By Deborah Jackson, Editor National Liquor News
In December last year, Australian Liquor Marketers (ALM) acquired Porter’s Liquor with the intent of investing in the business to more than double its footprint nationally.
Since then the united groups have been planning to relaunch with the increased Porter’s national footprint in September this year.
Giuseppe Minissale, the General Manager of Porter’s Liquor, told National Liquor News that they are currently deconstructing the business model and creating a greater culture around premium.
“One beauty of having ALM and Metcash behind it is that you have a lot of resources and we have the opportunity to have a good look at the business. We are in a planned program to refresh and relaunch the Porters national footprint in September,” he said.
The relaunch will involve a refreshing of the banner and it will include some current Porter’s stores transitioning over to IBA banners and vice versa.
“We are building a bit of a matrix to see how that looks and those stores will be eventually be offered an opportunity to come and play in Porter’s.
“We have already identified a couple of Porter’s stores that won’t work under the new Porter’s model, even one of my own in Yagoona, so that will probably become a Bottle O.”
While the Porter’s business model has always had a strong focus on premium wine, according to Minissale, the new model will rival that of Liquor Barons, who are arguably the leading banner group in that space.
“Between Liquor Barons and Porter’s it has always been a bit neck and neck. In fairness I would give Liquor Barons the nod at the moment, but I think Chris (O'Brien0 and I will be up for an exciting challenge in the future.”
When asked how an independent retailer can remain competitive in a challenging market, Minissale said that you have to target your approach.
“You don’t have to be as cheap as Dan Murphy’s, we could choose to be and we would lose money. But we can certainly be within the ballpark and offer value. In every Porter’s store situation now they have Dan Murphy’s sitting on top of them within five kilometres and every one of those Porter’s stores is absolutely growing their business. In fact an example, my Hornsby store is growing at 25 per cent against Dan Murphy’s and doing extremely well. You have to target your approach. You have to be really clever about what you offer and you have to be truly focused on what the consumer wants,” Giuseppe Minissale, Porter’s Liquor.