Australia brand-ranking analysis and economic overview

Brands in the Australia top 100 contend with economic growth that varies widely by both category and geography.

Australia witnessed solid, if far from spectacular, retails growth in 2015, with sales rising by 4.19 percent to $24.759 billion.

According to national figures, sales increased in food retailing (0.8 percent), clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (1.1 percent) and department stores (0.1 percent) in seasonally adjusted terms.

However, sales fell for household goods retailing (-1.0 percent), other retailing (-0.9 percent) and cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (-0.5 percent).

Despite the large 1 percent fall in household goods sales, something that adds to evidence that housing market conditions continue to cool, the category still recorded the fastest annual percentage growth at 6.3 percent.

In our Top 1000 survey it was electronics firm which took four of the top five places, with Samsung topping the list, followed by Apple in second and Sony third. Nestle was the exception, coming in fourth, with LG taking fifth.

Like the performance by category, the brands in our survey will be well aware that turnover across the nation is proving to be very mixed.

Sales increased in the Australian Capital Territory (2.4 percent), Queensland (0.2 percent), New South Wales (0.1 percent), South Australia (0.2 percent) and the Northern Territory (0.3 percent), but fell in in Western Australia (-0.6 percent), Victoria (-0.1 percent) and Tasmania (-0.6 percent).

For the year Victoria recorded the fastest annual percentage increase in sales at 5.8 percent, followed by the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales at 5.5 percent and 5.0 percent respectively.

Sales in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia were subdued as regional economies struggled.

2016 is likely to be another testing year especially if the housing market continues to slow.

Overall, Australian economic growth for the past 12 months was better than expected, rising 0.6 percent in the final quarter of 2015.

The figure, above the expectations for an expansion of 0.4 percent, contributed to year-on-year growth of 3.0 percent. This was also significantly above forecasts for an increase of 2.5 percent.