Adelaide brewer, Coopers Brewery, recorded its third year of volume growth in FY26, lifting keg sales by 7.4 per cent and reporting a 6.2 per cent profit before tax increase to $23.9 million.
Sales of Coopers ales, lager, stout and partner brands, excluding non-alcoholic beer, reached 82.5 million litres, up from 80.6 million litres. Packaged beer, rose 1.7 per cent to account for 87 per cent of volume, while keg sales are now approaching pre-Covid levels.
Profit remains below the $32.8 million reported in FY24, before investment and costs in the $70 million Regency Park visitor centre and distillery pulled FY25 profit down to $22.5 million. Fully franked dividends paid during the year fell to $10.50 a share from $11.25.
Coopers MD, Michael Shearer, said, “This was another outstanding result for the Brewery, particularly in the context of a relatively subdued national beer market, increasing pressures on Australian household budgets and rising costs of production.”
Coopers said it has ordered around 7000 extra kegs in response to rising on-premise demand. The keg growth follows FY25, when keg sales rose 5.9 per cent, and comes as the federal government’s two-year freeze on draught beer excise indexation runs from August 2025.
About three in four Coopers beers are sold outside South Australia, with Queensland its fastest growing market. Shearer said lager has been the main source of new drinkers, with Australian Lager recruiting new customers and a packaging refresh of Dry 3.5 building on momentum in the category. Ales and stout also grew.
“We currently hold around six per cent of a national beer market which is dominated by two foreign-owned giants, so there’s definitely plenty of growth potential for us to target,” Shearer said.
Coopers’ other businesses were weaker. Malt barley sales fell in what Shearer described as a highly price competitive market with subdued demand from Asian brewers. Sales of DIY brewing products also declined as Australian demand levelled out and exports softened slightly, after DIY volumes fell 17 per cent in FY25.
The brewer’s range is widening beyond beer. Coopers Zero, launched in August 2025, sold about 400,000 litres in FY26, and last month Coopers announced its first ginger beer. More than 100,000 litres of single malt whisky, in 500 barrels, is maturing in the underground stillage at Regency Park, which has capacity for 5000 barrels.
