Woolworths stops selling margarine: Customers turn to butter and reject grocery staple spread

Demand for margarine – which for decades outsold butter – has dropped so low that some Woolworths Metro stores do not stock the grocery staple at all. 

Woolworths could not state how many of its Metro outlets did not sell margarine but it accounted for only 20 per cent of sales in the category compared with 80 per cent for butter.

When Daily Mail Australia visited the Woolworths Metro store opposite Central train station in Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills, staff advised margarine was not available.

Instead, the fridge was stacked with ten butter options produced by Lurpak, Western Star, Mainland, Devondale and Woolworths, as well as a home-brand olive oil spread.

A Woolworths spokeswoman confirmed the Central station store was one of those that did not offer margarine as an alternative to butter. 

‘We continue to stock margarine across the majority of our Metro stores,’ the spokeswoman said.

‘However, due to space limitations in our Central station store we have curated our range to focus on butter as that tends to be a more popular choice for customers in the area.’

The spokeswoman said it was only Metro locations near train stations that did not stock margarine, which was available in all Woolworths ‘neighbourhood’ stores. 

Thirty years ago margarine outsold butter in Australia by a factor of almost three to one. 

From the mid 1970s, margarine, which is made from vegetable oil, had been seen as a healthier alternative to butter following increased awareness of cholesterol and the dairy product’s supposed role in heart disease. 

Meadow Lea’s hugely successful and long-running ‘You ought to be congratulated’ television advertising campaigns further pushed the popularity of margarine. 

Those commercials, created by Alan Morris and Alan Johnson of the Mojo agency, promoted margarine as a substitute for butter in the preparation of almost any meal.

At the Woolworths Metro store opposite Central train station in Surry Hills there is no margarine but ten butter options as well as an olive oil spread (above) 

At the newly opened Woolworths Metro opposite Redfern train station this week there were a couple of tubs of Meadow Lea margarine in a fridge full of butter

Featuring catchy jingles and dubious rhymes such as ‘I must say ya scones are, absolutely bonzer’, the ads ran in high rotation from the 1970s through the 1980s. 

An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report put market shares of margarine and butter in 1992 at 73.9 per cent and 26.1 per cent respectively. 

A turning point came after the 1993 publication of a United States study which found trans fats produced when vegetable oils were hardened could be a greater health risk than cholesterol.    

By the late 1990s, margarine sales had begun to markedly decline and by 2015 research by Roy Morgan showed butter had taken the lead. Spreads made from nuts and olive oil have also become widely used.

Roy Morgan found butter buyers to be more likely than margarine users to enjoy cooking and were more likely to want unprocessed, additive-free foods.

Margarines now contain healthy polyunsaturated fats (omega-3 and omega-6) and little or no trans fat. The Heart Foundation still recommends margarine over butter. 

‘Butter is not a health food and is something that should be limited in a heart healthy diet,’ the foundation’s website states. 

‘Evidence shows a relatively small or neutral risk between butter and mortality and heart disease.’

Online platform Statista, which compiles consumer data, estimates revenue in the Australian margarine market for 2023 to be about $420million and almost $1billion for butter. 

The Woolworths spokeswoman said customers could provide feedback on items they wanted to see stocked in stores through their ‘Picked by You’ program.

‘We strive to curate our stores to best meet the needs of our local community,’ she said. 

At the newly opened Woolworths Metro opposite Redfern train station there were just a couple of tubs of Meadow Lea margarine displayed in a fridge full of butter this week. 

A Woolworths spokeswoman confirmed the Central station store (above) was one of those that did not offer margarine as an alternative to butter