Why do non-alcoholic drinks cost so much in Australia?

A recent photo of a full shelf at Liquorland has stirred up angry questions from Australian customers online.

A recent photo of a shelf at Liquorland has stirred up angry questions from customers online.

Redditors in Australia are wondering why non-alcoholic drinks are often just as expensive as their alcoholic counterparts, despite not being taxed as heavily under Australian law.

One shared their frustration after noticing that zero per cent wines often cost around $10 to $18 a bottle. It gets even worse for spirits, where customers are asked to pay almost as much as a full-alcohol version per bottle.

“I thought a big per cent of alcohol was tax, surely this shouldn’t apply to alcohol-free drinks?” the user questioned.

But the issue isn‘t just limited to one store, as online at Dan Murphy’s, a 700ml bottle of Gordons London non-alcoholic gin costs $37.99. The alcoholic variant costs slightly more at $46.99.

A spokesperson for Endeavour Group, which owns Dan Murphy’s, explained that the complicated manufacturing process of non-alcoholic beverages, alongside hefty marketing budgets, is the reason behind high prices.

A recent photo of a shelf at Liquorland has stirred up angry questions from customers online. Picture: Reddit

Co-founder of craft distillery Seadrift, Carolyn Whiteley, explained that the market for non-alcoholic drinks is still growing.

Non-alcoholic distilleries often rely on manual labour and don’t have the luxury of automated production lines or industrial stills, meaning they can’t pump out comparable volumes for the same labour costs.

Currently, very few, if any, non-alcoholic brands have reached a point of wide brand recognition in Australia, as producers continue their push to make zero per cent drinks a staple Down Under.

Whiteley urged customers to “support the industry if they want good quality, local non-alcoholic drinks to exist in the market”.

“If not we will be reduced to having product that is made from basic colours and flavours such as the UK’s Gordons 0 per cent, imported and sold here instead,” she said via the Daily Mail.

“For some people that’s fine, for others who are trying to moderate or give up – something that tastes amazing, is made from natural ingredients, supports local industry and is actually good for you is worth paying for.”

A 700ml bottle of Gordons London non-alcoholic gin costs $37.99 at Dan Murphy’s.

A spokesperson for Heaps Normal, another craft brewery, noted that their non-alcoholic beers are brewed using the same premium ingredients and methods as normal craft beers.

As a small independent company, they “don’t benefit from the economies of scale that larger brewers do”.

The group also pointed out that they often need to use higher quantities of certain ingredients to ensure that their beer meets the same standards as others on the market.

In 2022, Endeavour Group director buying and merchandise Tim Carroll said a growing movement of “drinking less, but better” has seen an explosion in demand for alcohol alternatives.

“Customers are increasingly opting for low intervention and organic wines, sugar-free ready-to-drink alcohols or artisan, craft spirits,” Mr Carroll said.

But of those categories, Mr Carroll said across the retailer’s major liquor stores – BWS and Dan Murphy’s – the zero-alcohol industry had solidly become their fastest growing category in the past three years.

According to Endeavour, BWS and Dan Murphy’s, sales of zero-alcohol beverages have grown by more than 150 per cent in the last two years and the retailers now offer over 329 different products.

“Because the quality of the new wave of zero alcohol drinks is so good, what we are seeing is that once customers have tried these for whatever reason, they keep coming back – many simply like the taste; it’s not a compromise to choose a zero alcohol option anymore,” Mr Carroll added.