Nov 15, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
As Woolworths marks 100 years, we look to the people and places that have made this milestone possible. Regional Australia plays a vital and irreplaceable role in our story – growing the produce, supplying our stores, supporting our communities and serving our customers in stores right across Australia.
We’re proud to be part of so many regional, rural and remote communities across Australia. Over the last century, our story has been intertwined with the nation’s people and producers. Reflecting on our history shows how far we’ve come with the support of Australians right across our land – and how much further we can go together.
Our Woolworths Group 2024 Regional Report looks at the many people, partners and stories of what contributes to the resilience of rural and regional Australia. It tells a story about our regions - our team members, partners and members of the community - and the different factors that come together to support resilience in our regions.
We’re proud to bring you stories about:
Economic resilience by providing thousands of jobs for locals and sourcing our fresh produce from local producers.
Network resilience by establishing strong supply chains that mean even the furthest reaches of Australia have access to fresh and affordable products.
Community resilience by standing firm with our regions when they face adversity such as natural disasters.
Retail trade is the second-largest employer in regional Australia, accounting for 9.4% of employed aged 15 years and over. In fact, of our 193,000+ team members, more than 47,500 are employed in regional areas.
We’re proud to say that 100% of Woolworths’ fresh milk, fresh red meat, chicken and eggs, and 96% of our fruit and vegetables, are grown or produced in Australia. It shows our enduring commitment to building local and regional communities and partnerships.
Woolworths bases its approach to surplus food on creating positive impacts by supporting people in need through food rescue. Through our partnerships with Foodbank and OzHarvest, we’ve diverted a substantial amount of food from landfill, helping to support Australians experiencing food insecurity. In F24, we donated over 36 million meals to our hunger relief partners, and diverted over 17,000 tonnes of food to farmers for composting, achieving a net societal benefit of $494 million.
As we recognise the last 100 years, and get set to embark on the next stage, our focus will be on maintaining our ongoing contribution to the resilience of regional Australia across key economic, network and community resilience drivers.