Wesfarmers, owner of companies such as Kmart, Bunnings, Target and Officeworks, has delivered a better-than-expected $1.38 billion profit for the first half.
The result was buoyed by earnings more than doubling at Kmart Group and rising 48 per cent at its chemical, energy and fertiliser division.
The conglomerate announced on Wednesday the net profit after tax in the six months to December 31 was up 14.1 per cent from the same period in 2021.
Revenue for the entire company grew 27 per cent to $22.6b.
Revenue for Kmart Group - which includes Target - rose 24.1 per cent to $5.7b, with earnings increasing 114 per cent to $475 million.
"Significant earnings growth in Kmart Group was supported by strong underlying momentum, with comparable sales and volume growth during the half in addition to the benefit of cycling lockdown," managing director Rob Scott said.
Unlike some electronics and appliance retailers, Wesfarmers hasn't had any signs of a slowdown in sales in the first five weeks of 2023, with growth largely in line with last year.
Bunnings grew earnings 1.5 per cent to $1.28b and Officeworks' earnings were up 3.7 per cent to $85m.
WesCEF - Wesfarmers' portfolio of chemical, energy and fertilisers - had an earnings rise 48.6 per cent to $324m on favourable global commodity prices for LPG and ammonia-related products.
But Catch Group, the ecommerce platform Wesfarmers acquired in June 2019 for $230m, posted a disappointing $108m loss.
Mr Scott told reporters on a conference call executives had over-invested in growth and inventory during the COVID-19 lockdowns and had been caught off guard when e-commerce sales ebbed. Catch's gross transaction value dropped by 26.8 per cent during the half.
A new managing director for the business was appointed in October and there had been other key leadership appointments, Wesfarmers said.
The loss includes $33m in restructuring costs related to inventory provisions, redundancies and asset write-offs.
Still E&P Financial retail analyst Phillip Kimber wrote in a note that most operating division results were better than expected.
Wesfarmers announced a full-franked interim dividend of 88c per share, up from 80c a year ago and better than the 82.4c that analysts were expecting.
At 11.16am AEDT, Wesfarmers shares were up 2.2 per cent to a one-week high of $49.79, on a generally down day for the market.
