The SAQ, which has sold its bottle of wine on average $3.36 more for three years, is further increasing its prices. This time, it is the monopoly’s profit per bottle sold that is increasing, and not that of the suppliers.
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The measure announced Monday affects the majority of the 40,000 products marketed. Only bottles of wine priced at $15 and less are spared, while spirits, ready-to-drink products, beer, cider and the rest of the wine are included.
Graph taken from page 31 of the SAQ’s 2022-2023 annual report
The state corporation wants to take $10 million more per year from the pockets of Quebecers with this first increase in the increase in seven years.
These adjustments have nothing to do with the two price increases granted to suppliers in May and November each year. This increase goes directly into the coffers of the SAQ.
The company’s boss repeated at least 20 times Monday morning that this is a “moderate” increase. At 0.6%, says Jacques Farcy, a $25 bottle now costs $25.15.
Jacques Farcy received the media at the SAQ head office in Montreal on Monday.
photo julien mcevoy
However, this will not be a 0.6% increase for the $100 bottle. The higher the price of the product, the steeper the increase.
“We have a context to manage, we must adapt to it,” summarized the former boss of the SQDC on Monday, regarding the exploding cost of living.
The SAQ’s expenses are like everyone else’s, argues Jacques Farcy, they are increasing. Rent, mortgages, salaries, the cost of building the new distribution center: everything is more expensive.
Not easy
In office for eight months, the president of the SAQ struggled, Monday morning, to explain clearly what the increase is. Basically, this is the percentage of profit that the state company takes on the product.
If a bottle costs $15 at the register, the 40.9% increase represents the $6.14 that the monopoly directly receives.
Distribution of the sale price
table taken from page 49 of the SAQ’s 2022-2023 annual report
The calculation is far from uniform for each bottle sold by the SAQ, which poses a problem. A cat would not find her babies there, currently, and the SAQ is aware of this, hence its desire to be transparent.
In Ontario, at the LCBO, we take the same percentage on all products sold. “We want to get closer to what they are doing there,” Mr. Farcy told a dozen journalists on Monday.
The SAQ has just experienced its worst sales in 10 years. It sells less and less wine: in 2024, ready-to-drink wines are popular.
“We thought about it a lot. It’s a question of sound management,” the boss candidly offered on Monday about the price increase.
An increasingly expensive 750 ml
Average increase per bottle at the SAQ
2023: $1.19
2022: $1.47
2021: $0.70
Nov. 2023: 0.7% (1877 products)
May 2023: 1.1% (1862 products)
Nov. 2022: 2.4% (1458 products)
May 2022: 3.7% (2550 products)
Nov. 2021: 1.7% (1332 products)
May 2021: 1.2% (1827 products)