Article No. 5913 Available on www.roymorgan.com Link to Roy Morgan Profiles

Friday, 7 November 2014 The effect of liquor licensing laws on alcohol purchasing rates in and Australia

74% of New Zealand adults drink alcohol in an average four week period, down from 77% in 2009 but still slightly above the Australian rate of 70%, data from Roy Morgan Research shows.

But despite only this small gap in consumption, the rate of alcohol purchasing is much higher in

E E New Zealand than in Australia—a difference that may be a result of the two countries’ liquor licensing laws. In the year to June 2014, 59.4% of Kiwis bought alcohol in a four-week period, compared with 49.6% of Australians.

This difference in purchasing rates reflects the two countries’ liquor licensing laws. In each country, one particular channel is most popular among the vast majority (76%) of alcohol —but in New Zealand that channel is , while in Australia it’s individual retailers.

45.2% of New Zealanders bought alcohol from a licensed in the last four weeks, compared with only 9.3% of Australians. Instead, 37.6% of Australians bought from an individual liquor retailer (compared with 29.4% of Kiwis) and nearly 1 in 10 bought from a hotel bottle shop (9.8%), a channel used by just 1 in 100 New Zealanders (1.0%).

Different rates of Alcohol Purchase by Channel in Australia and New Zealand FOR IMMEDIATE RELEAS IMMEDIATE FOR

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (New Zealand), July 2013 - June 2014; Base: n=10,979 New Zealanders 18+; Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), July 2013 - June 2014; Base: n=18,133 Australians 18+

All New Zealand’s major grocery supermarkets including Pak’nSave, and Countdown are licensed to stock beer and wine on the shelves, but in Australia only some (in some states) are permitted. Instead, Australia’s two main supermarket chains Coles and Woolworths each own numerous individual retailers.

Pip Elliott, General Manager, Roy Morgan Research NZ, says:

“In New Zealand, it’s a one-stop shop for milk, bread, eggs and beer at the supermarket, while Australians have to make a separate trip to an individual retailer for their booze, even if it’s just next door to the parent supermarket.

“That the gap between our rates of purchase is so much wider than the consumption gap suggests that having beer and wine available at the local supermarket means Kiwis buy their alcohol more regularly, while Australians tend to stock up during the separate, less regular

E E trips to the liquor store like Dan Murphy’s, BWS, Liquorland, Vintage Cellars or First Choice— all owned by one of the two supermarket giants.

“Further investigation of these patterns and comparisons could help licensing bodies, retailers and suppliers better understand the relationships between channel and consumption.”

For comments or more information about Roy Morgan Research’s alcohol consumption and channel data, please contact: Vaishali Nagaratnam Office: +61 (3) 9224 5309 [email protected]

Related research reports

View our Alcohol Purchasing Channel Profiles for New Zealanders buying from supermarkets, liquor retailers or Online, or browse our full range of Alcohol profiles including the Alcohol Consumption Currency Report and Alcohol Drinkers Profiles.

Roy Morgan Research Consumer Profiles contain insightful quantitative data in ready-to-copy-and-paste charts and graphs that can be an invaluable resource for your market review, strategic marketing planning, advertising brief development, management update presentation or conference address.

About Roy Morgan Research FOR FOR IMMEDIATERELEAS Roy Morgan Research is the largest independent Australian research company, with offices in each state of Australia, as well as in New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom. A full service research organisation specialising in omnibus and syndicated data, Roy Morgan Research has over 70 years’ experience in collecting objective, independent information on consumers.

Roy Morgan Research New Zealand

Roy Morgan Research was set up in New Zealand in the 1990s and has been collecting information across a wide range of industries in New Zealand ever since. Roy Morgan currently has over 10 years of trended data on a geographically and demographically representative sample of over 12,000 New Zealanders aged 14+.

Margin of Error

The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.

Sample Size Percentage Estimate 40%-60% 25% or 75% 10% or 90% 5% or 95% Roy Morgan Research Ltd. A.B.N. 91 007 092 944 Quality System Certified to AS/NZS ISO 9001 401 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000 – GPO Box 2282U, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001, Australia Tel: (03) 9629 6888 Fax: (03) 9629 1250 (03) 9224 5387 [email protected] www.roymorgan.com

5,000 ±1.4 ±1.2 ±0.8 ±0.6 7,500 ±1.1 ±1.0 ±0.7 ±0.5 10,000 ±1.0 ±0.9 ±0.6 ±0.4 20,000 ±0.7 ±0.6 ±0.4 ±0.3

E E FOR FOR IMMEDIATERELEAS

Roy Morgan Research Ltd. A.B.N. 91 007 092 944 Quality System Certified to AS/NZS ISO 9001 401 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000 – GPO Box 2282U, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001, Australia Tel: (03) 9629 6888 Fax: (03) 9629 1250 (03) 9224 5387 [email protected] www.roymorgan.com