Woolworths and Wesfarmers have found themselves in the same category as Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Costco, according to Deloitte’s Global Powers of Retailing 2011 report.

Australia’s two retail giants are now listed in the world’s top 25 retail companies for the fiscal year 2010, with Woolworths jumping to 20th position from last year, and Wesfarmers making the leap to 23rd position from 28th last year.

Wesfarmers can attribute its five-spot jump to its Coles acquisition in 2007, which advanced its 2003-09 compound growth rate by 62.3 percent.

Deloitte’s consumer business leader Andrew Griffiths said that despite Australia’s relatively small domestic market, the two iconic Australian companies have performed well across the board. “Sales growth for domestic only retailers outpaced retailers with a more global base of operations. On the other hand retailers with a larger global presence were more profitable,” said Griffith.

Woolworths and Wesfarmers maintained their third and fourth places in the Asia-Pacific top ten, which for the first time includes a Chinese based retailer, Bailian. Japanese retailers continue to hold six spots in the Asia-Pacific top ten thanks to strong performance in the region last year.

This year’s report shows that fashion goods retailers have been the most active in terms of global expansion. Griffiths said, “Locally we’ve seen a number of large fashion brands such as Gap and Zara opening stores. The Australian market is attractive for a number of reasons. Many of our consumers have already been exposed to their products through online shopping and the US and European brands benefit from the similarity in culture and fashion tastes here in Australia.”