Australia's Coles Group posted a 3.6% jump in first-quarter sales on Thursday, boosted by higher contribution from its supermarkets section owing to strong food volume growth, as consumers increasingly opted for at-home consumption.
The country's second-largest grocer posted group sales revenue of A$10.25 billion ($6.46 billion) for the 13 weeks to Sept. 24, compared with A$9.89 billion reported a year ago.
The supermarkets division, Coles's biggest revenue-generating segment, posted A$9.19 billion in sales revenue for the quarter, compared to A$8.77 billion a year ago.
Inflation at supermarkets declined to 3.1% for the quarter, down from 5.8% in the prior quarter and sharply below 7.1% from last year due to deflation in the fresh category, the grocer said.
In the early second quarter, Coles's supermarkets and liquor divisions logged sales revenue growth broadly in line with the first quarter.
($1 = 1.5855 Australian dollars)
(This story has been refiled to fix date to Sept. 24, not Sept. 25, in paragraph 2)
(Reporting by Sameer Manekar and John Biju in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
