Melbourne, Nov 27 - Australia's Wesfarmers Ltd said on Tuesday its overhaul of the troubled Coles supermarkets would begin immediately, although a new head of the business may not arrive for some months.
Wesfarmers, which became the country's largest retailer with its A$20 billion ($18 billion) takeover of Coles Group Ltd last week, said it hoped to announce a new head of food and liquor by Christmas. "The supermarkets business is performing poorly and it requires significant change," Wesfarmers Managing Director Executive Richard Goyder said after an investor briefing.
"We're not going to wait for the new CEO (of supermarkets). The change will be immediate, in coming days, weeks and months," he said. Goyder has narrowed the search to two British retailing experts.
His priorities for the country's second-largest supermarket chain, where sales growth has stalled, included improving fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, bakery and fish, and updating a supply chain that lags that of rival Woolworths Ltd.
Wesfarmers on Tuesday brought out its star adviser on Coles, British retailer Archie Norman, who has spent his career transforming ailing retail operations and was responsible for resurrecting the Asda supermarket chain in the 1990s.
Norman said Asda had been a "shipwreck" when he took over, while Coles presented a "challenge".
"I think this is the most exciting turnaround opportunity in global retail," he said.
Wesfarmers expects the overhaul to take five years, although improvements will be visible in the first year.
Norman did not see the gap with Woolworths, where core food and liquor sales are up 7.6 percent, as insurmountable. "There is nothing they are doing that we can't match," he said.