Control and sale of alcoholic beverages

While a growing number of consumers are discovering the taste of spirits in the form of Canadian coolers, domestic beer and wine continue to lose ground to imports. Canadian spirit-based cooler sales more than doubled over the last five years; annual growth rate sales in 2001/02 soared 62.8% to $258.7 million. Meanwhile, imported beer and wine products posted average growth rates of 15.5% and 10.4%, respectively, over five years.

Beer is by far the most popular alcoholic beverage among Canadian consumers. Nearly 2.7 billion litres of alcoholic beverages were sold at beer and liquor stores and other outlets in 2001/02; beer made up 81.3% of the total, compared with 11.9% for wine and 6.8% for spirits.

Sales totalled $14.5 billion, up 6.8% from 2000/01. Beer accounted for 51.1% of the total, and the remainder was split between spirits (25.6%) and wine (23.3%). Imports continued to expand their share of sales, capturing 30% of the market in 2001/02, compared with 21% ten years earlier.

Coolers in demand

Sales volumes jumped 63.1% for spirit-based coolers and 23.6% for wine-based coolers, for a total of 69.9 million litres in 2001/02. Spirit-based coolers made up 70.0% of the total volume.

The largest sales increases were reported in Quebec for spirit-based coolers, and in Ontario for wine-based coolers. In both cases, sales more than doubled in 2001/02. In Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia and Yukon, sales of spirit-based coolers were up by nearly 50% or more.

The vast majority of spirit-based coolers were produced in Canada, and one quarter of the wine-based coolers were imported. Domestic spirit-based and wine-based coolers accounted for 10.6% and 8.2% of Canadian spirits and wine sales, respectively.

Red wine's popularity still growing

In 2001/02, red wine clearly asserted its dominance over white wine, with sales of 141.4 million litres, 55% of the total volume of red and white wine sold. Red wine was up 7.4% from 2000/01, while white wine was virtually unchanged (-0.5%).

After posting higher growth rates than imports between 1993 and 2000, the volume of Canadian red wine sold increased more slowly in 2000/01 and 2001/02. Imports accounted for nearly three quarters of red wine sales in 2001/02. At the provincial/territorial level, only Saskatchewan, Yukon and Prince Edward Island reported higher sales of domestic red wine than of imported brands.

White wine and other wines such as fortified, aperitif and sparkling wines and cider had a very different pattern of sales from red wine in 2001/02. Domestic brands of these wines captured between 55% and 80% of the market in every province and territory except Quebec (35.0%) and Ontario (47.6%).

In 2001/02, the Northwest Territories recorded the largest increase in the volume of red wine sold (+16.5%). Yukon posted a 12.9% advance, followed by Alberta (+11.3%) and Nova Scotia (+10.4%). Quebec consumers bought 43.6% of all red wine sold in Canada, at 10.0 litres per capita.

Spirits sales rise for the sixth straight year

Led by the surge in spirit-based coolers, sales of spirits totalled $3.7 billion, up 5.5%. Sales of imported spirits climbed 6.7% to $1.3 billion, and domestic spirits sales grew 4.8%. In 2001/02, the volume of spirits sold was 182.3 million litres, up 12.5% from the previous year.

Among Canadian products, whisky remained the top seller, followed by rum and vodka. Liqueurs were the leading imported product, at 12.4 million litres, even outpacing whisky, at 9.8 million litres.

Imported beer sales continue to grow

Sales of imported beer totalled $712.3 million in 2001/02, up 13.8%, the eighth consecutive annual increase. This gave imports 9.6% of the Canadian beer market, a 5.2 percentage point increase over 1995/96. The volume of imported beer sales was up 8.1% in 2001/02.

Domestic beer was still by far the most popular alcoholic beverage among Canadian consumers. In 2001/02, sales totalled $6.7 billion, up 6.4%. By contrast, the volume sold increased only 1.9% to 2.0 billion litres.

Governments reap the profits

Profits from the control and sale of alcoholic beverages reached $3.9 billion, up 2.7% from 2000/01. Of that amount $3.2 billion were remitted to the provincial and territorial governments.

Per capita remitted profits in 2001/02 were highest in the Northwest Territories ($427), followed by Yukon ($218) and Newfoundland and Labrador ($210). The lowest revenues were in Prince Edward Island ($77), Quebec ($79) and Ontario ($92). Per capita remitted profits in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, British Columbia and Alberta were between $155 and $188.

Per capita sales

After a long decline that bottomed out in 1996/97, per capita alcohol sales posted a fifth consecutive annual increase in 2001/02. The population aged 15 and over bought an average of 104.2 litres of alcoholic beverages, compared with 103.8 litres the previous year.

This was up from a low of 99.5 litres in 1996/97, but far below the record high of 134 litres per capita, observed slightly more than a quarter century ago.

In 2001/02, Canadian consumers purchased an average of 7.1 litres of spirits, 12.4 litres of wine and 84.7 litres of beer. The year before, they bought, on average, 6.5 litres of spirits, 12.2 litres of wine and 85.0 litres of beer.

Available on CANSIM: tables 183-0005 and 183-0006.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 1726.

The 2001/02 issue of The control and sale of alcoholic beverages in Canada, (63-202-XIB, $29) will be available soon. A print-on-demand version will be available for $52. Data are also available in special tabulations.

For more information on products and services, contact Joanne Rice (613-951-0767), Public Institutions Division. For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Jean-Marc de Beaumont (613-951-1829) or Denis Labelle (613-951-0700), Public Institutions Division.