Coles will launch a pilot trial of rebranding its bottleshops under the ‘Liquorland’ banner

The retailer’s portfolio of liquor chains have underperformed for years against its bigger rival Dan Murphy’s and will now trial a new ‘Liquorland’ banner in South Australia to refresh the brand and seize momentum.

Coles liquor boss Michael Courtney at Coles Southland in Melbourne. Picture: Martin Keep

The boss of Coles’s struggling liquor arm, Michael Courtney, believes a trial rebranding of some stores under a single ‘Liquorland’ banner could be taken nationally, ending the diffuse and sometimes confusing retail liquor offer from Coles that features three different brands and that has underperformed for years.

Mr Courtney says a potentially national and unified Liquorland brand could take the fight to arch rival BWS and Dan Murphy’s, both owned by Endeavour Group, as the ‘Liquorland’ banner better resonates with shoppers, underlines its value proposition and can simplify its retail model.

If the pilot trial, which will start in South Australia as well as parts of Victoria and Queensland, it could see all 992 Coles liquor stores rebranded under Liquorland to snuff out its two other brands Vintage Cellars and First Choice.

It comes as the liquor chains owned by Coles – Liquorland, First Choice and Vintage Cellars – have struggled against Dan Murphy’s for years and including the most recent financial results where Endeavour’s dominant Dan Murphy’s and BWS beat Coles on sales growth, profit margins and profitability. The underperforming Coles liquor arm was the only blemish on the supermarket chain’s full-year results which showed it was beating Woolworths in supermarkets.

Now Coles will seek to address the liquor retail imbalance as part of a pilot that will see selected Vintage Cellars and First Choice Liquor Market stores adopt the Liquorland brand, to take place in all stores across South Australia and in a small number of stores in Victoria and Queensland.

Coles will trial a pilot of uniting its diversified liquor banners under a single Liquorland brand. Picture: Martin Keep

Selected Vintage Cellars will be converted to Liquorland Cellars and participating First Choice Liquor Market stores to be rebranded as Liquorland Warehouse. The pilot will commence in November and will involve a total of nine stores, including six First Choice Liquor Market and three Vintage Cellars stores in South Australia, as well as two First Choice Liquor Market stores in Queensland and three Vintage Cellars stores in Victoria.

“We absolutely feel that we can be a stronger business by uniting under Liquorland as the ultimate brand,” Mr Courtney told The Australian on Tuesday.

“We feel that way because we think it allows us to step back and re-evaluate what our customer value proposition is and under the Liquorland brand we will be able to bring the best of each of the three brands.

“And I do feel that in terms of having the team focus on one customer proposition out in the market, it will allow us to move faster and to deliver better on what our brand proposition is, because competing in a market with three different brands, trying to stand for three different things, does add a level of complexity,” he said.

He said the intent of the change is to make sure that its customer offer is as simple and as compelling as possible across all 992 of its locations.

“Firstly, this is a great opportunity for building on the Liquorland transformation. So in recent years, we’ve been rolling out the ‘Black & White’ format to over 75 per cent of the network in Liquorland, and that continues to get really strong results.

“So this allows us to build off that success, because Liquorland is now better placed than ever before to extend their brand across the network. Second point is that from a First Choice, Liquor Market and Vintage Cellars perspective, they have a really strong customer offer when customers shop there and what this will do is allow them to leverage our strongest and most recognised brand to bring more customers into their stores.”

The Coles liquor arm – whose banners include Liquorland, First Choice and Vintage Cellars – has struggled for some years and been confusing for shoppers.

Mr Courtney said Liquorland was Coles’s strongest brand in terms of brand awareness among shoppers and the revamping of the brands – which could see the end of Vintage Cellars and First Choice – was backed by new customer research.

He said the internal research showed the simplified model and banner would help drive sales.

“The customer research is really supportive of this change. When we look at the First Choice liquor customers, and if we were to say, if we were to make this change, would it make you shop more with us, shop the same amount with us, or shop less? Fifty-five per cent of customers were saying, ‘I’d shop more, or a lot more,’ and only 5 per cent of customers were saying they would shop less.”

He said 61 per cent of Vintage Cellars customers would shop slightly more or a lot more.

“This is an exciting next step for Liquorland which over the last four years has undergone an extensive transformation that has clearly resonated with our customers. We want our other banners to benefit from its strong brand awareness and large store network.”

Last month Endeavour said its retail arm, which includes the Dan Murphy’s chain and BWS, booked sales growth of 3.4 per cent to $10.246bn as earnings rose 4.1 per cent to $685m. For the first eight weeks of 2025 its sales were up 0.6 per cent.

In comparison, Coles liquor booked sales growth of 2.3 per cent for 2024 with earnings down 10.1 per cent. For the first eight weeks of 2025 sales for Coles liquor were down 1.4 per cent. Part of that earnings slide was driven by a decision to exit less profitable bulk purchase deals.