South Africa, Jan. 29 -- The company, which also owns food stores in South Africa, said its headline earnings per share were expected to decline by 22% to 27% for the 26 weeks ended 29 December 2025, from 203.3 cents in the prior period ended 24 December 2023.

On Tuesday morning, shares in Woolworths were down 2.74% at R56.88.

Group turnover and concession sales for the period rose by 5.7%, and in constant currency by 6.2%, buoyed by the retailer's food business, which it said delivered market-leading sales growth of 11.4% and 7.3% on a comparable-store basis.

However, group sales growth for the last eight weeks of the period, particularly over Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the festive season, eased to 4.3%, partly due to a shift in t...