Items surrounding the LCBO Exchange Article
Bigger, Better, Brighter - the LCBO 15 years later
Published March - April 2006

Item	Then	Now	Change (%)	My Comments
Sales	$1.8 billion	$3.6 billion	100%	Population has increased by 24.36 %, and Consumer Price Index by 29.08 %. This combined effect of just over 60.5 % would seem to explain much of the increase. We should also remember that 1991 was severe economic times compared to 2005, and that LCBO has spent a lot of taxpayer money promoting the consumption of beverage alcohol in the interval. (1.2436 x 1.2908 = 1.6052388)
Dividend	$675 million	$1.17 billion	73%	Why is the increase in the dividend so much lower than the increase in sales? At the same rate as 1991 it should be $1.35 billion - what happened to lower the expectation by $180,000,000.00??
Vintages Products	700	4,464	538%	One must point out that Vintages historically is less than 10% Canadian Content. What effect has this promotion of mainly-imported products by the Ontario Government had on the Ontario Wine Industry? On Ontario taxpayers?
Sales of Ontario Wine	$150 million	$231 million	54%	The combination of the Consumer Price Index compounded by the population increase in Ontario should have resulted in sales of $240 million even if the value of the average bottle of Ontario wine hadn't increased. Yet a $40, 750 ml bottle of dry Ontario table wine would have been considered a pipe dream in 1991 when Mr. Brandt took over.
Sales of VQA Wines	$8.2 million	$50 million	510%	Subtracting VQA sales from total Ontario Wine sales means that non-VQA wine sales are up less than $40 million over this period. Imported wine sales are up more than $474 million in the 1990-2005 period.
Consignment / Private Stock	3,290	8,204	149%	This is exclusively non-Ontario product. I have never heard of Ontario product in this system, though it is allowed. Another example (see Vintages) of an incredible increase in Ontario government efforts to promote sales of imported wines.

Items Not Reported by LCBO in this Article (but all from LCBO or Ontario Government reports as indicated)
Item	Then	Now	Change (%)	My Comments
Sales of non-VQA Ontario wine	$141.8 million ($150-8.2 above)	$181 million ($231-50 above)	27.60%	Given the combined 60.5% combined effect of population growth and consumer price index this should be considered a serious decrease.
Domestic Wine Market Share, Dollars	28.0 % $ 150,080,000 1990 Annual Report	24.9 % $ 284,158,000 2004-05 Annual Report	DECREASE 3.1% (11.1% relative to share in 1990)	LCBO has spent a lot of public money to persuade Ontario taxpayers that only the LCBO can protect the domestic industry. The former chair was famous for his often-stated-view as the great hero of the Ontario wine industry. Yet despite the fact that Ontario wines have gone from very low to very high quality, winning awards worldwide, Ontario market share has decreased. WHY??
Imported Wine Market Share, Dollars	72.0 % $ 385,041,000 1990 Annual Report	75.1 % $ 859,107,000 2004-05 Annual Report	INCREASE 3.1% (4.4% relative to share in 1990)	Surely nobody can complain that the LCBO hasn't been acting as a great supporter of free trade? (SHOP THE WORLD!) (DISCOVER THE WORLD!!) The only legal commercial wine competition to LCBO is the domestic industry. When did Wal Mart last send you to Sears?
Domestic Wine Market Share, Litres	36.4 % (26,002,000 litres) 1990 Annual Report	30.2% (32,528,000 litres) 2004-05 Annual Report	DECREASE 6.2% (17.0% relative to share in 1990)	Actual domestic litre sales have held about steady given the increase in population. Yet consumption of imports, by litres, has doubled. WHY?? (It should also be noted that in 1988 LCBO sold more than 34 million litres of Domestic wine, which it has yet to do since).
Imported Wine Market Share, Litres	63.6% (45,476,000 litres) 1990 Annual Report	69.8% (75,150,000 litres) 2004-05 Annual Report	INCREASE 6.2% (9.7% relative to share in 1990)	Why does LCBO brag so much about increasing Ontario wine sales when the market share for domestic wines has decreased by 17.0% in terms of litre sales? Or when imported sales have increased by four-and-a-half times as much in terms of litres?? (29.7 million vs 6.5 million litres)
Number of Ontario Wine General Listings	37.9% (562 listings) 1990 Annual Report	27.5% (434 listings) 2004-05 Annual Report	DECREASE 10.4% (27.4% relative to share in 1990)
Number of Imported Wine General Listings	62.1% (922 listings) 1990 Annual Report	72.5% (1,143 listings) 2004-05 Annual Report	INCREASE 10.4% (16.7% relative to share in 1990)
Litre Sales per domestic general lcbo listing	46,266 litres per general listing	74,949 litres per general listing	INCREASE 62%	In 1991 a domestic wine only needed to sell 46, 266 litres to "earn" a general listing, less by a bit than an imported listing. It has become 62% more difficult to support a domestic wine listing while the increased burden to support an imported listing is only half as much. I find it very wrong that a domestic wine has to sell 9,000 litres (1,000 standard cases) more than an import to get a listing.
Litre Sales per imported general lcbo listing	49,323 litres per general listing	65,748 litres per general listing	INCREASE 33%	Note also that the presence of huge numbers of imported wine, in Vintages, the Classics Catalogue, and the Consignment Warehouse mean that the number of litres per imported product sold would be enormously smaller than the number reported to your left.
Litre Sales per domestic products available (**see below)	41,142 litres per each of the 632 products available.	36,964 litres per each of the 880 products available.		Note that the presence of small numbers of Ontario wine in Vintages and to a very small extent in the Classics Catalogue would slightly reduce the number of litres per brand available to your left. This would indicate that to be available through the LCBO, a domestic product would need to sell more than 4 times the number of litres as an import in 1990.
Litre Sales per imported products available(** see below)	9,392 litres per each of the 4,842 products available.	5,623 litres per each of the 13,365 products available.		Note also that the presence of huge numbers of imported wine, in Vintages, the Classics Catalogue, and the Consignment Warehouse mean that the number of litres per imported product sold would be enormously smaller than the number reported to your left. It would seem that by 2004-2005 that a domestic would need to sell more than six times as many litres as an import, up from four times as many in 1990.
Number of LCBO employees earning $100,000 plus per year	10 employees as of 1996 (salary disclosure law 1997)	132 employees as of 2005 (salary disclosure law 2006)	INCREASE 1,220.00 %	It would seem that certain things at the LCBO increase much faster than Ontario wine sales. Hydro Junior, anyone?

				** NOTE: Products available 1990- for domestic wines, this is calculated as follows - 562 listings plus 10% of vintages (.1700=70) plus 0% of consignment thus 632 available products. The estimate of 10% of vintages is almost certainly an overstatement of the number of domestic wines available. The imports are as follows: 922 listings plus 90% of vintages (.9700=630) plus 100% of consignment (3,290) equals 4,842
				** NOTE: Products available 2004-2005- for domestic wines, this is calculated as follows - 434 listings plus 10% of vintages (.14464=446) plus 0% of consignment thus 880 available products. The estimate of 10% of vintages is almost certainly an overstatement of the number of domestic wines available, as I tracked almost all releases in 2004, and found 270 domestic. The imports are as follows: 1,143 listings plus 90% of vintages (.94464=4,018) plus 100% of consignment (8,204) equals 13,365