Coles and Woolworths sell ‘home-brand’ spirits, though it’s often hard to tell
ARTISAN or artificial? Why shopping for spirit brands is suddenly so baffling.
HERE I am again, browsing the shelves in my local Dan Murphy’s. But this time I’m shopping for spirits.
There are hundreds of gins and vodkas, brandies and bourbons, whiskies and rums to choose from here. All the familiar, widely available megabrands: Johnny Walker, Gordon’s, Smirnoff, etc.
But there are plenty of unfamiliar brands, too: bottles with names and labels you won’t find anywhere else. McAllister scotch, Houndstooth gin, Poliakov vodka — the list goes on.
These brands are exclusive to supermarket giant Woolworths, which owns Dan Murphy’s along with BWS and Woolworths Liquor. Some of the brands are private labels owned by Woolies and bottled for the supermarket by big bulk spirits manufacturers in Europe. Others are existing brands imported direct by Woolies and only sold through Woolies-owned stores.
It’s the same story at the hundreds of Coles-owned Vintage Cellars, First Choice and Liquorland stores across the country: you’ll spot dozens of the supermarket’s own-brand and exclusive imported spirits on the shelves here, too.
Actually, you probably won’t spot them because it’s very hard — and in some cases almost impossible — to distinguish the own-label supermarket spirits from the genuine brands unless you have some inside knowledge and are prepared to scan the fine print.
You see, despite selling clearly labelled home-brand food products in their own grocery aisles — the Woolworths Select range, for example — the supermarkets don’t play by the same rules in their liquor stores. There is no “Vintage Cellars Best Single Malt” or “Dan Murphy’s Finest Gin”. Instead, the home-brand spirits are hiding behind made-up labels such as Blue Kube and Mayfair, Buckeye and Roskov.
Almost all of these private label spirits are competing at the low-value but high-volume end of the market. And because they are owned and imported by the supermarkets, these products can hit the shelf at a price that undercuts the well-known brands: Woolworths’ Ruskov vodka, for example, is $26.95 for a 700ml bottle compared to $34.95 for Smirnoff; Coles’ Heather Mist scotch is $31.99 while Johnnie Walker Red Label is $35.99.
The two supermarkets have very different attitudes towards transparency in this area.
A spokesman for Coles was happy to provide me with a list of all the company’s exclusive spirits brands (see breakout). He also clarified which of these brands were private labels (“where Coles owns the brand but the product is produced for us by a third party”) and which were “controlled” labels (“which means Coles does not own the brand but purchases it from a third-party brand owner and is responsible for all aspects of the product in this market”). And he gave me a tip: “You can tell which products are exclusive to Coles because there’s a little ‘e’ logo printed on the price tag on the shelf.”
He continued: “Brand identity is important to shoppers buying any type of liquor. And the individual identity of our private label products helps customers find the products they want.”
So there you go.
Woolworths, by contrast, does not make it clear in-store which brands are which and was not prepared to go into specifics when I asked.
“We stock a wide number of spirits, including those that are imported, crafted locally by artisan producers, and ranged exclusively by Woolworths Liquor Group,” a spokeswoman said. “A diverse selection of products provides our customers with great choice, exceptional value and access to exciting new products.”
But Woolworths couldn’t give me any more detail about that “diverse selection” of “exciting products”, because it was not willing to reveal which of the spirits on its shelves were exclusive brands.
Which is why I’m walking up and down the aisles in my local Dan Murphy’s, picking up bottle after bottle of scotch and gin and rum and vodka, scanning the fine print for clues.
Woolworths handles its own spirits brands through two company names, International Liquor Wholesalers (or ILW) and Pinnacle Drinks (or Pinnacle Liquor). If you see these company names (in sometimes painfully small print) on the back label of a bottle then it means the product is exclusive to Woolies. If the company name is preceded by the words “bottled for” then you know it’s a private label.
This is how I put together a list of Woolworths spirit brands (see below). Unlike the Coles list, though, I can’t guarantee it’s complete or accurate: I sent it to Woolies for confirmation and correction, but the company hadn’t got back to me by deadline.
Why does all this matter? Who cares if a significant percentage of the brands on a liquor store’s shelves are owned by or exclusive to that liquor store?
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission cares. Earlier this year the ACCC took action against Carlton & United Breweries over a beer called Byron Bay Pale Lager because the name and label led the consumer to think it had been produced by a craft brewer in Byron Bay when it was made by CUB at its vast brewery at Warnervale near Gosford.
“The ACCC is prioritising credence claims in food (and drink) labelling,” an ACCC spokesman told me. “Credence claims are effectively premium claims that are difficult for the consumer to test the accuracy of on the face of the product and representation.”
I can’t help thinking of a number of spirits I saw on the shelves at Dan Murphy’s — Windsor Gin and Houndstooth Gin in their classic English gin-shaped bottles; the Russian-sounding Ruskov, Mishka and Karavan vodkas — all of which are made by a huge bulk distiller based in northeast France.
“Whether concerns will arise that a product is produced by a large producer without clear disclosure will depend on the circumstances,” the ACCC spokesman said. “Where the overall impression otherwise given is that it is produced by a small producer or from a particular region, then there may well be questions to ask.”
WOOLWORTHS EXCLUSIVE SPIRITS
Sold through Dan Murphy’s, BWS, Woolworths Liquor and Woolworths online
Scotch whisky: McAllister* ($28.99), 1495*, Baillie Nicol Jarvie, Label 5, Compass Box, Isle of Skye, Big Peat, Smoke Head, Glengoyne, Six Isles, Glen Moray
Bourbon: Nelson County*, Mattingly & Moore, Hogs 3, Old Virginia, Collier & McKeel, Bernheim, Blanton’s
Irish whiskey: Finnlaigh* ($36.99), Slieve Foy, Teeling
Gin: Houndstooth* ($28.99), Windsor*, Traders, Sloanes
Rum: Buckeye* ($29.99), Santiago de Cuba, Foursquare, Negrita, Koloa, Admiral Vernon’s Old J, Red Leg
Brandy: 1875*, Bardinet, Meukow, Croizet
Vodka: Mishka* ($26.90), Ruskov*, Karavan, Tovaritch, Poliakov, Tag
COLES EXCLUSIVE SPIRITS
Sold through Vintage Cellars, Liquorland, First Choice Liquor, Coles Liquor online
Scotch whisky: Heather Mist* ($31.99), John Samson* ($29.99), Gordon Grahams Black Bottle, Hankey Bannister, Highland Queen, Blairmhor 8 Year Old Single Malt, Origine 12 Year Old Single Malt, The Glenlivet Guardians Chapter
Bourbon: Iron Horse* ($33.99), Kentucky Gold, Virgin Bourbon 101 Proof
Brandy: Sainte Louise VSOP* ($31.99), St Helena* ($26.99), De Valcourt Napoleon
Gin: Mayfair* ($31.99), Old Lions* ($29.99), Origine
Rum: Club Armada* ($29.99), Kinky Lux, Origine Platine Rum
Vodka: Blue Kube Vodka* ($31.99), Krova Vodka, Volsk Vodka* ($29.99)
* Supermarket-owned home brands bottled by a third party. All other brands in the lists are owned by a third party but stocked exclusively by the supermarket.