The Case

Coles is part of Wesfarmers, the Western Australian cooperative that has become a highly successful corporation. It owns Coles, Bunnings (which retails home-improvement goods and has 223 warehouse stores and 63 smaller-format stores and is the market leader in a fast-growing market), Officeworks (retails office equipment and has 150 stores, with a high market-share in what is regarded as a low-growth market) and Kmart (an 'also-ran' general retailer in market that is fairly consistent). Coles itself operates over 750 full-service supermarkets, competing head-on with Woolworths, with approximately equal market share. Aldi's recent entry into Australian Supermarkets is of concern to the group. In addition, Wesfarmers also own around 810 Liquor Outlets (Vintage Cellars, Liquorland, and 92 hotels) that still generate a lot of profit in a fairly mature market, and over 600 smaller Convenience Stores that compete in an over-traded market with questionable future growth potential. In 2015, Wesfarmers employed around 205 000 people and generated A$62 billion in revenue. It has been highly successful over a long period, cleverly allocating resources around the business units to improve overall performance.

Required:

Apply a BCG Matrix to Wesfarmers Corporation, which includes Coles, Bunnings, Officeworks, Kmart, Liquor Outlets and Convenience Stores, using the information in the case study to correctly position the businesses within the 4 quadrants.