You have to spend money to make money.

Case in point: Woolworths.

Australia’s largest supermarket company booked a net profit of $1.16 billion amid surging grocery sales due to pandemic induced lockdowns.

However, the result was about half a billion dollars less than consensus due to a number of factors, including a sharp increase in the costs which come with running a COVID safe supermarket.

CEO Brad Banducci says there was no way the supermarket giant could have prepared for the impact of the coronavirus.

“In the middle of it, you do whatever it takes to keep customers and teams safe,” Mr Banducci told Brooke Corte.

“We’re better organised, better structured, and better at managing those costs,

“Like all things, you do eventually get organised and it’s easier the second time around, but in the first time it wasn’t about costs, it was about doing whatever was required.”

Click play to hear the full interview: