Coles Supermarkets

George Coles learned the retail trade working for his father's "Coles Store" business from 1910 to 1913. The store continued operating as "The Original Coles" at Wilmot, Tasmania, until it was destroyed by fire on 24 January 2014. Coles itself was founded when George Coles opened the Coles Variety Store on 9 April 1914 on Smith Street in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood.

Coles expanded into food retailing in 1958 when it acquired the 54-store John Connell Dickins grocery chain. It then acquired the Beilby's chain in South Australia in 1959 and the 265-store Matthews Thompson grocery chain in New South Wales in 1960.

In 1960, Coles opened its first supermarket in the Melbourne suburb of North Balwyn. In 1962, the first Coles New World supermarket opened in Frankston, Victoria. Coles' supermarkets were subsequently branded Coles New World, with accompanying Space Age-themed imagery. By 1973, Coles had established stores in all Australian capital cities.

In 1991, the stores were rebranded Coles Supermarkets and, from 1998, simply as Coles.

In 2004, the liquor division office (Coles Liquor Group) was moved from Chullora in Sydney to the company headquarters in Hawthorn East, Melbourne. Coles Myer CEO John Fletcher said the move would improve efficiency between the food and liquor divisions. The move also resulted in the retirement of Craig Watkins, a 35-year company veteran and director of Coles Liquor.

From mid-2006, many Bi-Lo supermarkets were rebranded as Coles supermarkets. Newmart, the Western Australian supermarket chain acquired by Bi-Lo in 1996, had seven stores rebranded as Coles in 2002. Newmart stores located near existing Coles stores were sold to Foodland and rebranded as the now-defunct Action Supermarkets chain. The Bi-Lo conversion program was put on hold at Easter 2007.

In July 2007, Wesfarmers agreed to acquire Coles Group for $22 billion. The purchase was completed in early 2008. In August 2007, as Wesfarmers foreshadowed its plans for the restructuring of Coles Group following its anticipated takeover, it stated that one of three planned divisions would comprise supermarkets, liquor and convenience stores.

From 2008 to 2014, Coles was led by British retail executive Ian McLeod.

Advertising and branding

The early Coles variety-store chain used the slogan "Nothing over 2/6", referring to its policy of selling goods for no more than two shillings and sixpence.

In the 1960s, Coles sponsored a general knowledge quiz show, Coles £3000 Question (later Coles $6000 Question and Coles $7000 Question), which aired on Channel 7.

The slogan "Save everyday" was later changed to "save every day".

In June 2010, Coles introduced its "Down Down" program as a longer-term price-discounting campaign. The campaign used a version of Status Quo's 1975 song "Down Down".

Controversies

Pricing and supplier practices

In May 2010, the Senate Economics References Committee published Milking it for all it’s worth—competition and pricing in the Australian dairy industry, a report outlining concerns about pricing and competition in the dairy sector. These concerns intensified during the “milk wars” after Coles reduced the price of its private-label milk to $1 per litre on Australia Day 2011. The Australian Dairy Farmers Association called for an investigation into the implications of the reduction, and a further Senate report into its sustainability was published in November 2011. The report recommended that "the government takes steps to promote awareness of options for agricultural industries to develop more effective collective bargaining arrangements."

In May 2014, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) commenced legal action against Coles, alleging that it had misled suppliers and used undue pressure to extract rebates from them. More than 50 suppliers had spoken confidentially to the ACCC about Coles' Active Retail Collaboration program, under which approximately 200 smaller suppliers were required to pay rebates. In December 2014, Coles was ordered to pay $11.2 million in penalties and costs.

In April 2015, Coles was fined $2.5 million for misleading consumers through claims that some of its bread was freshly baked in store, including the phrases "Freshly Baked In-Store" and "Baked Today, Sold Today". Some of the products had been partially baked overseas months earlier, including in Germany, Denmark and Ireland. The Federal Court also prohibited Coles for three years from advertising bread as baked on the day of sale unless that representation was true.

In February 2024, Four Corners examined the market power and pricing practices of Coles and Woolworths, which are sometimes collectively referred to as "Colesworth". The program reported that it had obtained leaked emails concerning a supplier's request for a price increase. Coles initially declined the request, citing concerns about its effect on customers; after the supplier agreed to a $25,000 one-off payment for promotions, Coles accepted the price increase and passed the higher price on to consumers.

In September 2024, the ACCC commenced legal action against Coles, alleging that it had made misleading discount representations through its "Down Down" promotions. The ACCC alleged that between February 2022 and May 2023, Coles temporarily increased the prices of 245 products before placing them on "Down Down" promotions at prices that were still higher than, or the same as, their previous regular prices. In May 2026, the Federal Court of Australia found that Coles had made false or misleading representations in 13 of the 14 "Down Down" tickets considered during the liability hearing. Penalties and other orders were to be determined later.

In May 2026, Coles paid $39,600 in infringement-notice penalties after the ACCC alleged that two milk supply agreements contravened the Dairy Code of Conduct by requiring suppliers to supply milk exclusively to Coles while imposing caps on the maximum volume of milk that could be produced. Payment of an infringement-notice penalty does not constitute an admission of a contravention.