After beating first-half profit estimates, the Woolworths Group forecasts improved financial performance in the second half. The supermarket brand has benefited from people stocking up essentials during the various stages of lockdowns. In the first half of this fiscal year, Woolworths' profit after tax from continuing operations declined to A$795 million from A$850 million a year earlier. However, it was better than the estimated profit compiled by Visible Alpha of $746 million,

Surging COVID cases also drove up Woolworths’ costs during the first half as its frontline, warehouse and delivery staff was forced to isolate. This also limited its ability to restock shelves. . Overall, company incurred A$239 million in COVID-related costs during the first half. Most of this was spent on its stores' distribution centres as well as supply chain disruptions.

However, curbs due to the Omicron variant caused sales in the food segment to surge by upto 5 per cent in the first seven weeks of 2022.