By Paul Wootton in Prague
The theme of this year’s LMG Members Conference — There’s More in Store — was brought to life during CEO Gavin Saunders’ business session in Prague, where he outlined the group’s growth strategy and reaffirmed its strong market position.
“We are going to be a much bigger, much better business,” Saunders told delegates. “We have so many more opportunities. I think we’re an incredible business, but I also think we can be better. And I believe we’ve got the platforms to be able to do so.”
He pointed to LMG’s performance as the foundation for its confidence. One in every $11 spent in Australian retail liquor flows through LMG, and over the last four years the group has delivered like-for-like growth greater than Coles and Endeavour (a difference of +8.6% and +12.6% respectively), highlighting that independents who have support, and focus on shoppers and sales growth are winning.
Top-performing stores are leading the way: LMG’s top 150 stores, which account for around half of like-for-like revenue, are growing at 11.4 per cent, while the next 150 are growing at 6.9 per cent, still significantly ahead of the market.
Saunders demonstrated a direct correlation between those top-performing stores and those engaging with LMG’s programmes and platforms, which include loyalty, e-commerce and retail refresh.
“Performance at the end of the day is shoppers coming into your store,” he said. “We’re performing better than our opposition. We’re confident that our platform is exceptional and the support we put behind it is exceptional. But our role is to challenge our members too. We want you to be bigger, we want you to be better.”
Looking ahead, Saunders said LMG would double its pricing investment and sharpen its focus on store environments. “Consumer reach is core for us. To fuel consumer reach, pricing and ranging are key,” he said. “I’m a big believer that brand is what you experience as well as what you tell people. We’ve got to make sure the experience in the retail store is of the quality we expect.”
Saunders closed by challenging members to make full use of the group’s programmes: “Our strategy is to get more shoppers through your stores, and then make the stores as appealing as we possibly can. We’re going to challenge you to embrace and leverage all the programmes we put in place.”
The business sessions took place on the second day of LMG’s 2025 Members Conference, which this year hosts some 350 delegates in the cities of Prague and Munich.