AUST BUS today: "Coles is fighting a pitched battle with arch...

AUST BUS today:
"Coles is fighting a pitched battle with arch rival Woolworths by offering its loyalty card holders discounts of as much as 15 per cent as one retail analyst argues Woolworths is on target to trump Coles in sales growth for the first time in six years. At stake are boasting rights for strongest sales growth, but with Woolworths throwing as much as $1 billion at lowering its prices, investors would wonder how profitable those extra sales were.

A new report from Morgan Stanley analyst Thomas Kierath says that after he met with a number of large supermarket suppliers he believes a “change in leadership’’ that began in September has continued into the second quarter — and that Woolworths like-for-like sales growth now appears ahead of Coles for the first time since the first quarter of 2010......"