2023-06-09 00:34:33
While wine represents a smaller and smaller proportion of SAQ sales year following year, it is spirits and ready-to-drink products that have gained the most popularity over the past year.
This is revealed in the SAQ’s annual report, published on Wednesday.
In particular, we can read that since 2016, the market share of wine has fallen from 79.3% to just over 71%.
Red wines are the most affected by this decrease, with 3.7 million liters less finding takers.
For their part, sales of white wines increased by 1.5 million litres.
Spirits gained a proportion of 0.8% of the state company’s total sales last year to stand at 17%, while ready-to-drink products rose from 9.7% to 10.5%.
“Globally, it’s a trend where the sale of wine is rather stable, and which gives way to other products,” said the president of the SAQ, Catherine Dagenais, in an interview on the program “À vos affaires”.
Tequila has seen a meteoric rise in popularity with a 44.4% increase in liter sales.
In terms of total sales, the SAQ recorded a net result of $1.4 billion, which was returned in its entirety to the Government of Quebec in the form of a dividend.
“Overall, we are regarding 1% more in volume, which is a normal year at the SAQ, that being said, we are comparing ourselves to a year that is atypical,” comments the president. Last year, restaurants and bars were closed for part of the year.
Ms. Dagenais is coming to the end of her term as president of the state-owned company, where she has witnessed several changes, including online sales, which are taking up more and more space.
“We’ve passed the 100-year mark and if we hadn’t known how to renew ourselves and change, we mightn’t still be here,” she said. For me, online sales were the future and this is the future and the pandemic has accelerated these sales.
This does not mean, however, that branches will close anytime soon due to internet sales.
“The mission of the SAQ is to sell wines and spirits everywhere in Quebec and at the same price. Branch sales represent 96% of our turnover, she adds. Before saying that we are going to close branches, online sales will have to take up a lot more space.”
See Ms. Dagenais’ full interview in the video above
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