👉 Background: We know Woolies for their "fresh food people" slogan, their delicious/sugary sushi and Rewards program. But, they also have a division called Woolworths International which sells food products to businesses overseas.

👉 What happened: But now, they’ve announced that they’ll be closing down the export business, wiping out 51 local jobs in the process.

👉 What else: They’re not the only grocery giant struggling to cross the seas. In 2021, UK retail giant Tesco shut down their exports too because of poor performance, and supply chain problems.

What's the key learning?

💡 Even when the most strong and secure Aussie businesses launch globally, things don’t always go according to plan - especially during tough economic conditions.

💡Expanding the Woolies brand globally would allow them to get its tomato sauce out to Singapore... or sausos into the Phillipines. But, there are lots of moving parts when it comes to international expansion:

• You need reliable retailers and distributors
• You also need economic conditions to be pretty stable so that demand for your products doesn’t suddenly change

💡Woolies struggled on both those fronts. Supply chains were disrupted with COVID and the war. And with rising cost-of-living, overseas demand for their products just wasn’t as high as they needed.

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