The new head of Wesfarmers's Coles division, Ian McLeod, who helped turn around British supermarket chain ASDA, has pledged to stick by the company during a three to five year transformation program. Last year, Perth-based conglomerate, Wesfarmers, took over the Coles retail empire and has forecast it will need to pump in up to €610 million per year over the next five years for the turnaround.

"I'm under no illusion in relation to the scale of the challenge that we face, but I'm actually confident we can rise to that challenge," stated McLeod. "It's a medium term turnaround, not a short term fix." McLeod had rejected suggestions that Coles was a basket case, describing it instead, when he accepted the job, as an underperforming retailer.

McLeod toured around 30 supermarket chains internationally to get a feel for global standards before arriving in Melbourne, where Coles is based. The Australian grocery sector is dominated by two main players, Woolworths and Coles, the latter watching its sales decline as it lost market share to its bigger rival. He plans to spend the next month visiting Coles stores around Australia on a familiarisation tour as the first step in the turnaround.