Whiskey prices

mik_da_man wrote: »

There are a few sites like master of malt, whiskey exchange that will ship here and claim to have the appropriate license to do so.
Can be cheaper at times.

FYP

Marty Bird wrote: »

I really don't how you compare the prices of whiskey in US compared to here, with a population size of over 300 million it's no wonder they can sell it cheaper and that goes for Germany too with over 80 million.

Its made here.....

Jesus I'm perplexed why you think it's market share that makes it expensive that's gas. Lol

Marty Bird wrote: »

You do realize that when you sell a product in vast quantities in a much much bigger market place you can sell it at a cheaper rate LOL.

Explain then the price difference between Kerrygold Irish butter in Germany vis a vis Ireland, and Jameson Irish whiskey in Germany versus Ireland.
If your theory is correct, the % price difference should be broadly the same.
It's not even in the same ballpark though is it?

Both products are made here and have to incur the further cost of shipping to Germany.
What matters is the total size of the customer base, not the size of it in any one target market.
What matters in the target market is price competition and government duties.

I think you need to go back to the start on this one and factor in the effect of government duties...

mahamageehad wrote: »

Yeah it's a pain but I think it's taxes in Ireland that make it more expensive. Even from Dublin airport I find it expensive!

Taxes are often quoted as a reason, but often they are not the full story.

For example, beer excise is lower in Ireland than in the UK.

Yet beer is dearer in Irish shops.

One reason is the dominance of Diageo / Heineken in Ireland.

Guinness is easily found for 1.00 GBP for 44cl in NI, that's approx 1.35 euro for 50cl. It's usually way more in RoI.

Rd96 wrote:

By the way, I recommend you all check out The Whisk(e)y Vault on YouTube. Best Whiskey channel, amazing collection. They run a Whiskey marketing school.

Second this, its a great channel taught me a lot!

Rd96 wrote: »

Wow! It's crazy. Cheaper in Germany I was talking to the guy in the Off Licence, he said not only is tax high, but it's the mark up in the shops too, because they export a lot of it to globalise the brand...

Is this a guy in an off licence here or in an off licence in Germany?

If it was here it seems odd that he would admit that the off licence is applying a really high markup. I also do not see the connection between the off licence high markup and globalising the brand.

It seems to me he was more likely saying the markup (wholesale price) from the distillery here is a lot higher when selling to local off licences, rather than abroad. They already have a market here, and are likely setting the whole sale price in line with what others are charging already. And are selling at a lower wholesale price abroad to get the brand selling & known. This would make far more sense to me.

Lots of people have this weird idea that all wholesale prices are the same, not just drink but all sorts of goods. I know a guy with a cash & carry card who could not get his head around the fact I bought chocolate etc cheaper than he could. People are too quick to blame the last guy in the line.

My local supervalu used to have 5% scottish market heineken cans cheaper than irish market 4.3% cans. Both brewed & canned in holland. I figured heineken were just charging a lot less in scotland. I remember getting stolichnaya vodka cheap enough 20+ years ago in a local offie, before it was "officially distributed" here -even though the offie, or their source, were likely paying more in transport per bottle.

The aviva stadium here threatened to reimport guinness kegs from the UK unless guinness dropped their price. The wholesale price difference was obviously so high that it was more profitable to ship it back and pay for that and all the admin.

L1011 wrote: »

And 23% VAT on the 11.92.

14.66 for a 70cl bottle. That means that the producer and retailer element on a bottle of Lidl or Aldi bourbon is 33c. Own-brand spirits are loss leaders in Ireland.

The 16.90 litre of Jameson mentioned further up there would require a loss of 4.10 on the duty and VAT alone.

Interesting, thanks

I suspected the cases of 33cl bottles are loss leaders in many supermarkets.

I don't get why they would do this on own-brand spirits?

L1011 wrote: »

By cost, I suspect the #1 item I buy in Lidl is their gin - its decent (better than Cork Dry by an incalculable margin) and it's 13.99 when the duty and VAT on duty is 13.74.

There's loss leaders and then there's loss leaders. Pulling it out of the air type of guess, but surely the cost for producing their own-brand spirits must be €3-€4 with some more added for delivery and packaging. There's no way that LIDL are losing €4 - €5 a bottle on own-branded 40% spirits, is there? Better to not sell them at all and stick to the branded goods at a similar price level to the supermarkets.

I'm always amazed when visiting a LIDL in Germany, where the same prosecco they sell in Ireland for ~€12 sells for €2. I'm not a prosecco drinker, but it gives you a better understanding of the value versus the perceived value of the contents of the bottle.

L1011 wrote: »

20*330 = 6.60 litres, 7.20 of duty and VAT. So a box of 20 for 15 quid has a very significant retail and manufacturer margin there.

Yes, I used to always bring up the point that centra often sold cases of heineken for 15euro. This is not a shop where people were doing their weekly shop. Most I saw were not even buying a bar or anything else. The loss leader idea is never going to work in some shops.

L1011 wrote: »

This is why MUP will make beer a bit dearer in off-sales but will make spirits utterly insanely dear in off-sales. All done to pacify the publicans.

Not sure if I understand you right. A 700ml bottle of 37.5% spirits will be able to be sold for 20.17 with MUP, no real change for bog standard branded spirits.

I was saying this "health bill" could have the opposite effect, as many binge drinkers may turn to spirits instead of beer, same price per unit alcohol but many get more of the desired drunken effect from spirits.

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

but surely the cost for producing their own-brand spirits must be €3-€4 with some more added for delivery and packaging.

Vodka/ethanol is very cheap to make. But I also do not understand why they sell it at such an apparent loss.

I have not seen examples of a breakdown of the figures where companies are claiming VAT back.

https://www.thesun.ie/archives/irish-news/228306/cheap-booze-but-you-lose-supermarkets-toasting-e24m-vat-back-trick/

Since 2006, when the Groceries Order was abolished, retailers in Ireland have been able to sell alcohol below cost — and then recover the VAT on the difference between the sale and cost price.

A ban on "below cost selling" is what the shop actually paid, nothing to do with the cost of manufacture. I expect there are loopholes they could use. e.g. say tesco buy from a brewery, can A and can B, both actually identical beers. The brewery want to charge 50cent a can to make a profit. So I guess they could privately say "you have to buy the exact same amount of both beers and we will charge 10 cent for beer A and 90cent for beer B. So the supplier gets the same money but the invoice shows it was only 10 cent for beer A.