Woolworths Shareholders Have One Large Problem

When the CEO ‘retires’ just a month before end of year results, shareholders should be worried. The news obviously isn’t going to be good, and the board obviously isn’t happy. So it is with Woolworths’ CEO Grant O’Brien, who fell on his sword yesterday. But the problem here is not one of poorly executed strategy. Woolworths’ problem is it is making too much profit. Those profits attract competitors and competitors erode margins. It happened in the UK with Tesco. It’s happening here with Woolworths. And there’s little any CEO or board can do about it. (VIEW LINK)