Woolworths' new CEO Amanda Bardwell facing one key challenge, say experts — winning back the public

Woolworths’ new chief executive will be facing an uphill battle to win back public trust when she steps into the role later this year, experts have told the ABC.

Amanda Bardwell will replace current CEO Brad Banducci, who announced his retirement earlier this week.

Mr Banducci’s exit was made public on Wednesday morning, the same time the company’s half-year results revealed a $781 million loss, despite increasing profits on Australian grocery sales by more than $60 million.

It came just days after ABC’s Four Corners aired footage of him walking out of an interview.

Who is Amanda Bardwell? 

Ms Bardwell has been working for Woolworths Group for 23 years and in retail for almost 30 years.

She’s the current managing director of WooliesX, the company’s Amazon-style ecommerce division.

When she steps into her new role on September 1, she will be earning a base salary of $2.15 million a year.

Before WooliesX, she was Dan Murphy’s head of online from 2011 to 2013, then general manager of Woolworths Liquor Group’s Wine Quarter.

She was picked for the top job following an “extensive international search process”.

“Amanda is a proven leader, builder and modern retailer,” the Woolworths Group chair Scott Perkins said in an ASX statement on Wednesday.

“Amanda is highly respected throughout the organisation and I know, like Brad, will live our purpose and work hard to achieve Woolworths Group’s full potential.”

Turning the tide of public opinion 

Ms Bardwell was raised in Samford, near Brisbane, and first started working in a local supermarket as a teenager, “doing everything from check-outs to stocking shelves” according to The Australian.

Her background and position as a public face, says Australian National University marketing expert Andrew Hughes, is key to “getting trust back in the brand”.

“Even in their own annual reports [Woolworths is] talking about trust in their brand, and the reason for that is brand equity [or] goodwill … which is worth a huge amount of money,” Dr Hughes says.

“For Woolworths, the reason you go to Woolworths or Coles is equity or trust, so that in its own way is its own competitive advantage.

“The moment that [trust] gets burnt a bit, we start to go, ‘You know what, I’m out of here, I’m going to go someone else, even if it’s just for a bit, I want you to understand what you’ve done to me.'”

“We saw it with Optus, we saw it with Qantas.”

University of New South Wales consumer behaviour expert Nitika Garg also notes parallels to the stepping down of former Qantas boss Alan Joyce, saying the situation is “history repeating itself”.

“Instead of airlines, it’s now grocery stores,” she says.

“Because Coles and Woolworths are so concentrated in the market … consumers feel like they’re being taken advantage of.

“So they will have to work to get consumer trust back in the brand, but to do that they will have to objectively show they are doing something.

“But as we can see from the Qantas example, the negative press has died down … The difference is that people don’t fly very often, people shop every week.

“Because you’re constantly being reminded every time you go grocery shopping ‘this is an issue, this is an issue’, unless they can objectively do something and the negative press around these supermarkets dies down a little, I find it hard to see them building that consumer trust again.

“It can be done, it’s just going to take time.”

Multiple inquiries could make Bardwell the Woolies ‘good cop’ 

There are half a dozen different inquiries into supermarket supply chains and price gouging, including one by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The majority of these will be fronted by Mr Banducci and their final reports will be handed down prior to Ms Bardwell stepping into the role of chief executive in September.

The ACCC’s supermarket inquiry will release an interim report in August, and its final report in February 2025, while the Treasury will hand down reports through to August 2025.

The University of Wollongong’s Troy Heffernan says Ms Bardwell will face a lot of “political force coming down” in the wake of these inquiries.

“There’s going to be pressure from the government in that area [so] one of her key challenges is going to be navigating that but also building up the brand again,” Professor Heffernan says.

“She’s come in at a very hard time so it’s up to her to repair that brand, she’s on a repair mission to develop trust and repair trust from the consumers.

“To come in from a low point is nearly an easier job, because in a sporting context she’s come in when the team’s not performing well, and there’s only one way [to go].”

The first inquiry to be released earlier this month was commissioned by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and run by former ACCC chairman Allan Fells.

It produced a scathing report finding price gouging across all industries, including supermarkets, finding a lack of competition is allowing for exploitative practices.

Mr Banducci will need to “carry the can” for the next seven months, according to Dr Hughes.

“He’s got to take the heat, front the senators, he needs to do the bad cop routine.

“Then Amanda comes in like, ‘I’m the good cop, I’m here to make things better, look at my friendly face’.

“The thing is though, that only works if we trust you, and I don’t think there’s enough trust in the Woolworths brand at the moment.”

Moving past the inquiry findings, Professor Garg says, will be a “very hard ask”.

“You can’t really throw your previous CEO under the bus,” she says.

“You have to say ‘yes, we are going in a different direction’, without accusing the ex-leadership of being in the wrong direction to begin with.

“I don’t envy anyone in that position.”

The ‘nightmare scenario’ for Woolies 

Communication should be “the first goal” come September 1, says Professor Garg.

“I’m very, very surprised as a marketing researcher that [Woolworths] don’t seem to be following any marketing advice,” she says.

“You need to communicate with consumers … all through this cost of living crisis, the bump in profits, the price inquiry now happening, they have stayed mum.

“Obviously Woolies cannot be super authentic and super candid with their consumers, but to the extent that she can she should be authentic and she should communicate, ‘we understand this’ … and come out with a specific plan.”

When it comes to the “long-term” plan, Professor Heffernan believes Ms Bardwell and Woolworths need to think of the future.

“Looming on the horizon are the risks associated with climate change and sustainability … whether it’s supply of fresh food from farms that have seen drought or flooding, whether it’s the cost of energy, or whether it’s taxations like different forms of carbon tax,” he says.

But also a growing fear for both Woolworths and Coles, according to Dr Hughes, is the threat of retail giant Amazon.

“The nightmare scenario for Woolworths going forward to the future is Amazon getting more aggressive in the Australian market,” he says.

“They have those three factors [of] location, through their distribution centres … they’ve got logistics, and they’ve got the brand name reputation we trust. Those three things mean that Amazon are doing deals for same-day delivery out of their warehouses.

“Amazon are so much bigger than Coles and Woolies combined.

“They can’t be bullied, they can’t be price-warred, they are smarter with their marketing, they’re better with their marketing, and they’ve been around just as long.”