Coles rebrands all bottle shops as Liquorland to better compete with Dan Murphy’s

Coles is rolling out a major change to its nearly 1000 liquor stores that will spell the end to two big brands in a bid to better compete with Dan Murphy’s.

Coles liquor boss Michael Courtney believes a unified offer under Liqourland will boost its fortunes. Picture: Rebecca Michael.

Coles will rebrand its fleet of liquor stores under the Liquorland banner and tackle head on the domination of Dan Murphy’s with a reinvigorated price matching campaign, in the latest attempt to drag the Coles liquor business out of a decades-long funk.

The national rebranding for its 984 stores will mean the end of First Choice and Vintage Cellars retail brands.

The supermarket giant predicts collapsing the three store names into one national brand will boost its ability to offer unified pricing, promotions and ranges to ultimately lift customer loyalty and sales.

Coles Liquor chief executive Michael Courtney also believes it is time for the liquor business to polish up its competitive credentials to make shoppers fully aware it will price match competitors which is a direct assault on dominant retailer Dan Murphy’s and its lock on the sector with its ‘lowest price’ guarantee.

Mr Courtney told The Australian he knew the unification of Coles’ liquor stores under one banner wasn’t the “silver bullet” to revive the fortunes of the business that has struggled for more than a decade, but would help build a “simpler and more compelling offer”.

“If you look at how we do range, we’ve got three different sets of ranging principles across the different banners. If you look at loyalty, it’s not easy for customers as we’ve got two loyalty programs,” Mr Courtney said.

“At the moment, if you want to shop our brands there are three different websites currently, and that’s before you go to our on-demand partners, where they all appear on different platforms.

“So in each of those instances where we do things three different ways, we are able to move to one way of doing things, simpler and more compelling for the customer.”

Coles liquor boss Michael Courtney. Picture: Rebecca Michael

Starting next month, the national roll out will see all Coles liquor stores unified under three banners: Liquorland, Liquorland Cellars and Liquorland Warehouse.

The new store formats will simplify the customer offer across all stores by aligning product range, promotions.

Around 160 Vintage Cellars and First Choice Liquor Market stores will be transformed as part of the national roll out, expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

The program will increase Liquorland’s footprint by 25 per cent, with many of the stores located near or adjacent to a Coles supermarket.

It follows a 16-week pilot program trialled at 14 stores in South Australia, Victoria and Queensland, that Coles said demonstrated increased brand awareness and customer engagement, repeat visits and overall greater shopping satisfaction.

“This is the biggest transformation in the history of Coles Liquor Group, and we believe it will have a meaningful impact on how we serve customers the drinks they want, when they want them, and how we partner with suppliers to deliver value,” he said.

The Coles liquor arm has underperformed for a decade, and has long been a drag on the supermarket’s performance. At its half-year results Coles outperformed Woolworths thanks to its better performing grocery business but its liquor arm struggled and only reported flat sales and an 8.8 per cent slide in earnings.

“This will enable us to do things better,” said Mr Courtney.

This would especially be the case around pricing for the new Liquorland national model.

“We are using Liquorland as the master brand because it’s our most well known brand. But when we’ve looked at price we’ve said, how do we merge the price (profiles) to have an offer that is more compelling than the one we’ve got now across the network?

“And that’s saying for promotional mechanics as well. A good example of that is First Choice has always had a price match promise, but it wasn’t something that was well known because we don’t put a lot of marketing behind First Choice but now that price match promise will be in all of our stores around the country.”

Dan Murphy’s has dominated the market with its big-box store format and its price guarantee around price matching and beating any other price in the market, with Coles liquor now putting up a reinvigorated challenge.

“This is not a silver bullet but gives us a better chance to compete.”

Originally published as Coles rebrands all bottle shops as Liquorland to better compete with Dan Murphy’s