Coles

Private investors targeting retail assets have snapped up a Bunnings and two Coles-anchored shopping centres in regional Victoria for almost $80 million in total as sales activity ramps up.

A regional Victorian Coles and a smaller-format Melbourne Woolworths have fetched record prices as investors target “pandemic-proof” supermarkets.

Woolworths is making a $100 million bet on a new hi-tech robotic warehouse in Sydney’s west to turbocharge its home delivery business.

Coles Group is selling one of its supermarkets in a Victorian tree-change town as the coronavirus pandemic increases the already-strong investor appetite for standalone supermarkets.

Some investors have taken stocking up on essential items to a whole new level by buying entire “pandemic-proof” supermarkets.

Bunnings and Officeworks could ditch warehouse outlets and shift to smaller city stores in the aftermath of COVID-19, commercial property agents predict.

Melbourne-based Pelligra Group has acquired two major regional distribution facilities, one in Goulburn, NSW, and the other in Warwick, Queensland, from a Melbourne-based private investment group for about $70 million.

German supermarket discounter Kaufland’s shock decision to abandon the Australian market – quitting before opening a single store, after devoting almost $500 million to the launch – is a positive for the grocery sector, with Coles and Metcash the biggest winners as they were viewed as most likely to lose market share to the foreign entrant.

Retail investor Lascorp is looking to defy the gloom about shopping centres, pouncing on three Charter Hall supermarket-based assets for $62.35 million.