WELLINGTON - Supermarkets are reaping the benefits from changes to liquor laws, with wine overtaking bread as the top seller.
Law changes in December lifted a restriction on Sunday liquor sales, allowed beer to be sold in supermarkets and lowered the drinking age from 20 to 18.
Research company ACNielsen says supermarkets now sell 45 per cent of wine in New Zealand, with annual sales increasing 17 per cent to $272 million in the year to April.
Sales figures from 349 supermarkets show that wine has overtaken bread as the top revenue earner in supermarkets. Bread is now in second place with sales of $249 million, followed by biscuits at $214 million.
Tony McNeil, Wellington general manager of New Zealand's biggest supermarket company, Foodstuffs, said brewery figures showed the supermarket sector had already taken 20 per cent of the beer market after barely six months.
ACNielsen figures show that supermarkets sold beer worth $58.6 million in the five months to April.
Mr McNeil said lowering the drinking age had not been a big factor in the growth in liquor sales. "The main reason we are picking up the business is the convenience."
The trends were also confirmed by the two other major supermarket groups, Woolworths and Progressive Enterprises.
- NZPA
Wine now top at checkout
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