Bunnings MD announces retirement, female successor appointed. Bunnings Group managing director, Michael Schneider has advised his intention to retire in February 2027, more than 10 years after he took the top job. He will be succeeded by Bunnings Group chief customer officer, Rachael McVitty. McVitty has been with Wesfarmers for more than 17 years, holding several senior exeucitve roles including chief financial officer of Bunnings Group, CEO of Blackwoods and chief financial officer of officer of Wesfarmers Industrials division. Wesfarmers managing director, Rob Scott said McVitty's commercial leadership, operational experience and deep knowledge of Bunnings positioned her to lead the business in its next phase of growth. "I'm delighted to announce Rachael's appointment as incoming managing director of Bunnings Group. Rachael brings proven leadership across retail and industrial businesses and strong commercial acumen," he said. "This is an exciting time for Bunnings and I look forward to working with Rachael to continue delivering Bunnings' strategic agenda and create long-term value for shareholders." Since joining Bunnings as chief financial officer in 2021, McVitty has held a number of senior leadership roles. She was appointed chief customer officer in May 2024, leading more than 50,000 team members across Australia and New Zealand. "Rachael has a strong track record leading large and complex transformations, driving improvements in safety, customer experience and productivity at Bunnings. Rachael has worked closely with Mike and her appointment demonstrates the strength of Wesfarmers' talent development and succession planning processes." Scott thanked Schneider for his exceptional contributions to Bunnings and the broader Wesfarmers Group over many years. "Mike has been an outstanding leader of Bunnings, leading the business across a decade of consistent growth in sales and earnings, while strengthening its strong culture and trust with the community. He has overseen significant transformation of Bunnings' customer officer and digital ecosystem, which has set the business up for future success. "Mike retires as managing director with Bunnings in excellent shape and he has the gratitude and best wishes of the Wesfarmers board, leadership team and the broader group." Commenting on his departure from the business, Schneider said: "It's been exciting to see so much growth and change and to see Bunnings' culture and reputation continue to strengthen. The business is well positioned for its next chapter and I'm very confident Rachael will lead it with great success." McVitty has been appointed deputy managing director of Bunnings Group effective 27 August 2026 and will commence as managing director on 1 February 2027. Bunnings revenue up 4.1% Revenue for Bunnings for the financial year to 30 June 2026 increased by 4.1% to $20.39 million with earnings up 5.1% to $2.4 billion. Total store sales and store-on-store sales increased 4% and 3.7% respectively. Sales growth was recorded across both consumer and commercial customers, and all product categories and regions. During the year, Bunnings broadened its offer in tools, automotive, rural, pet and lifestyle categories, while continuing to evolve core ranges through innovation and supplier partnerships. Investment in digital, data and AI, including the AI-powered shopping and DIY assistant 'Buddy', strengthened Bunnings' omnichannel experience while making it easier for the team to better serve customers. Digital sales grew across all channels with marketplace continuing to deliver strong growth. New capabilities improved customer personalisation, enabled faster commercial quoting and strengthened merchandising decisions. Bunnings continued to invest in the store network, improving layouts to better showcase new and expanded ranges, enhance the customer experience and increase sales density. Supply chain capability evolved through targeted investments in inbound freight, fulfilment, last-mile delivery and automation, simplifying store replenishment, improving inventory flow and strengthening product availability. The business expanded its retail media proposition across stores and digital channels in Australia and New Zealand, creating additional value for supplier partners. Hammer Media now has more than 500 in-store screens in approximately 250 stores.

