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Coles drives profit boost at Wesfarmers

After nearly five years as part of Wesfarmers, Coles has begun to justify its AUD18 billion (USD18.81b) price tag, driving an 11 percent profit gain for the group in a challenging trading environment.

And Wesfarmers managing director Richard Goyder said yesterday that the once-troubled Coles still had room for improvement.

"I think Coles has a long way to go,” Goyder said as he unveiled the retail, coal, insurance and chemical company’s 2011-12 result that showed an increase in net profit to AUD2.126b. Revenue rose 6 per cent to AUD58b.