sydneyaustralian supermarket and hardware supplier metcash ltd said its supply chain challenges have eased since the start of fiscal year 2023 but warned that local labor markets remain very tight there has been some improvement in supply chain challenges with corresponding improvement in stock and service levels however the availability of labor remains very tight metcash said in a trading update on wednesday group sales increased 89 onyear over the first 17 weeks of its fy 2023 which began may 1 the asxlisted firm said it noted that partly reflected covidrelated lockdowns in the yearearlier period food sales rose 43 hardware sales gained almost 20 and liquor sales were up almost 12 sales were also buoyed by higher inflation it said metcash said covidrelated costs had begun normalizing but warned that the business was still experiencing pressures