In recent years, drought has taken its toll on Australian communities and suppliers, so we’re continuing to support affected communities with financial support and by running customer fundraising campaigns.

Coles’ support for drought relief has involved:

• More than $9M raised by Coles and its customers for the Country Women’s Association (CWA) Drought Appeal.
• A total of $5M in grants from the Coles Nurture Fund for food producers with a project to help them combat drought in the future.
• More than $3.9M raised through Coles Dairy Drought Relief Fund.

$18M in drought relief since July 2018

Together with our customers, Coles has committed more than $18M in drought relief since July 2018. This support has helped more than 4,000 farming families to pay for household or farm expenses in times of drought, or to begin a project to help them cope with drought in the future.

Supporting Australian dairy farmers

To support local dairy farmers we now source Own Brand fresh milk directly from farmers in Victoria and in southern and central NSW. This change aims to deliver fair and competitive prices to farmers, provide greater certainty of income, and to allow farmers to more confidently plan for their future.

Under the new sourcing model, Coles offers the competitive farmgate price directly to farmers and will pay dairy processor Saputo to process and bottle under a toll processing agreement.

We're also investing an additional $1.9M to improve the sustainability of Australia’s dairy industry through a newly established Coles Sustainable Dairy Development Group.

Coles Nurture Fund

From Australia’s first quinoa processing facility to chickpea tofu, Coles is invested in supporting small and medium sized Aussie businesses innovate and grow. The Coles Nurture Fund was launched in April 2015 to encourage and assist businesses to develop new market-leading products, technologies and processes. You can learn more about the Coles Nurture Fund here.