👉 Background: Wesfarmers is the WA-based conglomerate that owns a whole range of companies... in many different industries.

• Kmart, Target, Officeworks and Bunnings in the retail space
• API (including Priceline) in the pharmacy space
• WesCEF in chemicals and energy industry
• Lithium mines in the mining sector

👉 What happened: Now, Wesfarmers has laid the smackdown on all market expectations by posting full year sales of $43.55 billion, and a net profit of $2.465 billion. Not quite CommBank levels, but still pretty respectable!

👉 What else: While almost two-thirds of Wesfarmers' revenue came from just Bunnings and Kmart alone, Wesfarmers is making moves to diversify away from just retail... and into economies that will be needed in Australia's future.

What's the key learning?

💡A successful company has one eye on the present but another eye on the needs of future economies... and priorities of future governments.

💡Last week. Treasury released an Intergenerational Report that highlighted a few key stats for Australia in 2063:

• It's anticipated that the median age of Australians will be 43.1 years of age - up over 4 years compared to 2023. And this aging population means more people depending on health care services.
• There will be an increased focus on climate change, and that means more electric vehicles, solar panels, and batteries.

💡Wesfarmers acquired Priceline last year for more than $750 million to cover off the healthcare sector. They also invested $950 million into a lithium mine back in 2019. So while right now, Wesfarmers is still reliant on retail for its conglomerate's success, it's definitely reading the room today and preparing for its long-term future.

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