B.C. wholesale buyers earlier this year continued their trend of purchasing less alcohol, according to recent data from the British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch (BCLDB).
BCLDB data for the first three months of this year also show that campaigns urging shoppers to buy Canadian products are having mixed results. B.C. wine sales, for example, struggled with sales declines steeper than for the wine category as a whole.
The government-run alcohol distribution monopoly recently released data showing its wholesale sales to pubs, restaurants, bars, government-owned stores and privately owned stores in the quarter ended March 31.
Data for retail sales at stores is not available.
The BCLDB found wholesale buyers purchased $725,325,870 worth of alcoholic beverages in the quarter, down $8,529,212, or 1.16 per cent from the $733,855,082 spent in the same quarter in 2024. Note that this quarter in 2025 had one fewer day than it did in 2024, because last year was a leap year.
The trend of booze sales being on the rocks was clear last year, when overall sales for the year were down 3.82 per cent from 2023.
Wine is the biggest alcohol category
Wine remained the largest category for B.C. wholesales, followed by beer, and both of those categories saw declines in volume and in total dollars spent.
Wine wholesales dropped 3.32 per cent by volume, to 13,957,201 litres, down 479,043 litres from the 14,436,244 litres that wholesale buyers purchased in the quarter ended March 31 last year.
Those wholesales were also down 2.66 per cent, to $224,860,191, or by $6,153,984, compared with the $231,014,175 that wholesale buyers spent in the quarter in 2024.
The quarter saw U.S. President Donald Trump threaten broad-based tariffs against Canada, pause those tariffs and then levy separate 25-per-cent tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Those moves prompted a stutter-step of retaliation from B.C. Premier David Eby, who in February temporarily pulled all U.S. alcohol from so-called "red" states, which have Republican leadership. Eby then on March 10 pulled all U.S. alcohol from B.C. government liquor store shelves and halted all imports of those products as well as all wholesales to BCLDB retail stores.
The result of those moves significantly pushed down B.C. wholesales for U.S. wines even though the Vancouver International Wine Festival was held in February, had the U.S. as its theme region and may have inspired some industry buyers to place wholesale orders.
B.C. wholesale buyers spent $20,700,567 on U.S. wines in the quarter ended March 31, down a whopping 23.16 per cent from the $26,940,346 spent in the same quarter one year earlier. By volume, those buyers purchased 920,512 litres of that wine in the quarter, down 27.63 per cent from the 1,271,916 litres in the quarter one year earlier.
Nationalism spiked in Canada and liquor store staff put up signs saying "Buy Canadian instead."
Wholesale buyers did not necessarily buy Canadian, given that their purchases of B.C. wines dropped by higher percentages by volume and by dollars spent than for the wine category as a whole.
Those buyers only bought 7,166,330 litres of B.C. wine in the quarter ended March 31, down 7.65 per cent from the 7,760,061 litres of that wine purchased in the same quarter one year earlier. In dollars spent, the wholesale buyers shelled out $102,448,555 on B.C. wine in the quarter from the BCLDB. That is down 6.2 per cent, or $6,775,274 less than the $109,223,829 that they spent in the same quarter one year earlier.
There were negligible increases in the much smaller category of wholesale purchases of Canadian wine from outside B.C., by volume and dollars spent.
The parts of the world where B.C. wholesale buyers increased purchases of wine by volume, included Argentina, Australia, Austria, Chile, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, New Zealand and Spain.
Beer sales fall by greatest percentage among major alcohol categories
Beer led all alcohol categories with the biggest percentage declines in sales, by volume and by dollars spent.
B.C. wholesale buyers spent $220,343,008 on beer in the quarter ended March 31, down 3.23 per cent from the $227,701,746 that they spent in the same quarter one year earlier. By volume those buyers bought 51,252,717 litres of beer, or 3.81 per cent less than the 53,280,808 purchased in the same quarter in 2024.
The vast majority of beer purchased in B.C. is made in B.C. in part because some beer that carries U.S. brand names is actually made in B.C.
The wholesale buyers spent $165,113,333 on B.C.-made beer in the quarter ended in March, down 4.46 per cent from the $172,817,565 that they spent in the same quarter in 2024. By volume, the decline was 4.59 per cent, to 40,389,381 litres in the first quarter of this year from 42,331,239 litres in the same period last year.
Wholesales for U.S. beer nosedived, but that category is minuscule compared with B.C.-made beer. Wholesale buyers bought $179,983 worth of U.S.-made imported beer in the quarter ended March 31. That was down 59.85 per cent from the $448,256 spent in the same quarter in 2024. By volume, sales for that beer was down 63.95 per cent, to 25,497 litres.
U.S. whiskey sales decline while Canadian whisky sales rise
Spirit beverages were a rare bright spot for wholesales in B.C. in the first three months of this year.
B.C. wholesale buyers spent $194,573,820 on spirits in the quarter ended in March. That was up 2.54 per cent from the $189,754,760 spent in the same quarter of 2024. By volume, spirit-beverage wholesales were up 1.29 per cent to 6,026,659 litres.
The effects of Trump's tariff actions, and Eby's retaliation were clear in the category of whisky and whiskey.
BCLDB data show wholesale buyers in the province bought $2,525,901 worth of the American whiskey (spelled with an e) in the quarter ended March 31, down 3.15 per cent from the $2,607,951 spent in the same quarter in 2024. By volume the sales drop was 4.18 per cent, to 62,318 litres in the same two time periods.
A separate category of U.S. whiskey is bourbon, which is made from at least 51-per-cent corn, and is almost always from Kentucky. The BCLDB told BIV that all bourbon sales are for American whiskies and the categorization of the drink comes from agents. Bourbon sales fell 4.41 per cent in the quarter ended March 31, to $5,179,484, from $5,418,580 in the same quarter in 2024. By volume those sales fell 6.16 per cent, to 112,076 litres in the first three months of this year.
Sales for Canadian whisky (spelled without an e) are much bigger, and that category enjoyed a spike in sales. Wholesale buyers spent $26,536,421 on Canadian whisky in the quarter ended in March, up 7.44 per cent from the $24,699,578 spent in the same quarter in 2024. By volume, wholesales for those whiskies were up 4.16 per cent to 956,027 litres.
Wholesale buyers spend marginally more on refreshment beverages
The final major category of alcoholic drinks, refreshment beverages, is the smallest. It also eked out some gains.
B.C. wholesale buyers spent $85,548,851 on refreshment beverages, such as coolers, ciders and seltzers, in the quarter ended March 31. That was up 0.19 per cent from the $85,384,401 spent in the same quarter of 2024. By volume, however, those buyers bought 2.19 per cent less product, or 15,553,058 litres, down from 15,901,710 litres in the same quarter of 2024.
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