By James Atkinson
Australian Liquor Marketers has confirmed its acquisition of Liquor Traders Pty Ltd, which controls the marketing of 140 Thirsty Camel stores in Queensland.
The deal was announced by ALM CEO Scott Marshall at Metcash’s annual results presentation on Monday, along with the acquisition of another pub in Queensland, the Brightwater Hotel at Mountain Creek on the Sunshine Coast.
Marshall said the pub’s bottleshop had been rebadged as Cellarbrations, further expanding the banner group’s Queensland footprint.
Metcash said its liquor division performed strongly during the financial year, with an increase in revenue of 8.3 per cent to $3.2 billion and segment profit increasing by 14.2 per cent to $53.8 million.
“The increased revenue was driven by strong organic sales volume increases of more than three per cent for Independent Brands Australia (IBA) retail brands,” the company said.
“This was the result of the continual improvement of consumer in-store retail offers as well as a full year of sales contribution under the Liquor Marketing Group supply agreement.”
“In addition, the trend of consumers favouring smaller format retail stores has increased sales to external customer groups,” Metcash said.
Marshall said IBA had succeeded at improving its performance in the premium wine segment, as well as targeting more profitable categories of beer.