Dreaming of a wine Christmas
DAN Murphy’s managing director Agi Pfeiffer-Smith says drinkers still seem happy to spend as the nation prepares for Christmas and New Year but she is unsure if the spending will continue to bolt ahead in the new year.
In the meantime Australians are still excited to celebrate the first lockdown and restriction-free festive season since 2019 and are buying up beverages early, which this week delivered Dan Murphy’s its biggest cyber week sales ever.
And unlike the supermarkets, where cheaper groceries are popular, Ms Pfeiffer-Smith has not witnessed that flight to cheaper booze as inflation bites.
“People still seem happy to spend at the moment, so there’s really no signs of trading down. In terms of the product they are buying, they are still buying sort of similar products to what we’ve seen and I think a little bit of that is probably a reflection of the season,” she said.
She said the early signs of Christmas trading hitting her stores included a sudden increase in champagne sales with Dan Murphy’s typically seeing champagne sales up fivefold in the weeks heading into the end of the year.
Ms Pfeiffer-Smith said drinkers were also planning more in advance for their celebrations with friends and family, reflecting big hopes for social gatherings after years of pandemic lockdowns and ruined social occasions.
“We are really starting to see customers plan ahead for Christmas. I think that there’s more confidence this year in terms of people being willing to plan and buy, and this will really be the first Christmas I think in a couple of years where people will be able to truly get together with family, particularly if their family is overseas and things like that.”
In the new year as the hangovers pass and the bills start coming in, Ms Pfeiffer Smith sees value becoming more important.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how customers will behave. I think for us, we think value will be important for customers and so we’re really keen to make sure they know they can come to us for value and that we will guarantee them the lowest prices as they think about what they want to spend on,” she said.
“But I guess it’s one of those things where we don’t unfortunately have a crystal ball on how it will play out. We do know that alcohol tends to be fairly resilient generally as a category but I think there will definitely be changes in patterns and behaviour.”
She said Dan Murphy’s could be the beneficiary of many people deciding to have a night in rather than go to a pricey restaurant and then buy a nicer or more premium bottle of wine to consume at home.
“And so we can be sort of beneficiaries of that premium and as well as that more value end and so the breadth of range I think is going to be important in this time as customers will get impacted differently depending on their budget,” she said.