News Flash: Coles Group Ltd

For all you Aussies out there who have temporarily moved off shores, here's a piece of news for you in case you don't know already.

Yes, we all know Myer has been sold off. Sadly, it is no longer part of the Coles Myer Group. It has been bought by a private equity group TPG Newbridge.

Now what happens to the rest of Coles Myer Group you ask?

Three weeks ago, the late Coles Myer Group announced its new corporate identity:

'Coles Group Ltd'.
Under the new name, three major strategies have been formed that will enable some MAJOR restructuring to occur.

This will truly change the face of retail in Australia...

Three Strategies:

1) Say BYE BYE TO BILO!!
(I can't imagine Wed not being a market day for the pensioners! Nor can I imagine a world without Iain Hewitson on the Bilo Ads!)
All Bilo stores will convert into Coles supermarket.
In Shopping centres where there are both Bilo & Coles (eg. Chadstone), Bilo will convert to First Choice Liquor which will compete directly with Dan Murphys (owned by Woolworths).

2) Say BYE BYE TO KMART!!
In about 2yrs or so, all Kmart stores will convert into the COLES banner. The intention of this is to make Coles into a Hypermarket like the big retail giants around the world (eg. Tesco, Carrefour, Sainsbury to name a few). I can't wait to see this change happens!
Under the new Coles Group Ltd banner, this means Coles will predominantly focus on its food, liquor, fuel & general merchandise goods under one umbrella.

3) Target & Officework will remain stand alone retail groups
Coles Group Ltd will continue to invest behind these two retail chains to improve its core competencies in its niche market.

- There will be $850 Million invested into more and better stores
- There will be $60 Million invested into NEW trolleys & improved customer service
- You will see more 'You'll love Coles' Generic house brands coming into play (which means suppliers like us are under threat of shelf space in the supermarket as their own Coles brand or the Woolworths Fresh house brand takes over).

So if this news is not huge enough, just last Friday, Coles surprised us with another announcement that made my senior mgr call for an immediate team meeting.

Coles Myer Shares jumped 14% to a record high on the talk of an imminent takeover of the A$15.6billion company by a private equity investor. (man I was spewing for not buying CML shares!! Arghh! it jumped from approx $9 to $13 overnight!)

Many foreign investors have been eyeing on Coles for a long time now and a deal will be signed in a matter of days. Time will only tell what the fate of Coles will be.

In the mean time, not only does the employees at Coles feel nervous about their future employment with Coles but as well, it affects the suppliers (like P&G!) big time as this also mean a major restructuring for our team too! Especially since Bilo will be disappearing followed by Kmart...(phew thank God I'm not the Account Mgr for Kmart anymore!)

So Woolworths--> WATCH OUT!
Coles is Out to get you!!!