Coles will retire its Vintage Cellars and First Choice Liquor Mart brands as it moves to merge the stores under the Liquorland umbrella.
The supermarket giant initially converted 14 Vintage Cellar and First Choice locations into “Liquorland Cellars” and “Liquorland Warehouse” last year after revealing it would fold the bottle shops into its flagship brand.
In a national roll-out, all Coles-owned liquor stores will now be unified under the same brand, Liquorland.
It marks the biggest change to Coles Liquor since it began in 1971.
“This is the biggest transformation in the history of Coles Liquor Group, and we believe it will have a meaningful impact on how we serve customers the drinks they want, when they want them, and how we partner with suppliers to deliver value,” Coles Liquor chief executive Michael Courtney said.
“As we move towards a unified promotional strategy, we are strengthening our value proposition for customers with consistent and competitive pricing under one brand and one website.
Courtney said Liquorland stores will be able to price match against major competitors such as BWS and Dan Murphy’s.
Branding will change across 984 stores in Australia next month.
Liquorland Cellars is set to target upmarket customers while the Liquorland Warehouse brand will service the broadest range.
“In terms of range, we are bringing a more tailored and relevant drink selection from the three banners under one roof,” Courtney added.
“This means we will be unlocking the best-selling premium drops from Vintage Cellars and great value drinks from First Choice Liquor Market.”
Coles flagged it spent a one-off cost of $1.5 million in the move to simplify its liquor group as it announced a slight sales revenue decline of 0.8 per cent for the alcohol division in its half-year results shared last month.
The pilot program was trialled in November at 14 stores in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia across 14 weeks and Coles said it resulted in “increased brand awareness” and shopper satisfaction.
“These results give us full confidence that uniting under the Liquorland brand is the way forward not just for us as a business but for our customers,” Courtney said.
