External retail media team behind Coles 360 to be brought in-house
Retail Mediaworks’ Redworks team, which has been behind the creation and growth of Coles’ retail media business, will be brought in-house at Coles Group next month in a bid to strengthen to business.
Since its inception in 2021, the Redworks team has operated behind-the-scenes running Coles 360, supporting its establishment, scale-up, and commercial achievements. This includes things like last year’s expansion to include its liquor portfolio.
Over the past four years, it has delivered end-to-end media strategy, sales partnerships, and ad operations.
From September 1, the Redworks team will be integrated into Coles Group as part of an “agreed transition”, said to be aligned to the long-term growth of the retail media business.
The changes come following Coles 360 general manager Paul Brooks’ departure in February.
Michael Courtney, chief customer and digital officer at Coles Group, thanked Redworks for its efforts of the past four years, saying the team has helped grow Coles 360 “ahead of target”, making it “a leading retail media network in Australia”.
“Coles is pleased to welcome members of the Redworks team, who will have the opportunity to join Coles Group within our retail media business, Coles 360,” he said in a release.
“This integration will strengthen Coles’ retail media capabilities, enabling us to better collaborate with our suppliers and communicate more effectively with our customers.”
Retail Mediaworks has a total headcount of 75, who have built, operated, and scaled a number of major retail media networks, include Bunnings’ recently launched Hammer Media. Of the 75, approximately 65 will move to Coles Group. The remaining Retail Mediaworks business will continue to operate independently.
Jon Harding, co-founder of Retail Mediaworks, said this sort of transition is relatively normal in the retail media space.
In fact, a similar change occurred last month with Hammer Media, with roughly 15 employees joining the in-house team at Bunnings. He described Retail Mediaworks as a breeding ground of talent, with a majority of Australia’s retail media networks being led by former employees.
Moving forward, he told Mumbrella the core team at Retail Mediaworks, based in Melbourne, is continuing to concentrate on other clients, including those in Asia as the business looks to expand globally.
“Overseas is a focus for us, as we grow beyond just the Australian retail market,” he said. “Our focus is essentially on scaling these networks, there’s lots of things going on. We’re working under NDA with other clients and will soon be able to make more announcements.”
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Lauren McNamara was the associate editor at Mumbrella. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS. She left Mumbrella in August 2025.
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