The Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) is selling less alcohol: a drop in sales, in volume, was calculated for the first quarter of the year, but this is accompanied by a slight increase in revenue for the state-owned company.
The results of the most recent financial year were released early Tuesday morning in a context where alcohol consumption habits are changing, here as elsewhere, which generally translates into a decrease in alcohol sales.
“Sales in dollars increased by 0.1% to reach $903.4 million,” the state monopoly revealed. It is an increase in revenue from grocery store sales that allows the SAQ to avoid ending its quarter in the red, as the SAQ plays a wholesaler role for these other retailers.
Gross profit, however, increased by 2.5%.
In terms of quantity, however, the decline is confirmed with a 2.8% drop in the millions of litres of alcohol sold, compared to the same period last year.
This is a decline in sales that will surprise no one: last year, the SAQ lost 2.3% in quantity, following this trend of decreasing alcohol consumption.
While sales of wines and spirits are down, those of non-alcoholic products and ready-to-drink canned beverages are up, according to the latest annual report from the SAQ.
This leads to a decrease in the value of the average shopping basket: it now stands at $61.93, a drop of almost 1%.
In total, sales volume reached 41.9 million liters for this first quarter of the 2024-2025 financial year, which ended on June 22, 2024.
Government revenues reached $590.2 million, up $3.2 million (0.5%) compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year.
Another trend to note is the increase in online sales of just over 3%. SAQ.com customers still only make 3.5% of transactions in total.
More details will follow.