retailer recorded sales growth of 6.8% for the 26-week period ended December 2025. This despite weak consumer confidence and pressure on household budgets.
Online sales maintained growth during the period as the digital platform grew by 23%. More customers became comfortable buying groceries through the Woolies Dash service.
The food business posted sales growth of 7% and 5.2% on a comparable-store basis. Woolworths said food continued to record consistent monthly growth. One that is supported by ongoing investment in its premium food offering.
Growth in homeware business
Larger growth was seen in the home business, which contributed 14% growth. This followed by the beauty business, which delivered 8.9%. Overall Fashion, Beauty and Home (FBH) sales improved by 6.2% and 6.4% on comparable store basis. This was helped by better product availability after changes to the company’s supply chain.
The strong performance continued over Black Friday and the festive season. Sales grew by 6.1% in the last seven weeks of the period. It showed that the business gained market share and sold higher volumes.
Average price increases were 2.8% over the period. Fashion prices rose by 1.3%, mainly because of lower prices in kids wear and the sale of extra stock left over from the previous distribution centre change. This put pressure on the gross profit margin during the period.
Growth on constant currency basis
Woolworths Holding’s overall turnover and concession sales for the period increased at 5.4% and 6.1%. This on a constant currency basis.
All segments of the business showed improvement despite challenging economic climates in both South Africa and Australia.
At Country Road Group, sales increased by 2.3% over the period. But sales growth slowed to an average of 1.0% in the last seven weeks of the period. Coming after high Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales dropped retail sales in Australia.
However, trading conditions in Australia and New Zealand are slowly improving. But the retail market is still tough and driven by heavy discounting. CRG’s sales rose by 2.3% over the period, or 2.5% at stores open for a year or more.
The Country Road, Witchery and Politix brands performed better than in the previous period. This was supported by changes to the brand mix and a successful reshaping of CRG’s operating model, which is still being rolled out across the business.
