Australians, like many consumers around the world, are cutting back personal spending by shopping less often and switching to less expensive and private label brands.  But one area where they refuse to compromise is their drink: sales of premium brands of beer, spirits and bottled wine all showed strong volume sales performance in the first quarter of 2009.

Imported and domestic premium beers posted growth of 15.3 and 18.6 percent, respectively, over the same period last year, while sales of premium spirits rose 21.3 percent.  Cheaper beer and spirit segments also showed growth, but not at the strong levels posted by their more expensive counterparts.

Overall, wine continued to experience volume losses, although increased demand for bottles costing $10-$20 was up 5.6 percent while bottles costing more than $20 showed growth of 4.1 percent.

“Instead of trading down when it comes to buying liquor, Australian consumers are becoming more sophisticated and are choosing high quality spirits, premium wines and a growing variety of premium or artisan-style beers,” said Michael Walton, executive director of Nielsen Australia’s Liquor Services Group.

Read the full press release here.