Adrian Moelands, General Manager of Thirsty Camel Victoria, spoke about engaging regional members, building loyalty, and delivering value.
Q: What have been the highlights of the first half of 2024 for Thirsty Camel Victoria?
We’re so proud of the success that we’ve had so far in 2024. In a challenging economic
climate, we’re laser-focused on executing our plans and delivering growth for our members. We’re thrilled to have welcomed three new Thirsty Camel stores to the Victorian business already this year, with six more planned to launch before December.
Q: How has your inaugural Roadshow Series been received?
In February, Victoria hosted its first series of Roadshows, where Head Office and valued suppliers travelled to four corners of Victoria to connect with our members in their regions. The response we’ve received has been overwhelmingly positive and we plan on continuing the events in the years to come. We saw great benefit in meeting our membership in their regions, talking to their teams on the ground. We discussed business priorities and opportunities and ran an interactive workshop to help upskill casual staff members.
Q: What are the key benefits of being a part of the Thirsty Camel banner?
We see so many benefits to being a part of Thirsty Camel. We have a not-for-profit model, meaning we’re a member-based organisation and everything we make we give back to our members. We boast a small, agile range and three store formats, so our members have capacity to make choices around what’s right for their local customers, like with our opt-in premium wine and spirits program, Top Drops, that has seen impressive growth over the last six months.
Q: What sets Thirsty Camel retailers apart?
Convenience has always set Thirsty Camel apart from other liquor retailers. It’s what we do, and we do it well. We understand our customer, we can engage with them in a fun and irreverent way. After all, our brand is based on a talking camel. At our heart, Thirsty Camel is built around community. Each of our bottle shops are independently owned and operated by members of the community and that’s important to us.
Q: How does your Hump Club loyalty program benefit consumers and your members?
When we talk about value being crucial to deliver to our consumers, loyalty is always a part of that same conversation. Our best best-in-class loyalty program is delivering 40 per cent more value by its customers than the average liquor consumer. Hump Club is driving more frequent and consistent purchases and delivering a significantly higher basket size. In FY25, we’ll be doubling the amount of member offers for our loyalty customers as a way to engage with more people and give them more value.
Q: What are the main opportunities and challenges for Thirty Camel?
We will focus on delivering value through our in-store Everyday Value program, and through our loyalty strategy. We also know it’s important to grow our e-commerce business as our consumers are shopping online and we need to meet them where it’s most convenient.
The challenges are excise, price inflation and generally the cost of doing business. However, we also acknowledge this is an opportunity. Our 10-pack strategy continues to go from strength to strength, with our recent six-week mix-and-match promotion delivering 10 per cent growth versus the previous campaign. For us, it’s about how we use our understanding of what the consumer needs to build a program that makes sense for right now.
This Q&A was originally published in the June/July edition of National Liquor News.