The home-brand growth trend extends to alcohol as well, with the group reporting a 15.2 per cent increase in sales across exclusive liquor brands.

Cain said the group had seen particularly strong growth among “ready to drink” pre-mixed products and spirits.

“What we’ve got now is a very good, exclusive... brand offer in all of the categories in liquor,” he said.

Coles reported a 7 per cent jump in third-quarter supermarket sales on Friday, hitting $8.6 billion, while liquor sales were 2.6 per cent stronger to $801 million.

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The company said its promotional offers and own-brand products helped power the results, leading to an 11.4 per cent jump in own-brand sales revenue. Coles’ shares opened slightly stronger but declined by 0.2 per cent to $18.42 in the first half hour of trading.

Exclusive to Coles brands delivered $2.9 billion in sales for the quarter and the company launched 227 own-brand products over the past three months.

In his last quarterly update for the business before his retirement, Cain said the group’s budget focus had helped drive sales volumes during the quarter.

“At a time when cost-of-living pressures are mounting for many customers, the unique combination of Australia’s largest own-brand range, hundreds of dropped and locked prices, thousands of weekly specials, free MasterChef cookware and Flybuys points has successfully driven sales and volume,” he said.

The group’s numbers were in line with consensus expectations, but the stock declined throughout Friday’s session to sit 1.7 per cent lower at $18.14 in the last hour of trading on Friday.

Analysts noted that sales across the group’s supermarkets were better than had been expected, but Coles’ liquor sales came in below what the market had been predicting.

Stock watchers were also wary about the group’s online sales, which were softer than some analysts expected despite climbing by 2.7 per cent. Coles also flagged continued construction delays for its automated home delivery project Ocado.

“Ongoing Ocado delays [are] disappointing,” UBS analysts said.

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