CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 31 October 2025

Foreign Online Retailers

“I don’t think you’re ever going to get people to stop buying from Temu or Shein. But you can actually look at what they’re doing to our country, look at what they’re doing to the recycling, look at what they’re doing to waste, look at what they’re doing to landfill, and actually be goddamn responsible for it." Elle Roseby. CEO, Adairs Ltd

“Many tax and regulatory settings in Australia that apply to retailers predate e-commerce, creating a situation where large, foreign online retailers have an advantage over Australian omni-channel retailers. Offshore companies can structure operations in low-tax jurisdictions, while local retailers with stores face higher corporate and payroll taxes.” Rob Scott, CEO, Wesfarmers Ltd

Foreign Exchange

“Encouragingly, our clients remain very active, however the uncertain operating environment continues to impact ATVs [average transaction values]." Skander Malcolm, CEO, OFX Group Ltd

Consumer Goods

"Coming out of COVID, we experienced nearly five years of stagnation in innovation largely due to navigating the pandemic and absorbing significant cost pressures. Like many consumer goods companies globally, growth was challenging. But we have now shifted to a growth platform, and product innovation is central to that strategy." Pete Findlay, CEO, Bega Cheese Ltd

Natural Gas

“On natural gas, we continue to see growing divergence between oil and natural gas fundamentals. Its abundance, low-cost reliability and lower emissions set natural gas apart from other fossil fuels. That structural advantage is increasingly reflected in both policy and capital allocation. By 2040, we expect natural gas demand to grow by over 20% with global LNG increasing by at least 75%.” Lorenzo Simonelli, CEO, Baker Hughes Co. [one of the world's largest oil field services, industrial and energy technology companies]

Flu Vaccines

Looking ahead, we're advancing our flu pandemic preparedness with 2 programs while improving vaccination convenience with positive data on flu, COVID combination vaccines.” Paul Hudson, CEO, Sanofi Inc.

Laundry & Baby

“What we see is a heightened competitive environment, which is not unexpected, where consumers are a bit more careful in terms of purchase decisions and consumption. The market gets tighter. And some of the response -- competitive response is increased promotion, and that's certainly what we're seeing both in Fabric Care and in Baby Care.” Andre Schulten, CFO, The Procter & Gamble Co.

Building Materials

“Australia, if you recall, I did say in the last [quarterly results] call, Australia was softer in Q1[CY25]. It started recovering slightly in Q2[CY25], but the momentum now is on a very good level.” Miljan Gutovic, CEO, Holcim AG [one of the world’s largest cement manufacturers]

General Practitioners

“What we have seen since COVID is that there is a huge amount of burnout in the workforce. Lots of GPs are leaving the profession, and it is predicted there will be a shortage of 5000 GPs by 2030.” Ben Hurst, CEO, HotDoc

Hoteliers

“Today, hoteliers are forced to manage a fragmented patchwork of systems - a Property Management System, a Channel Manager, a Central Reservation System, a Revenue Management System, and various data platforms. This fragmentation is their single biggest pain point. These siloed systems constantly struggle to communicate, resulting in a predictable cycle of lost revenue, costly errors, and significant wasted time for hotel staff.” Sankar Narayan, CEO, SiteMinder Ltd

House & Land Packages

“Sales volumes, particularly in WA, are strong across the various product types but especially at the land estates…Sales conditions in VIC continued to be subdued during 1QFY26 with low sales volumes and stable pricing. Post 1Q[FY]26, an uptick in enquiry and sales has been evident at the Company’s land projects.” Market Statement, Cedar Woods Properties Ltd

Coles Vs Woolworths

“If we talk to customers as we do regularly in research and focus groups, we continue to hear a large portion of customers would report that as cost of living eases as they look forward to that, they will also look forward to reducing the amount of cross-shopping [shopping at both Coles and Woolworths depending on best price] that they're doing that's certainly a very strongly held view from customers as they look to save time as cost of living pressures start to ease.” Amanda Bardwell, CEO, Woolworths Group Ltd

Cryptocurrency & Stablecoins

“Since 2020, we facilitated over $140 billion in crypto and stablecoin flows, including Visa users purchasing more than $100 billion of crypto and stablecoin assets using their Visa credentials and spending more than $35 billion in crypto and stablecoin assets using Visa credentials. Within this, we see particular momentum with stablecoins.” Ryan McInerney, CEO, Visa Inc.

AI & Office Workplace

“Everyone kind of reads the headlines, but what's the net impact, we're seeing a lot of investment from our customers in technology as they position for this. It is very hard to actually extract, I would call it, the AI dividend at the moment…we see this as being a net positive for, let's call it, high-end knowledge workers.” Ross Du Vernet, CEO, Dexus Ltd