Woolworths set to overtake Coles, page-25

WOUNDED retailer Woolworths is finally closing some of its supermarkets. The great Australian chain has been bleeding for a long time — this week it stepped out of the fight to patch its wounds.
It is going to shut 17 Australian supermarkets that are losing money and open a lot fewer new ones. It will use the savings to try to make the rest of its outlets more profitable. Woolworths has more supermarkets than Coles or Aldi, but it is not doing so well.

If Aldi had begun its rapid ascent 10 years ago, when
Coles was lagging behind, it might have been Coles that got harmed instead. But Aldi’s acceleration came when the Down Down jingle was stuck in everyone’s heads. Woolies took its eye off the ball and so it is the Fresh Food People that feel the sting hardest.

Woolies is closing 17 Australian supermarkets immediately. And that’s not all. It has another 15 that it wants to close but it is stuck with because of the leases. When the leases come up, management says, they will close their doors too.

Aldi has opened 423 stores in 15 years and it is still accelerating. It intends to open another 60 stores this year. That’s fast. Woolworths got to 961 stores over 92 years.
At this rate, Aldi could be the biggest supermarket in Australia within another 15 to 20 years.

http://www.news.com.au/

Since Aldi launched in WA in June last year they have opened 17 stores.

How many have Wollie opened ?? or closed.............