Australians Are Drinking a Wider Range of Brand and Variety Beers Than Ever Before

Tuesday 15 January 2013, Amsterdam

The Commonwealth of Australia is the world’s fifth-richest country in terms of GDP per head, its sixth-largest country by area, its 13th-largest by total GDP, and only its 52nd-largest by population. According to the OECD’s Better Life Index 2011, the island continent’s 23 million inhabitants enjoy the highest quality of life of any country in the world.

In absolute volume terms, beer is the fourth-largest drinks category in Australia, behind hot coffee, carbonates and white milk, and just ahead of tea. These dominant, mature categories have all seen relatively slow growth in recent years, with coffee the only one to show total growth of more than 10% in the 2001-2011 period. Any growth has come from niche categories, or at least, categories that were niche in 2001.

The top performing commercial beverages category in Australia in 2011 was energy drinks. This category has also been one of the strongest performers over the last 10 years, proving highly popular in its own right as an energy boost and a mixer for spirits as a going-out drink, driven by Austrian pioneer Red Bull and domestic imitators, such as Mother.

Australians are drinking lower volumes of beer, but they are drinking a wider range of brand and variety beers than ever before. The top five brands in 2011 accounted for 44% of volumes between them, compared to 49% for the top five brands in 2001. The traditional local market segmentation of light, mid-strength, full-strength, and premium, based on the assumption that full-strength means a heavy, amber-ish lager, is no longer sufficient to capture the range seen in the market.