(Montreal) The Société des alcools du Québec posted net income on Friday up 3.8% for its second quarter, while its sales rose 2.5% compared to the same period last year.
The state-owned company posted a net profit of 350.4 million in the quarter ended Sept. 10, which compared with a surplus of 337.7 million for the same quarter a year earlier.
The SAQ’s revenues amounted to 951.4 million in the most recent quarter, compared to sales of 928.1 million in the previous second quarter. Expressed in volume, these sales reached 55.9 million liters, compared to 55.8 million liters last year – a growth of 0.2%.
Consumers seemed to return to their pre-pandemic habits during the second quarter. The resumption of activities in restaurants and bars has boosted sales in this sector, while in-store sales have declined.
In addition, the value of consumers’ average shopping basket declined to $64.51 in the second quarter, showing a decline of 2% from $65.84 in the same period a year earlier. Consumers visited stores more often, increasing traffic by 1.1%, but made lower value purchases during these visits.
Online sales, for their part, fell by 17.3% year-on-year, reaching 17.7 million in the most recent quarter. They thus represented 2.5% of total sales made to consumers.
The average selling price per liter increased to $19.99 in the second quarter, compared to $19.56 for the corresponding quarter last fiscal year. Sales for this quarter benefited in particular from the entry into force in May of an average price increase of 3.7% on 2,550 products.
In November, the SAQ also imposed a new average price increase of 2.4% on 1,458 products.
The SAQ’s net expenses rose 2.2% in the second quarter, but their ratio to sales fell to 13.9%, from 14.0% a year earlier.
On the other hand, sales of products from Quebec climbed by 10.4% over one year to reach 146.7 million in the most recent quarter, representing 20.7% of sales made to consumers. The SAQ attributed this progress in particular to its strategies of promoting provincial products.