Robert Brewer: Spirits NZ CEO on the sales of spirits surpassing wine

What poison are you picking? 

Sales of spirits are set to overtake wine globally, having already overtaken in New Zealand. 

Kiwis are drinking less and spending their money a little differently, and last year was the first time more spirits were bought than wine. 

Robert Brewer, CEO of Spirits NZ, told Andrew Dickens that the New Zealand wine industry also had a bit of a slow patch, and those things combined resulted in more spirits being sold. 

He said that distillers are getting better and better at their jobs, and the growing number of them means that proportionally, more spirits wind up sold. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the news is out the sales of spirits are
set to overtake wine, and this is globally. But the
funny thing is we already knew that in New Zealand.
That already happened a while back. We are drinking less
and therefore we spend our money a little differently, and
last year, for the first time, we were more thirsty
for spirits than wine. So Spirits New Zealand Chief executive
Robert Brewer joins me right now, Hey, hey, Robert, how

(00:22):
are you.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'm very good.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Thank you givin we're such a wine country, given we've
got such great wine giving, we're so proud of our wine.
Was all this surprising?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Well, I think the trend's been happening for some time.
And I mean I work for the spirits industry obviously,
but I'm also a proud New Zealand wine drinker myself.
But a couple of things have happened over the last
few years that has meant that spirits have been on
the up and up one. As you've referred to, the

(00:53):
consumers are drinking less, but they're going up the premium tree,
so they're spending a little bit more but drinking less.
And spirits lends themselves to that premium nature. At the
same time, globally and actually here in New Zealand, the
wine industries hit a bit of a bit of a
slow patch, and so those things have combined to mean

(01:14):
that certainly globally, spirits sales and volume sold will will pass.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Wine and spirits have got better and better and better
and better. I bought it gin the other day which
was flavored with monica that you drink with ginger rail,
and then it was absolutely delicious. What do you call them?
Our spirit brewers? What's the technical two?

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Distillers?

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Distillers, Thank you so much. Distillers are just getting better
and better at their jobs.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Around the world, without a doubt, and in New Zealand
it's a growth story of some proportion. I think, you know,
fifteen years ago you could have counted the truly true
commercial distillers on two hands. Now there are about one
hundred and sixty one hundred and eighty. Gin is the premium.

(02:04):
Gin is the is, the is the watch word. But
everybody's laying down what we call the dark spirits, the
whiskeys and the RUMs, because in the long term that's
where the big profits are and.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Our New Zealand is preferring New Zealand made spirits or international.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
It's a mix as you would imagine, just like we. Yes,
I wish I could say that I thought of that.
It didn't come out the yeah, yeah, no, no, but yes,
I mean the New Zealand consumer loves New Zealand spirits
and drinks them. And of course you know what I

(02:43):
was going to say, the Kiwi spirit is like. But
you know what the Kiwis are like. They they love
to look off shore and export and that's what and
that's what our ki We made spirits makers are doing.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Robert Geers, thank you so much for coming in. I
have to say I couldn't think of the word distillers
because Brewer big charge of spirits, we have to say,
is a nice irony.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Oh well, you know, if I had a dollar for every.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Time I know, I know, but we're very chea humorously
no fair enough.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Imagine if I if I ran the Brewers Association, that
would be too much.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Anyway, you go out there and shake things up.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio,