Coles Group chief executive Steven Cain says employees and suppliers are working heroically to navigate unprecedented supply chain issues but he expects the challenges will last a couple of years.
So far this year the supermarket chain has faced staffing issues from COVID-19, a shortage of shipping pallets, trouble finding qualified drivers given immigration restrictions, and widespread flooding that disrupted rail traffic to Western Australia and the Northern Territory and forced 130 stores in NSW and Queensland to temporarily close.
"I can't ever recall a period where the disruption was that extensive, and that was off the back of a good solid Christmas trade, where the supply chain was already under pressure," Cain told analysts on Wednesday morning.
