Spirit And RTD Sales Hit As Drinking Culture Shifts And Consumers Put Their Wallets Away

Spirits and RTD volumes fell by 18% and 12.5% respectively to the year ended October as changes in New Zealand’s drinking culture and tight economic times hit home.

Spirits New Zealand’s Chief Executive, Robert Brewer, says official data shows that RTD volumes peaked at 9.5 million cases to the year ended March 2023 but fell to 7.9 million cases to the year ended October 2024.

“Volume data supplied by Customs and Statistics NZ is a primer for what is happening in-market and indicate RTD sales are down across all categories,” says Mr Brewer.

“A similar trend is starkly evident in full-strength spirits where data indicates NZ produced spirits volumes are down by 3% and imported spirits down by 19% compared with October last year.”

Mr Brewer says a similar trend is most likely visible for beer and wine and highlights how we are not only drinking less but tending to spend less as well.

“Official statistics tell the story with the recently released annual NZ Health survey showing that not only is hazardous drinking coming down but so is drinking overall with more and more young people choosing not to drink,” he says.

“This is further reinforced by Statistics NZ alcohol consumption per capita data which shows a fall of 29% since 1986.”

The annual NZ Health survey also shows that 83.4% of NZ adults (more than four out of five of us) are now drinking responsibly. This is an increase of 4.7 percentage points over the past four years (78.7% 2019/20).

“Hazardous drinking or harmful alcohol consumption among adults over the past four years has also declined to 16.6% (21.3% 2019/20). The largest decrease in hazardous drinking over the past five years was among young New Zealanders’ 18-24 years – a decline of 13.2 percentage points from 35.8% to 22.6%.

“In short we’re not only drinking less but we’re drinking better as well,” says Mr Brewer.

Add to this the reported fall in spending in hospitality venues, restaurants and bottle stores and the fall in spirits and RTD volumes should not be surprising.

1 New Zealand Health Survey | Ministry of Health NZ, accessed 19 November 2024
2 Stats NZ: Total NZ population 15 years and over alcohol available for consumption (per head of population). Year end 1986 (10.867 litres), June 2024 (7.666 litres). Browse - Infoshare - Statistics New Zealand (stats.govt.nz)
3 New Zealand Health Survey | Ministry of Health NZ, accessed 19 November 2024
4 Hazardous drinking among the total population. Hazardous drinking refers to a score of 8 or more on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), which suggests hazardous or harmful alcohol consumption.

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