Vaughan Peters, National Trade and Marketing Manager at Liquor Legends, shares some of the year’s highlights, from the inaugural Strategy Share Session to the rollout of electronic shelf labels.
Q: How has 2024 been for Liquor Legends thus far? What have been the challenges and opportunities over the past six months?
It’s been a very interesting year to date and I’m sure we aren’t the only retailers to say the same. January and February saw a bit of colour change in the performance and it would have been easy to create a sense of panic, but I consider it “just trading”.
There was an obvious hangover post-key selling period, stock weights were high and transactions were less, which made for a bit of a stalemate. Our reaction to this was to stay the course, insulate our Rewards membership base and continue to recruit into this space. The good news is we are seeing green again.
Our inaugural Strategy Share Session was well received back in March. The opportunity for us to share relative content and our focus pillars with our trading partners is invaluable in preparation for individual supplier partner alignment, not to mention the time saved. Our challenge now is to execute the plans and measure the outcomes.
Q: How have members optimised their use of LARA and Project Swordfish since their introduction across the group?
We are in the final stages of development and testing with the Legendary Automated Replenishment App (LARA) and members are certainly excited by a tool that can improve business efficiency. The second phase of Project Swordfish is about to be released. We have shared the capabilities of optimal personalisation in recent supplier partner joint business planning sessions, highlighting the ability to drive brand connection, shopper frequency and engagement which ultimately strengthens shopper relationships for our group members.
Q: What progress has been made so far on the integration of electronic shelf labels?
ESL is progressing very well, our operations team has rolled out to around 20 stores to date. Feedback from the stores has been nothing but positive. Appreciating the fact that ESL is a committed investment, the ROI is definitely rationalised and improvement to business efficiencies guaranteed.
Q: How is Liquor Legends leveraging its large Rewards membership?
We are very fortunate to be in the position of nurturing over 930,000 registered Rewards memberships. We have a biased approach to this network as a standalone strategic objective, given we understand what the loyalty means to our retail members, today, tomorrow and into the future.
Q: What plans does Liquor Legends have in place for the rest of the year?
We set our plans in line with the financial year, so we are about to celebrate a year gone and welcome a new one. Again, our recent Strategy Share will set our course for the next period ahead. By the time this article is published, our joint business planning sessions with supply partners will now be actionable plans.
We hold ourselves to account to deliver on these plans and to meet our number one strategic objective, which is to grow our group member’s gross profit. I’m excited by the next period, as I’ve mentioned we’ve witnessed a change in trading pace, we can never assume it will remain steady, that’s what is so fascinating of late and what keeps it exciting.
This Q&A originally appeared in the June/July edition of National Liquor News.