Lunch Wrap: ASX dips, Qantas stung, MinRes grabs massive profit. * Ramsay rips 15% on earnings beat * MinRes swings from $1.1bn loss to record profit * Qantas takes $420m Middle East hit The S&P/ASX 200 was down around 0.75% at lunchtime on Thursday in Sydney, as the market tried to digest another ridiculous serving of earnings. Results are flying in from every direction, with punters being asked to simultaneously work out what's happening with hospitals, hardware, lithium, pharmacies, airlines, toll roads, car yards and baby formula. Staples and tech were doing most of the damage to the index by lunch. Large cap earnings highlights. Earnings season is coming in hot, with Thursday dishing up everything from monster comebacks to results best read sitting down. Here are the highlights: Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) slipped around 0.5% after its full-year statutory profit fell 1.8% to $2.87 billion, although last year had $273 million of one-off gains, making the comparison look uglier. There's also a changing of the hi-vis at Bunnings, with boss Michael Schneider retiring in 2027 and Rachael McVitty getting the keys to the big green shed. Qantas (ASX:QAN) had a rougher flight, with full-year underlying pre-tax profit down 13.8% to $2.06 billion as the Middle East war whacked earnings by about $420 million. The fuel bill jumped more than $600 million and the remaining $150 million buyback got binned. Plenty of bums on seats, but bloody expensive getting them airborne. Shares still up 4%. Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) has gone from a $1.1 billion loss to an $896 million full-year profit in one year. Not so much a turnaround as chucking the old result in the bin. The 83c fully franked dividend is back too, handing founder Chris Ellison roughly $18 million. Shares down a touch at lunch. South32 (ASX:S32) lifted full-year underlying EBITDA from US$1.9 billion to US$2.5 billion, but the numbers understandably weren't the main talking point. Chairman Stephen Pearce addressed the March death of boilermaker Simon Mukwarami at Worsley Alumina, with safety remaining firmly front and centre. And IGO (ASX:IGO) has crawled out of last year's lithium-shaped crater, swinging from a $955 million loss to a $145 million full-year profit. EBITDA went from negative $709 million to positive $323 million and the dividend is back at 5c. After the rough run lithium punters have had, profit, positive EBITDA and a dividend almost feel luxurious. Karoon Energy (ASX:KAR) also brought numbers requiring a decent coffee, with first-half profit diving 62% to US$26.7 million as production disruptions bit. The dividend was halved too, but Karoon reckons the operational mucking around is largely done. In other words: please direct your eyes toward H2. Sigma Healthcare (ASX:SIG) is having a lovely time with the weight-loss drug boom, with full-year statutory profit jumping 33.8% to $709 million. Chemist Warehouse now has almost 1,000 pharmacies globally and another 32 stores are coming locally and overseas. Europe is apparently the "next frontier" for the Warehouse. Ramsay Health Care (ASX:RHC) was having an absolute belter, ripping around 15% higher after full-year underlying EBITDA rose 9% to $2.34 billion and underlying profit to $364 million. Ramsay reckons FY27 brings more growth and fatter Aussie hospital margins. Punters heard "better margins" and pretty much clicked the buy button right there. Mayne Pharma (ASX:MYX) had an absolute stinker, with full-year profit collapsing 90% to $31.2 million and revenue down 6%. After months of Cosette trying to wriggle out of its takeover before Canberra eventually blocked it, shareholders have ended up with no deal and profit down 90%. What a journey. Eagers Automotive (ASX:APE) quietly drove in with a cracker: first-half EBITDA up 22.9%, revenue up 24% to $8.05 billion and Aussie new-car market share at a record 15.9%. No grand "transformation journey" required here. Sold more cars, made more cash, chucked shareholders a record 25c dividend. Easy. Magellan Financial Group (ASX:MFG) delivered its first full-year combined numbers with Barrenjoey, with $778 million of revenue and $215 million of operating profit after tax. Barrenjoey's profit jumped 68% to $112 million and did plenty of the heavy lifting. And there, in one sentence, is why Magellan wanted the marriage. ASX leaders. Today's best performing stocks (including small caps) intraday: X2M Connect (ASX:X2M) has landed its first binding AI data centre deal, with the project expected to cost more than $250m over three to five years plus recurring platform revenue over the facility's life. It expects to recognise the full project cost as revenue and earn a margin, although the deal still needs development approval before full delivery goes ahead. Culpeo Minerals (ASX:CPO) has secured access to Vista Montana in Chile and is set to kick off its maiden four-hole, 2,000m diamond drilling program in early September. The target sits just 1km from its Lana Corina discovery, where previous drilling hit 454m at 0.96% copper equivalent, so it's a pretty logical place to stick the next drill holes. 49 Metals (ASX:49M) wrapped up its maiden drilling at Gold Mountain in Nevada with its thickest gold hit yet, returning 170.7m at 0.9g/t gold, while another hole hit 67.1m at 1.7g/t including 3m at a spicy 20g/t. All 22 holes hit gold and/or silver, with the results pointing to a broader mineralised system that remains open for follow-up drilling. Bapcor (ASX:BAP) called FY26 a "reset year", which is usually when shareholders start checking how bad the damage actually was. Answer: a $432 million loss, $464 million of one-offs and writedowns, and no final dividend. Shares still surged 36%. ASX laggards. Today's worst performing stocks (including small caps) intraday: Bubs Australia (ASX:BUB) actually had one of the morning's better growth stories, with underlying EBITDA surging 338% to $5.3 million. US revenue jumped 24% to $65.8 million, pushing total revenue up 9.2% to $111.9 million. But before everyone starts popping bottles of infant formula, gross profit actually fell 9.4%. Shares fell.

