Coopers says Australian beer loses its recession-proof appeal at A$65 a carton

Beer is losing its reputation in Australia as a product that can keep selling through a downturn, according to the head of Coopers Brewery, who says higher taxes and pressure on household budgets are making drinkers more cautious.

On Monday, November 9, Michael Shearer, managing director of the family-owned brewer, said a carton of beer now regularly costs more than A$65, a price point that is starting to change consumer behavior. He said repeated government excise increases on packaged beer, combined with broader cost-of-living strain, were making customers more hesitant to buy.

The comments mark a notable warning from one of the country’s established brewers. Coopers is Australia’s third-largest beer group and has a national market share of 6%, according to Shearer. His assessment suggests that even a category long seen as relatively steady in weaker economic periods is now facing stronger resistance from consumers.

Shearer said beer was no longer showing the same recession-proof qualities it had in the past. The pressure, he indicated, is coming from two directions at once: higher tax-driven retail prices and tighter household finances. For consumers, that means a routine purchase is becoming a more deliberate one. For brewers and retailers, it means there may be less room to keep lifting prices without affecting sales.

The warning is significant for the broader drinks business because beer has often been treated as one of the more defensive segments in alcoholic beverages. If demand in beer weakens as taxes and living costs rise, it could signal broader sensitivity across the sector, including other categories that rely on discretionary consumer spending. That does not mean the same pattern will spread evenly across wine, spirits or ready-to-drink products, but it points to a tougher pricing environment for beverage companies more broadly.

The focus of Shearer’s remarks was packaged beer, where the effect of tax increases is visible on the shelf and easy for shoppers to compare across brands and stores. Once a carton moves well past A$65, buyers may start changing habits by delaying purchases, switching brands or cutting back on volume. That kind of behavior can quickly become important in a market where even modest shifts in demand can affect production plans, promotions and margins.

The comments also highlight the role of government excise policy in the final price consumers pay. When those increases land during a period of stretched household budgets, they can add to the challenge for brewers trying to protect both volume and profitability. In that setting, price rises are not only a question of recovering costs. They also test how much consumers are prepared to absorb before reducing their purchases.

For retailers, the change could influence discounting and product mix, especially in large-format packaged beer. For brewers, it raises a more basic question about whether beer can still rely on the resilience that once set it apart from many other discretionary goods. Shearer’s comments suggest that in the current Australian market, that assumption is becoming harder to defend.