Woolworths CEO Michael Luscombe has advised that the supermarket chain has no specific figure in mind for the penetration of private label goods on their shelves.

The retailer, which reported strong profit growth last week, has seen an uptick in demand for private label goods over the last couple of years and continues to direct more funds toward development of their range. However, despite noting that private label share in Australia remains low by overseas standards, the company has reportedly not set any internal goals to reach a certain level.

“What we’re looking for, if we put a product out there, we’re just putting it on the shelf, we don’t have any big TV campaign. We want people to try it. And they’ll come back and buy it again because it represents great value. So we’re looking to see pretty good repeat purchase,” Mr Luscombe told ABC’s Inside Business program yesterday.

“Now, that will determine what percentage of sales we have. That will determine how many products we have, but we have no targets. Never have and in my belief shouldn’t have.”

Mr Luscombe, who announced an entry into the hardware sector last week, also added that he “would love to complete” a purchase of The Warehouse Group in NZ “one of these days”. Woolworths currently owns 10 per cent of the retailer and has previously been prevented from acquiring the chain by the competition watchdog.

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