The Challenge: A Complex Separation

Client: Woolworths Group

Woolworths Group is a leading retail company in Australia and New Zealand. The company is committed to sustainability, community engagement, and providing a positive workplace. Woolworths Group is a major retailer focused on its customers, employees, and the community.

The Challenge

As part of a strategic divestment valued at $1.72 billion, Woolworths Group needed to sell its Fuel Business. This complex, multi-year program required a broad range of project delivery resources to manage a complete operational separation, establish and execute Transitional Service Agreements (TSAs), and ensure a smooth handover to the new owner. The project demanded exceptional project professionals capable of navigating significant people, process, and technology change across multiple departments, including ICT, Buying & Merchandise, Finance, People Services and Store Operations. The talent needed to not only be highly skilled but also possess the emotional intelligence to manage a sensitive environment.

The Arctic Fox Solution

As a trusted supplier of temporary and permanent labour, Arctic Fox was engaged to provide critical contract resources for the program. We collaborated closely with our internal project and program management consultancy team, who brought their extensive, hands-on experience in mergers and acquisitions and transformation to the table. This unique internal capability allowed our recruiters to go beyond traditional sourcing, enabling us to deeply assess each candidate’s suitability and capability. Using our well-cultivated, national talent pool, we focused on finding professionals who could deliver against core project objectives and work effectively with both internal and external stakeholders.

The Outcome

Arctic Fox successfully supplied a core group of contract resources who remained on the project for its entire three-year lifecycle. The team was instrumental in achieving all key program objectives, culminating in the successful sale of the business, and the transition of business and technology capabilities to the Buyer. Our ability to provide a consistent, high-calibre team at every stage of the project was a key factor in its success.

Key Metrics:

• Candidate Success: 80% of all candidates presented by Arctic Fox were selected for available positions.
• Talent Retention: A core group of five contractors supplied by Arctic Fox remained on the project for the entire three-year lifecycle.
• Business Impact: The contractors were instrumental in the successful end-to-end execution of a program that delivered the sale of a $1.72 billion business.