Earlier in the month, Jimmy Brings revealed the areas in Australia that are ordering the most beer through its services. The Shout spoke to Luke Calavassy, Head of Jimmy Brings, about why this research was commissioned and how it will impact the company’s operations.
“The purpose of us pulling together this data was really to look the product performance by geography, it wasn’t just beer we are looking at, but all categories,” Calavassy explains.
“W do this on a fairly frequent basis to really get an understanding of how our customers are shopping with us and what they’re interested in. It helps us keep in touch with them, but also allows to adjust our range to make sure it’s as relevant for customers as possible.”
It’s this second point that is the key operational takeaway for Jimmy Brings.
“It’s probably less about marketing, and probably more around what we’re actually ranging to customers. So if there’s a particular style, category or subcategory that’s resonating within a certain area, making sure that we’ve got a good range there to service that particular area, and then from an operational perspective, it’s really about making sure we’ve got enough fridge space,” Calavassy says.
Innovation leads to broadening tastes
A trend that Calavassy detected in the data was the increased varied in the beer styles being enjoyed by Australian drinkers.
“We’ve seen a huge amount of innovation happening across the beer category in the last few years, which I think has pumped a lot of excitement into it. I think there are new customers being acquired into that category because of the innovation, and I also think these customers are probably a lot less loyal to a single brand or subcategory than they used to be, and more open to discovery.
“When I talk about innovation I’m referring to the range of non-alcoholic beers that are available, how craft and flavours of craft has really exploded. Ginger being is going from strength to strength at the moment, and the launch of fruity beer late last year was quite interesting as well.
“I think brewers across the board, both independents and the larger brewers, are really focused on what customers are interested in, and there’s a necessity to really innovate,” Calavassy continues.
“We’ve seen that with packaging in particular across the beer category. If you look at any kind of craft beer section in a bottle shop, you’ll known it’s full of colour and excitement and crazy designs – which I think is really drawing in new customers,” he adds.
Calavassy also believes that the data shows a kind of synergy between the on-premise, and rapid delivery services like Jimmy Brings.
“What we’ve seen is the popping up of microbreweries around different areas and geographies, if you think of Marrickville in Sydney or Fitzroy and Collingwood in Melbourne.
“When people are living in these areas, they’re really being exposed to them, and it’s actually expanding their palates as well – with weird and wonderful flavours that they’re getting exposed to. Then they’re more open to trying new things like that when they’re purchasing online with Jimmy’s.”
Expanding the Jimmy Brings offering
The Shout enquired as to whether there were any further plans to service any additional areas for Jimmy Brings.
“In the last six months, we’ve gone through some pretty significant expansions into new areas. We’ve gone into Tasmania (so Hobart, Launceston), Newcastle, Wollongong, and Geelong, which is the largest amount of expansion we’ve done in over two and a half years,” Calavassy says,
“I think we’re probably at the moment at a point where we’re in enough geographies to really be servicing as many kinds of customers as we could be at this point in time. And for us, it’s about really going from entering a market into establishing ourselves in those markets.”
Instead, Calavassy is anticipating an expansion of range, but perhaps in a less conventional way that might be imagined.
“From a Jimmy Brings perspective, we’re looking at complementary products to our core range. So everything from whether it be salty snacks, to desserts, to potentially even frozen meals – the things you want to consume when you’re actually having a drink, but doing it in the context of Jimmy Brings and a lot of the time being at home.”
On beer in general, Calavassy says: “It’s an exciting category, it’s one that Jimmy Brings is definitely committed to, and we’re going to be pushing hard, and I expect that over the course of the next three to six months, we’re going to see some pretty exciting things coming through our range.”