By James Atkinson
The beer and ready-to-drink categories continued to put the brakes on Woolworths Liquor in the first quarter of FY15, according to managing director Brad Banducci.
Woolworths today reported Australian Food and Liquor sales for the quarter of $11 billion, an increase of 3.9 per cent on the previous year with comparable store sales increasing by 2.1 per cent.
Banducci said the liquor market was subdued overall with beer and RTD the worst culprits, but there were positives.
"During the quarter we continued to experience strong growth in Dan Murphy’s Online and launched ‘Dan Murphy’s Connections’, which provides customers with an extended range including products from boutique wineries, craft brewers and artisan distillers," he said.
"We also launched the BWS ‘200 Specials’ campaign which we expect to build on in the second quarter."
Woolworths opened a net of three Dan Murphy’s and six BWS stores in the quarter bringing the banners' total networks to 189 and 1222 stores respectively.