By Deborah Jackson, editor National Liquor News
Liquor Legends has announced its expansion into South Australia with 21 new outlets to take the banner effective 1 October.
John Carmody, managing director of Liquor Legends, told TheShout that the expansion can be credited to the strength of the company’s loyalty program and centralised stock control systems.
TheShout reported in May that Liquor Legends had reported like-for-like sales growth of plus 10 per cent on the back of its continued investment in centralised technology.
Carmody said at the time that more than 36 per cent of Liquor Legends’ retail sales were from someone with a rewards card, with the best performing stores seeing 70 per cent of sales to rewards card members, with those customers spending an average of $14 more per sale.
He said: "Our rewards program does deliver one platform, one database across the whole group. It gives us real time access to consumers' needs and preferences and we provide live access back through to our members, but also to suppliers. I don't think anyone else does that across the industry.”
Carmody told TheShout, the South Australian expansion is "on the back of our loyalty and rewards offers and the fact that we offer a full stock control and bookkeeping solution for them as well”.
He said: “The owners of these outlets also have outlets with us here in Queensland, and we’ve also had a couple of other outlets that have been on our liquid stock control and bookkeeping in South Australia for the last two years, so the next step for them is the launch of the banners,” said Carmody.
To manage the growth in South Australia, Liquor Legends has appointed Scott Hosking as its new business development manager.
“We’ve appointed a new business development manager who was the ex-key accounts manager for Lion and also recently worked with Asahi, so he brings a lot of experience to our team down there,” said Carmody.
“We’re trying to expand on what has been a really big base to begin with into something quite substantial down there in South Australia,” he said.