29 April 2022
Dear Valued Supplier Partner,
I hope you had a pleasant Easter and Anzac Day. Thank you for your support over what has been a challenging supply chain environment coming into the Easter event.
As I start in the role of Chief Executive, Commercial & Coles Express, I wanted to take the opportunity to write to you and introduce myself and talk about some of the priorities we will be focussing on.
I have been with Coles for 10 years, holding senior leadership roles across merchandise, operations, human resources and finance. Most recently, I was the Group CFO for the last 4 years, leading finance, treasury, strategy, business development, investor relations and insurance. Prior to Coles I worked for McKinsey and Co. focussing on retail and consumer goods and Fosters in strategy and M&A. I am very energised to be leading the Commercial team and working to deliver great solutions and products for our customers.
As a Commercial team we will be working to deliver Coles’ ‘Winning in our Second Century’ strategy. The strategy was initially launched in June 2019 and we are now in our 3rd year of execution. As shown below, the strategy focuses on 3 pillars – Inspire Customers, Smarter Selling and Win Together.
Within the Commercial team our priorities for delivering against the strategy include:
- Delivering an innovative range of products and solutions for customers to drive mutual growth and tailoring this to the local customer demographics
- Helping customers to find trusted value in our stores and online
- Successfully transitioning to our Witron Automated Distribution centres with Queensland commencing operation in FY23
- Inspiring customers through our Ocado online fulfillment centres commencing in FY24 with a significantly wider range of products and the best on-time, in-full delivery outcomes in the market
- Working towards our ambition of being Australia’s most sustainable supermarket through emissions reductions, recyclability of packaging and reduced waste
To achieve these we will need, and appreciate, your continued collaboration and support. I’m committed to continuing to build stronger supplier partnerships and winning together whilst delivering these priorities. Our investment in a new supplier platform, with the first release due to launch in the next few months, will be a strong visible demonstration of this commitment.
Finally, I’m really looking forward to getting out and meeting with you over the coming weeks and months to hear about how we can work together and support your business.
Warm regards,
Leah Weckret
Chief Executive, Commercial & Express
