Woolworths reported a 4% rise in first-quarter sales to Aus$13.91bn (£8.4 bn). Sales at the company’s food and liquor division in Australia for the quarter increased by 3.2% to Aus$9.29bn (£5.6bn), as like-for-like sales rose 2%. Woolworths’ New Zealand supermarkets sales had an even stronger increase of Aus$1.07bn (£642m) during the quarter, equivalent to a 2.8% rise. Discount retailer Big W suffered a sales drop of 2.7% to Aus$1.07bn (£642m) during the quarter, with like-for-likes falling 3.9%.