By Jessica Yun
The Vintage Cellars and First Choice Liquor Market store names will disappear across the country this year as they are absorbed into the better-known Liquorland brand, with Coles fighting to close the gap to rivals Dan Murphy’s and BWS.
For the first time, Coles will match rivals’ prices in store. Dan Murphy’s has had a longstanding price beat guarantee.
Coles’ Vintage Cellars and First Choice Liquor Market brands will disappear and be absorbed into the broader Liquorland banner.Credit: Domain
Coles Liquor boss Michael Courtney said a pilot in which 14 Vintage Cellars and First Choice stores were converted into “Liquorland Cellars” and “Liquorland Warehouse” had been successful, resulting in a 16 per cent rise in brand awareness and a 30 per cent increase in customers likely to shop again.
“They’re enjoying the experience in-store,” Courtney said. “All of those customer data points led to us seeing an increase in sales throughout the trial, which is really positive and gives us the opportunity to move forward.
“This will be the largest customer change that we’ve ever made in Coles Liquor.”
Coles Liquor chief executive Michael Courtney is rolling out Liquorland’s new branding.Credit:
Coles has 995 liquor stores across Australia, most of them (803) Liquorland stores.
All 98 First Choice Liquor Markets, which operate in a big-box format featuring a wide range of alcohol categories, similar to Dan Murphy’s, will be converted to “Liquorland Warehouses”.
There are more than 90 Vintage Cellars stores nationwide, typically in affluent areas and offering a more upmarket range after they began as a fine wine chain.
“There will be a mix; some of those go to [more upmarket] Liquorland Cellars, and there will be some that just go to a straight Liquorland offer, just based on what is most relevant to that customer. But yes, all stores in the network will change,” Courtney said.
Store conversions will start in April and be completed by December.
Among the changes, product ranges, pricing, loyalty programs and websites will be consolidated into one offering, rather than serving three independent units.
Customers will therefore be able to walk into a store and expect the same price for the same product, regardless of which banner brand they are shopping with.
However, this doesn’t guarantee that customers will pay the lowest price of the three store brands.
Before the rebranding, only Vintage Cellar customers could have their products price-matched.
Courtney admitted that Vintage Cellars and First Choice had suffered from low brand awareness when the pilot was unveiled.
“We know our brand awareness in Liquorland, which is our largest brand, still trails the brand awareness of our two largest competitors in the market,” he said.
Growth in Coles’ liquor division has lagged that of its larger rival for some time, but its performance has recently turned around.
Coles Liquor’s sales rose 0.8 per cent to $2 billion for the first half of fiscal 2025, while Dan Murphy’s and BWS operator Endeavour Group’s retail division raked in $5.5 billion, representing a decline of 1.5 per cent as it was also affected by Woolworths’ workers’ strike.
Coles’ share price rose 1.5 per cent on Wednesday.
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