Domestic Sales Summary

The supermarket channel’s share of Australian drinking milk sales has continued to trend steadily up over recent years - to 50% in 2008/09.  Supermarkets  benefited generally from increased 'at home' eating as consumers sought to economise over the past year.  

Private label brands account for 52% of total supermarket milk volumes, up from around 25% in 1999/00. Their average price is significantly less than branded products. This lower average price is due to a combination of product and pack size mix – with a greater proportion of private label purchases being bulk regular full cream milk.

On the packaging front, plastic bottles now account for 80% of all milk sales in supermarkets, with the balance split evenly between gable-top cartons and UHT packs.

There have also been significant movements within the pack sizes bought by consumers in supermarkets. While the 2-litre plastic bottle remains the most popular size, with nearly 40% share, this is down from close to 50% eight years ago. Similarly, the combined share of 1-litre cartons and plastic bottles has slipped from 33% to 20%. The major change has been in the explosive growth of the 3-litre plastic bottle, increasing its share of all supermarket milk sales from 13% to 35% since it first appeared in June 1998.

In 2008/09, the average price of branded milk increased 5.7% to $2.20 per litre and. When combined with a 1.8% increase in the average private label price to $1.24 per litre, delivered an increase in the average supermarket price of 6cpl to $1.71 per litre.

Supermarket sales volumes grew by 3.3% in 2008/09, with the comparative sales performance between branded (+0.2%) and private label milks (+6.5%) varying markedly.

Retail milk prices fell 11 cents per litre from late-February 2009 as the Dairy Adjustment Levy, used to fund the industry's degregulation adjustment package, was removed from wholesale prices.

Australia’s total retail market for tablespreads has generally shrunk over the past decade. Consumer concerns about margarine consumption have meant a continuing decline in share; with dairy spreads taking further retail market share from margarine. This has been a continuing trend over the past decade, as dairy spreads’ share of the category has steadily increased from 30% in 2000/01 to 43% in 2008/09.