By Andrew Starke
Woolworths today (Jul 22) reported an 11 per cent jump in liquor sales for its pubs and off-premise liquor outlets, up from $4.7 billion in 2008 to $5.2 billion this year.
Liquor sales figures include sales from supermarket attached liquor divisions, BWS, Dan Murphy’s and Australian Leisure & Hospitality Group (ALH) bar sales.
Full year results and profit figures across Woolworth’s businesses will be released next month.
Woolworths opened 16 new Dan Murphy’s over the past financial year as part of 73 new liquor stores that came online over this period.
There are now a total of 104 Dan Murphy’s.
Director of food, liquor and petrol Greg Foran attributed much of the growth in liquor sales to both the new stores and the 130 that underwent refurbishments over 2008 / 2009.
“Australian Food and Liquor sales for the year were $32 billion, an increase of 9.6 per cent over last year with comparable sales for the year increasing by 7.4 per cent,” the company said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange. “This compares well to last year comparable sales of 6.3 per cent.”
A spokesperson for Woolworths said food and liquor categories were growing at comparable rates.
Woolworth’s shares were trading at $27.50 at midday today, up from $26.83 seven days ago.