Wesfarmers soars in global retail ranks

The acquisition of Coles has boosted Wesfarmers' ranking in the top 250 retailers in the world, according to the Deloitte 2009 Global Power of Retailing report.

The Western Australian group recorded one of the largest jumps in the survey of retailers in 2008, moving from 176th place to 36th place in the world.

Coles, which was surveyed as a separate entity, moved two places to 29th.

The retailers' competitor, Woolworths, jumped three places to 22.

The report ranks the companies according to total retail sales in 2007, the year Wesfarmers acquired Coles.

Wal-Mart took out the number one retailer spot in the world, followed by France's Carrefour, the United Kingdom's Tesco, Germany's Metro AG and the United States' The Home Depot.

Meantime, Woolworths and Coles remained in third and fourth place respectively in the Asia-Pacific top ten. Wesfarmers claimed the number five spot.