Woolworths to offshore hundreds of corporate jobs

Woolworths to offshore hundreds of corporate jobs Wed 10 Jun 2026 at 1:23pm In short: Woolworths plans to offshore hundreds of corporate jobs. It is the latest in a string of companies this year to announce plans to shift some operations offshore, following similar announcements by Telstra, NAB, and Officeworks. What's next? The company will begin consultations with potentially affected staff today. Supermarket giant Woolworths is offshoring hundreds of corporate jobs and will begin consultations with potentially affected staff today. The retailer would not confirm how many of its 10,000 corporate employees would be affected, but the ABC understands hundreds will be affected in teams including People, IT and Finance. In a statement, a Woolworths spokesperson said to remain competitive with the rapid expansion of international players in Australia's market, and to keep delivering lower prices for customers, it wanted to remove complexity and drive efficiency across its business. "We have for many years had teams located throughout Asia and longstanding managed service arrangements in place," they said. "We regularly review these to ensure we are accessing the best global capabilities and lowering our costs, to ensure we are offering the best value for our customers. "As one of Australia's largest employers in a dynamic and competitive sector, we consistently reshape our business and find ways to be more efficient, to enable us to continue to drive growth and invest in local communities." The spokesperson said the company expected to open 24 new stores, creating roughly 2,500 roles in the year ahead, across Australia and New Zealand. Last year, Woolworths Group chief executive Amanda Barwell said she was repositioning the business for long-term sustainable growth and planned to achieve savings of $400 million in "above-store support office costs". The supermarket giant is the latest in a string of companies to announce plans to shift some operations offshore, including the National Australia Bank and Telstra, which says it will axe up to 650 roles in favour of jobs in India. Last month, Officeworks, which is owned by parent company Wesfarmers, announced plans to offshore hundreds of jobs to India and the Philippines. Share price climbs 1.75 per cent on the news By midday today, after news broke of Woolworths' plan to offshore hundreds of jobs from its corporate office, Woolworths shares had gained 64 cents, up 1.75 per cent, to $37.12 a share. In February this year, Woolworths shares had their best day on Australia's share market on record, after its first-half profit results impressed investors. The major retailer said its first-half net profit had fallen 49 per cent, with significant items of $485 million (after tax) due primarily to money having to be set aside to remediate underpaid staff members, after a Federal Court ruling last year. But when excluding that $485 million charge, it said its first-half net profit was up 16 per cent to $859 million, coming ahead of analysts' expectations. That saw Woolworths shares rally 13 per cent in a day to hit $35.63 a share, beating its previous biggest one-day gain posted in October 1997. According to the company's 2025 annual report, Woolworths Group, which operates primarily in Australia and New Zealand with 1,715 stores, has roughly 202,000 employees. It operates 1,117 Woolworths Supermarkets and Metro stores, 179 Big W stores, 235 Petstock Retail stores, and 184 Woolworths Supermarkets in New Zealand. The group also has a wholesale operation that supplies 315 wholesale customer stores, comprising 220 stores relating to Statewide Independent Retailers (SIW), 78 stores relating to SuperValue and FreshChoice in New Zealand and 17 stores relating to Petstock Franchise. In Woolworth's half-year profit results in February, the group explained how its multi-year rollout of artificial intelligence (AI) was progressing in the company. It said two out of three workers in its support office team were now using Gemini weekly.