'Everyday low prices' lifts Bunnings owner's earnings. By Kaaren Morrissey Updated August 26 2026 - 3:58pm, first published 3:54pm The "everyday low prices" campaigns by Bunnings Warehouse continues to drive sales and earnings. Photo: Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS A decision to drop prices on thousands of goods in the wake of household cost of living pressures helped the owner of Bunnings, Kmart and Priceline achieve another multi-billion dollar earnings outcome. Industrial conglomerate Wesfarmers, which also owns Officeworks and Target alongside smaller chemicals and fertiliser businesses, made a base net profit of $2.87 billion, a fall of 1.8 per cent, in 2025/26. But after excluding a gain from an asset sale in the previous year, the result was much better, with an increase of 8.3 per cent for the 12 months ended June 30, on a revenue lift of 3.4 per cent to $47.27 billion. Officeworks sales also rose by 3.7 per cent, to $3.68 billion. (Darren England/AAP PHOTOS) Chief executive Rob Scott said the overall result was supported by strong earnings contributions from its key Bunnings, Kmart and chemicals, energy and fertiliser groups. "As households continued to experience cost of living pressures, our retail businesses dropped prices on thousands of products during the year to support household budgets," he said on Thursday. The "everyday low prices" campaigns by Bunnings Warehouse and Kmart group continued to drive sales and earnings. "Kmart group's higher earnings were supported by the strong value credentials of its Anko (household goods brand) products and focus on operating efficiency and cost control," he said. Bunnings sales lifted 3.9 per cent to $20.33 billion, accounting for the lion's share of Wesfarmers' total sales, followed by Kmart group, which includes Target, at $11.66 billion, a gain of 2.8 per cent. Officeworks sales also rose by 3.7 per cent, to $3.68 billion. The chemicals, energy and fertiliser group delivered a stellar 5.9 per cent sales gain to $3.14 billion, on the back of higher prices for fertilisers and spodumene concentrate, which is used to extract lithium compounds used in batteries. The well-known Priceline chain lifted network sales by 12.7 per cent, helping the overall health division to sales of $6.47 billion. "Priceline Pharmacy will continue to invest in value, a differentiated range and service and its loyalty and digital assets, including the new Pulse Rewards program," Wesfarmers said. Priceline lifted network sales by 12.7 per cent, helping health division sales to $6.47 billion. (Paul Miller/AAP PHOTOS) Looking ahead, Wesfarmers said high inflation continues to impact households and businesses. "While Australian consumer demand remains resilient, cost of living pressures continue to affect many households across the economy," it said. "Uncertainty regarding the outlook for inflation, house prices, interest rates and tax setting are affecting consumer sentiment, while higher costs of doing business are weighing on business confidence and spending." Kmart's higher earnings were supported by the strong value credentials of its household goods brand. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS) In the first seven weeks of 2026/27, Bunnings sales were slightly above the second half of 2025/26, helped by unseasonably dry weather in July. Kmart group's sales were little changed, while Officeworks turned in a positive performance. Wesfarmers declared a final dividend of $1.20, taking the total for the year to $2.22. Australian Associated Press