97% goes towards paying suppliers, staff, utilities and covering other operating costs.
I’m looking at the Woolworths 2026 Annual report and I do not know how you got those numbers. These reports are beautifully formatted cryptic messes designed to hide stuff, not to properly inform debate on government ownership or how the books would change under government operation.
Their raw revenue was 72 billion, then they claim most of that is spent on these vague categories:
Cost of sales
Branch expenses
Administration expenses
Other expenses
Some of these things contain some components of suppliers, staff and utilities. But there is a lot going other places.
“Profit” is a very dangerous term because it’s intentionally gamed in the reporting by all companies to reduce tax liability. Woolworths claims they are only left with 1 billion in profit after they do their sums, but, under government control you’d realise that this number is really misleading. Eg checkout these things in their report:
3 billion of asset depreciation
~1 billion of shareholder dividends (remember that’s not “profit”!)
~1 billion for underpaid staff rumeneration (it’s cheaper to pay them right in the first place and not have to do court costs, dear god)
(probably a lot more interesting stuff I’ve missed, on a train RN)
I’m going to say their headline tiny profitability is not what you think it is, and that they’re not poor Woolies struggling with borderline profitability because of big employee and big supplier. For more fun on creative book keeping: checkout airlines. Some of them intentionally teeter themselves to reported non-profitability when it suits them.
I’m looking at the Woolworths 2026 Annual report and I do not know how you got those numbers. These reports are beautifully formatted cryptic messes designed to hide stuff, not to properly inform debate on government ownership or how the books would change under government operation.
Their raw revenue was 72 billion, then they claim most of that is spent on these vague categories:
Some of these things contain some components of suppliers, staff and utilities. But there is a lot going other places.
“Profit” is a very dangerous term because it’s intentionally gamed in the reporting by all companies to reduce tax liability. Woolworths claims they are only left with 1 billion in profit after they do their sums, but, under government control you’d realise that this number is really misleading. Eg checkout these things in their report:
I’m going to say their headline tiny profitability is not what you think it is, and that they’re not poor Woolies struggling with borderline profitability because of big employee and big supplier. For more fun on creative book keeping: checkout airlines. Some of them intentionally teeter themselves to reported non-profitability when it suits them.