Woolworths chief Amanda Bardwell has celebrated the success of its Ooshies collectables campaign but says the supermarket giant’s rebound started before the introduction of the promotion.

Australia’s biggest grocery chain posted its full-year results on Tuesday. Net profit lifted by 18.1 per cent to $1.14 billion, and revenue grew 3.6 per cent to $71.5 billion across the whole Woolworths group.

Food sales at the grocery chain increased 4.6 per cent to $53.9 billion in the 2026 financial year, ahead of rival Coles, which on Tuesday reported supermarket sales rose 3.7 per cent to $41.5 billion for the full year.

Woolworths’ sales growth has picked up even more pace since it launched its wildly popular collaboration with Disney in mid-July, which became a craze among young children and drove parents to shop in the company’s stores. In the first two months of the new financial year (July and August), food sales grew 7.6 per cent, with the supermarket estimating 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent of it was down to the promotional campaign.

“What I know is that the Ooshies collectables have been very successful for us,” Bardwell said.

“What’s critical is to have the underlying retail foundations right first: the great experience, great value, and then you can amplify with things like [collectables]. But getting those basics right is the most important thing first.”

Collectables campaigns, which are typically tied to a spending level, are a major driver of foot traffic: experts from Citi estimate Ooshies may have boosted sales by as much as $100 million.

“We see some customers who certainly might decide to add a few more items to their basket while they’re shopping with us, so they qualify for the extra Ooshie. And then we do have some customers who might not shop with us very frequently who choose to switch to Woolies during that period,” said Bardwell.

Woolworths will not increase the promotion’s frequency, Bardwell said. Her Coles counterpart, Leah Weckert, said on Tuesday that children’s collectables delivered shorter sales hits compared with those targeted at adults, such as cookware and glass containers.

Bardwell said shoppers’ value-seeking habits were here to stay.

“For three years now we’ve been talking about the pressure on household budgets,” she said. “We’ve moved beyond a temporary phase into a new reality of entrenched value-seeking.

“Customers have developed money-saving habits to stretch their weekly shopping as far as possible.”

In the colder months, Australians turned to slow-cooking meats, with chuck, osso bucco and brisket selling twice as quickly as other beef cuts.

Over the 2026 financial year, Woolworths launched 445 new private-label products, including in Mexican, Asian and Italian cuisine ranges.

Online sales across the broader corporate group jumped 15.9 per cent to $10.6 billion as customers shifted from next-day delivery to same-day delivery. One-hour deliveries grew 65 per cent for Milkrun, which Woolworths acquired in 2023, and DoorDash.

Discount department chain Big W, which has been a drag on the broader Woolworths company, bounced back to profitability with earnings of $64 million after booking losses of $33 million the year before.

While local supermarket sales rose 4.6 per cent, this figure came off the back of a period affected by industrial action and supply chain disruption from Christmas 2024. Excluding those impacts, sales grew 4.1 per cent.

Investors welcomed Woolworths’ results, sending its share price 3 per cent higher to $40.02 in the afternoon. The company declared a fully franked final dividend of 52¢ per share, a 15.6 per increase on last year’s dividend. Woolworths’ share price has recovered by more than 20 per cent over the past 12 months.

Josh Gilbert, an analyst at share trading platform eToro, said the grocery chain, which was subject to sustained political and public scrutiny for years over food prices, had managed to get customers back in the door.

“Woolworths cut prices this year and still managed to make more money, which is a rare feat in supermarkets with margins so wafer-thin,” he said. “Amanda Bardwell inherited a business with plenty to fix when she took the reins, but her rebuild is showing up where it counts.”

Woolworths had shifted shopping behaviour during the Ooshies campaign, Gilbert added, but cautioned that a great promotion shouldn’t be mistaken for permanent gains in market share.

“This is what a supermarket recovery looks like. The challenge is keeping those shoppers now that the toys have left the checkout.

“Woolworths has shown it can get shoppers back this year. [The 2027 financial year] will be about proving they will stay.”

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Jessica Yun is a business reporter covering retail and food for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.