By Amy Looker, editor National Liquor News
The weakening Australian dollar will cause a reduction in the amount of parallel importing this year, predicts Southern Independent Liquor (SIL) managing director David Stephenson.
Stephenson said he hopes to see less parallel importing and cross-border trading during 2015, describing it as a win for the industry.
“This practice has been rife across the industry for a number of years and seeing this diminish would be a positive for many in the industry,” he said.
“As well as directly impacting suppliers, parallel importing has a significant negative impact on wide-range wholesalers who miss out on revenue and on banner groups who miss out on trading term rebates.”
SIL is behind the Duncan’s and Oz Liquor banner groups and Stephenson said the group will continue to champion the independent retail sector this year.
“Our commitment has always been to grow independent strength and our key focus in 2015 will be consolidation of the independent liquor sector,” said Stephenson.
“With market share continuing to be dominated by the big box stores and national chains, it has never been more important to work together in an effort to create a stronger and more vibrant independent liquor retail sector. Group buying power can best be achieved through strength in numbers and this is what is needed in order to stay competitive on price in today’s retail environment.”
Read the full interview with David Stephenson in the upcoming Leaders' Forum edition of National Liquor News.
Is David claiming that SIL do not buy parallel stock? Outrageous claims from a business that has continuously supported parallel.
is that code for, we are going to be able to rip off the consumer again