Stakeholder engagement is an integral part of the way we do business, understanding the interests and expectations of our stakeholders playing a crucial role in deepening and extending our relationships.

Woolworths strives to be South Africa’s leading retail brand, offering merchandise that is remarkably affordable with a unique combination of quality, value, innovation and style. Woolworths customers are at the hear t of the retail strategy that drives all merchandising and selling decisions.

Understanding customer needs is critical to providing the right product at the right time in the specific store where customers expect to find what they are looking for. Woolworths has 3.5 million customers, and the insights from our customers enrich our segmentation model and drive new opportunities. Customers have given us insight into their perception of our value offering and promotions, assisting our segmentation strategy.

Woolworths is committed to meeting customers’ needs at every level and we monitor customer satisfaction throughout the business using various mechanisms.

Maintaining and growing our credibility among shareholders and the broader investment community is a key objective. This is done by providing relevant, timeous and transparent communication using a variety of different media to allow far-reaching access to information, ensuring all our shareholders enjoy a thorough understanding of our performance and strategy going forward.

Woolworths operates a tightly integrated network of suppliers, to ensure exacting quality standards and forms long-lasting relationships with its suppliers. Conformance to the Woolworths supplier code of business principles is a prerequisite to ensure social and environmental responsibility across the supply chain.

Raising the profile of the key sustainability issues in South Africa is an integral part of Woolworths commitment to its sustainability programme, the Good business journey. Woolworths ongoing engagement with the media has been an important aspect of managing the company’s corporate reputation as well as raising awareness of key sustainability issues. Woolworths also partners with a broad range of non-profit organisations across a range of environmental, social and transformation issues. This includes the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), Conservation International, Food & Trees for Africa and Heartbeat, amongst others.