The Woolworths Group is now profiting from more than half of the $15.5 billion spent on packaged alcohol in Australia.
Of the $15.5 billion dollar alcohol market in Australia, nearly 75 per cent is purchased in Australian supermarkets, according to the just-released Roy Morgan Alcohol Retail Currency Report.
Woolworths Group currently holds 50.1% of the total amount spent on packaged alcoholic beverages in an average week.
The report is based on interviews with 3650 adult Australians who recently bought packaged alcohol, and covers the purchase of all alcoholic beverages for off-premise consumption.
The study found that 74.3 per cent of Australians who purchased alcohol in an average seven days bought from a supermarket group, compared to 11.4 per cent who purchased from a hotel bottle shop such as Bottlemart, The Bottle-O, Thirsty Camel, or Duncan’s Bottle Shop.
A total of 9.7 per cent bought from an independent retailer, while 4.1 per cent bought from a Wine Club, and 0.4 per cent bought from a duty-free store.
Woolworths Group (including Woolworths, Dan Murphy’s, and BWS) increased its market share of the alcohol retail market by 1.5 per cent in the 12 months to March 2018.
Dan Murphy’s had the biggest increase of share-of-market for Woolworths Group, up 1.2 per cent in the 12 months to March 2018.
Coles Group saw a small decline in share-of-market for alcohol retail, with the drop attributed to small gains in share for Liquorland and Vintage Cellars, and a drop of 1.2 per cent in First Choice.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said supermarkets had "long been the market leader for the retailing of packaged alcohol", yet hotel bottle shops, independent retailers, wine clubs and duty free stores still had a place.
