Demographics, diversity and drinking rituals: Why Australia is the beverage industry’s most strategic growth market
Australia’s beverage market is being reshaped by powerful demographic and behavioural forces that will define demand for decades. At Suntory’s Rituals event in Sydney, demographer Bernard Salt and Suntory Global Spirits Global VP of Insights and Analytics, Jing Matauru, outlined a converging story – one that positions Australia and New Zealand as two of the most strategically attractive beverage markets in the developed world.
Salt’s macro view provided the structural case: Australia ranks 11th globally in GDP per capita, up from 24th in the mid-1990s, while New Zealand now sits at 22nd. This upward trajectory – rare among developed economies – is backed by relentless population growth, largely driven by immigration. “Where else in the developed world,” Salt asked, “do you get such consistent expansion?”
For manufacturers, this means certainty: a bigger market, with rising purchasing power, and strong appetite for lifestyle-oriented spending. Importantly, Salt highlighted the acceleration of lifestyle cities – Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Central Coast, Wollongong, Cairns, Tauranga – where population growth outpaces capitals and where household spending heavily favours food, drink, and home-based social experiences.
This intersects directly with consumption behaviour. Millennials, six million strong, are now entering peak earning years and the “forever home” stage – larger houses, more entertaining, more premiumisation in the home. For suppliers of spirits, RTDs, mixers, non-alcoholic drinks, and functional beverages, the implication is clear: the home has become a high-value channel in its own right.
If Salt established the opportunity, Matauru defined the challenge: understanding a consumer base unlike any seen before in Australia. With more than 30 per cent of the population born overseas, multicultural influence is no longer a cultural trend – it is a commercial engine. Indian, Filipino, Chinese, Nepalese and Middle Eastern populations are reshaping drinking rituals, flavour preferences, and retail patterns.
Matauru noted that multicultural shoppers pursue dual identity: they integrate into Australian culture while preserving core food and beverage rituals from home. This means new consumption peaks – Diwali, Lunar New Year, Eid – that will increasingly match Christmas and Australia Day in beverage sales cycles. It also means a rise in lighter, sweeter, and food-pairing-friendly serves, plus an influx of flavour trends such as ube, matcha, and spiced tea profiles.
Critically, Matauru’s team has mapped more than 250,000 drinking occasions across Australia and New Zealand. Her conclusion: brands win by embedding into rituals, not categories. With consumers facing choice overload, beverage selection becomes intuitive only when it is effortless – linked to moments like unwinding after work, a weekend lunch, or home entertainment.
For the manufacturing sector, the strategic takeaway is profound. Growth will come from:
- Ritual-based innovation aligned to specific moments;
- Formats and pack sizes suited to home entertaining;
- Flavours and profiles drawn from multicultural cuisines;
- On-premise and retail models that acknowledge shifting rituals (including post-WFH patterns); and
- Premiumisation with value, given cost-of-living sensitivity.
Salt summed up Australia’s advantage simply: a wealthy, growing, lifestyle-driven population in a market that is unusually receptive to new flavours, new formats, and new social behaviours. Matauru provided the roadmap for capturing it.
For suppliers, manufacturers and brand owners, the opportunity is not just to sell beverages – but to shape the rituals of a nation entering a new era of demographic and cultural change.
