Updated August 26, 2026 — 11:39am,first published August 26, 2026 — 8:53amWoolworths chief Amanda Bardwell has celebrated the success of its Ooshies collectables campaign but says the supermarket giant’s rebound started before the introduction of the promotion.Woolworths posted its full-year results on Tuesday with net profit lifting by 18.1 per cent to $1.14 billion. Across the whole Woolworths group, revenue grew 3.6 per cent to $71.5 billion.While collectables campaigns can act as a sales “amplification”, Woolworths will not increase their frequency, chief executive Amanda Bardwell said.Louie DouvisFood sales at Australia’s biggest grocery chain increased 4.6 per cent to $53.9 billion in the 2026 financial year, ahead of rival Coles, which on Tuesday reported supermarket sales rose 3.7 per cent to $41.5 billion for the full year.Woolworths’ sales growth has picked up even more pace since it launched its wildly popular collectables collaboration with Disney in mid-July. In the first two months of the new financial year (July and August), food sales grew 7.6 per cent, with the supermarket estimating 1.5 to 2 per cent of it was down to the promotional campaign.“It’s no secret that our Ooshies program has been hugely successful. However, we’re holding the momentum we ended [the fourth quarter] with, independent of the boost Ooshies has provided,” Bardwell told reporters on Wednesday morning.Collectable campaigns, which are typically tied to a minimum spend and require you to redeem points, can act as a major driver of foot traffic: experts from Citi estimate Ooshies may have boosted sales by as much as $100 million.“We see some customers who certainly might decide to add a few more items to their basket while they’re shopping with us, so they qualify for the extra Ooshie. And then we do have some customers who might not shop with us very frequently who choose to switch to Woolies during that period,” said Bardwell.While collectables can act as a sales “amplification”, Woolworths will not increase the program’s frequency, Bardwell said. Her Coles counterpart, Leah Weckert, said on Tuesday children’s collectables delivered a more temporary sales hit than those targeted at adults, such as cookware and glass containers.Bardwell said shoppers’ value-seeking habits were here to stay as customers visited Woolworths more frequently and put more items in their basket after it lowered prices on over a thousand grocery essentials.“For three years now we’ve been talking about the pressure on household budgets. We’ve moved beyond a temporary phase into a new reality of entrenched value-seeking,” Bardwell told reporters on Wednesday morning.The Ooshies campaign has been a big winner for Woolworths. “Customers have developed money-saving habits to stretch their weekly shopping as far as possible.”In the colder months, Australians turned to slow-cooking meats, with chuck, osso bucco and brisket selling twice as quickly as other beef cuts.Over the 2026 financial year, Woolworths launched 445 new private-label products, including across Mexican, Asian and Italian cuisines, and invested $100 million in lowering prices.Online sales jumped 18.6 per cent as customers shifted from next-day delivery to same-day delivery. One-hour deliveries grew 65 per cent across Milkrun, which Woolworths acquired in 2023, and DoorDash.Poor-performing discount department chain Big W, which has been a drag on the broader Woolworths company, bounced back to profitability with earnings of $64 million after booking losses of $33 million the year before.While local supermarket sales rose 4.6 per cent, this figure came off the back of a period affected by industrial action and supply chain disruption from Christmas 2024. Excluding those impacts, sales grew 4.1 per cent.The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.Jessica Yun is a business reporter covering retail and food for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.From our partners