is an
Australia n supermarket chain owned by
Coles Group . With over 750 stores nationally and more than 60,000 employees, Coles currently has second-largest market share behind
Woolworths Supermarkets .
Coles was founded by George James (G.J.) Coles in
1914 when what was called the "Coles Variety Store" opened on
9 April in Smith Street in the
Melbourne suburb of
Collingwood . Expansion to more stores occurred and the chain was regarded as leaders in providing value to Australian shoppers (G. J. Coles learned the retail trade working for his father's "Coles Store" business at Wilmot, Tasmania between 1910 and 1913).
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In
1960 , the first supermarket was opened in Melbourne suburb
North Balwyn and by
1973 Coles had established stores in all Australian capital cities.
Throughout the 1980s, stores were badged "Coles New World" (simply "New World" for a brief period late in the decade) until they were renamed Coles Supermarkets in the early 1990s and given the trademark "orb" logo. This was replaced with the "circled tick logo" in 2005, having first appeared as a secondary logo in 2003.
From mid 2006,
BI-LO supermarkets were progressively re-badged as Coles Supermarkets. Newmart supermarkets, under which BI-LO traded in Western Australia, were re-badged as Coles Supermarkets in 2002-2003. Newmart stores co-located with Coles in the same area or shopping centre were sold to Foodland and re branded as the now-defunct
Action Supermarkets chain.
Coles reported very poor a trading result for the 13 weeks to April 29, 2007, sparking criticism from many commentators.
1 The failure of the rebadging of BI-LO stores to Coles was blamed in part for the poor results, and the conversion program was put on hold at Easter 2007.
2
On 2nd July 2007, Western Australian based company
Wesfarmers agreed to purchase Coles Group Limited for AU$22 billion. The purchase is scheduled to be completed by October 2007.
3
In August 2007, as Wesfarmers foreshadowed its plans for the restructuring of Coles Group following its anticipated takeover, it stated that one of three planned divisions would comprise supermarkets, liquor and convenience stores.
4
Coles' advertising campaigns on TV, radio, newspapers, catalogues and in-store have employed a host of different names, slogans and logos. Its original slogan was "Nothing over 2/6", when Coles was still primarily operating variety stores. The slogan "You'll find the best value is at Coles New World" was used in the 1980s, during the Coles New World era. In 1991, Coles New World was renamed as Coles Supermarkets and given the trademark New World "orb" logo which it has used for 15 years. In 1998, the capitalised "Supermarkets" text was removed from the logo leaving simply "Coles". Coles used "Serving You Better" from 1998 to 2003 with an associated jingle from 2000. This was replaced with "Save Everyday", endorsed by actress
Lisa McCune which saw the "circled tick logo" introduced. The circled tick replaced the "orb" logo entirely in 2006 with minor changes to advertising graphics and fonts.
In 2007, that slogan, the circle tick and use of Lisa McCune ceased, with simply the Coles name in the new logo and no slogan at all, in preparation for an entirely new "circular" logo to be introduced in the coming months to match the Coles Group brand identity.
- 4c-per-litre fuel offer: Spend $30 or more in a single transaction at either Coles , BI-LO , Pick'n'Pay Hypermarkets or Liquorland to receive a 4c discount coupon at the end of the receipt for use at Coles Express service stations. Currently the offer extends to 6c-per-litre if you also spend $2 or more in-store at Coles Express in the one transaction.
- In December 2006 and January 2007, for two weeks for each offer, a discount of 10 cents per litre was offered for customers who purchased over $80 in a single transaction. This was soon followed by a similar deal by rival Woolworths.
- Shoppers can collect FlyBuys Loyalty Program points throughout Coles Group.
- Between 1991 and 1993, Coles Supermarkets ran a promotion in conjunction with Apple Computer and 12 major suppliers entitled "Apples for Students", where students collected grocery dockets and returned them to their participating school, and once a certain value had been reached the school would be provided with a free Macintosh computer. 70% of Australia's schools and kindergartens participated and gained more than 25,000 computers, equipment and software worth $13.6 million. 5
In 2005, Coles announced its intention to replace its existing private label brands (such as Farmland, Persona, Savings and Reliance) with a three-tier approach - , a budget label, '''You'll Love Coles''', a mid-price line, and '''George J Coles''', a premium brand.
6
By 2006, 1600 private label products had been introduced under the two cheaper brands.
7 The premium brand had yet to be launched.
8 There has been some adverse commentary regarding the loss of choice of supermarket shelves as private label brands start to dominate.
9
- Many Coles stores have their own , including in-store bakeries and "bake off plus". Where there is no bake house, products are bought in from outside sources.
- The department comprises the checkouts and the customer service desk.
- The : department maintains refrigerated and frozen foods such as milk, other dairy products, and juices.
- The packages meat and other delicatessen products for customers according to the customer requests and may have a café area serving hot savoury food, coffee, and cakes.
- The department is responsible for all fruit and vegetables. Staff members often prepare fruit for sale.
- The department carries out stock placement, orders aisle shelves and performs general maintenance duties such as cleaning up spillages, carrying out price checks, and retrieving trolleys. Grocery staff often assist customers with transporting difficult products around the store and car park or with general queries.
- The department stocks pre-packaged refrigerated meat products for customers and prepares many of these packages for sale, excepting Western Australia , where meat rooms operate, with a full complement of butchers and apprentices preparing meat in the store, and only less common lines, such as turkey mince and ready-to-cook products, arrive pre-packed. Older stores in other states may still have meat rooms, but this is becoming less common as stores are refurbished.
- The department only exists in stores with 'Coles Liquor', as opposed to Liquorland . Coles Liquor means that liquor is sold in-store in the grocery aisles - i.e. one side of the aisle is everyday drinks, the other side liquor. Liquorland stores are run with their own store manager and staff. Not all stores in every state have this department due to varying government laws.
- : Non-food items such as clothing, hardware, magazines, stationery and gardening products. Usually works in close conjunction with the Grocery department.
- : This department covers Point of Sale (Ticketing), Administration (Office Employees), and Receiving.
