From SMH: Just in case you haven't had your fill of Woolies...

From SMH:

Just in case you haven't had your fill of Woolies talk, here's a nice little comment and chart from NAB's credit research team:

There's very likely an element of "new CEO' syndrome" in this announcement and as such, much of the announcement had been anticipated.  While it's certainly encouraging that the company is now taking decisive and tangible steps to address previous underinvestment, there's still a high degree of uncertainty from a credit perspective on the timing and efficacy of the measures taken.

Note that no hard sales numbers were provided (they'll be seen in the full year results) and that other than comments that item growth was now positive, there's not a lot of evidence of any substantive turnaround.  The upcoming results, including comparable same stores sales growth, therefore still remain an important test.

But what does appear clear is that the profitability decline has continuedat similar levels through the second half.