The Liquor Barons 2015 conference kicked off this morning, with the customary welcome from the group’s leaders – Lou Spagnolo, owner of Liquor Barons Carlisle and group Chairman, and Chris O’Brien, Liquor Barons General Manager. “Conferences are a great opportunity to share information and interact with others. Let’s take every advantage of all the information supplied over the next two days. This is an o…

Diageo Australia has today announced that David Smith has been appointed as the new Managing Director of the business, following Tim Salt’s resignation earlier in June. David Smith will join from Diageo Ireland, where he is currently Country Director, and will be responsible for all aspects of Diageo’s Australia and New Zealand business, including manufacturing, marketing and sales. Commenting on the appo…

Following the acquisition of Grant Burge Wines earlier this year, in April, Accolade Wines appointed former CEO of Peter Lehmann Wines, Jeff Bond to lead the business as General Manager. Jeff would initially be responsible for helping transition over the Grant Burge portfolio, before developing new plans to grow the business, with the sale intended to be used to bolster the Barossa based brand’s position …

Over 100 liquor retailers from Perth arrive in Queenstown, New Zealand, this weekend for the 2015 Liquor Barons conference on the shores of Lake Wakatipu. The bi-annual conference runs for four days starting on Monday and features an international selection of expert speakers and presenters. Two years ago the location was Hong Kong and was hailed as their most successful conference to date. At that conf…

In an effort to continually improve the value of the Ad Watch database, Ebiquity, with support from the drinks association (publisher of drinks bulletin), has recently undertaken analysis of the value and methodology of the figures used for catalogue circulation. From 14th July 2015, Ebiquity will be changing the catalogue circulation to better reflect actual figures through the use of ABS population da…

  Liquor Marketing Group (LMG) has announced the appointment of three Non-Executive Directors to its board, following the retirement of three longstanding members. John McRedmond, Scott Hogan and Graham Griffin will now stand as the newest members of the Board, replacing Peter Harris, Michael White and Murray Cutbush. The LMG Board also includes Wayne Bayfield as Non-Executive Director and Chairman o…

Ex-Managing Director for Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), Anthony Davie, has been appointed to General Manager of Merchandise for the Coles Liquor Group. Davie left TWE following the announcement of the company’s restructure in November 2013, and was also previously the MD for Fosters Group and Beringer Blass Wine Estates. Coles Liquor Group also revealed Andrew Griffith as the new General Manager of First Ch…

Beam Suntory has announced the appointment of John Rosair as Managing Director of the company’s operations in Oceania. Previously Vice President of Sales, Asia Pacific for Campbell Arnott’s, Rosair has been appointed to help accelerate Beam Suntory’s growth in Australia and New Zealand as the company finalises its portfolio integration with Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA). Commenting on Rosair’s appointment, Presi…

ALSA Retail Insights, the body’s industry inspired professional development program, has added a 12 th module to its suite– Pricing Strategy. The module aims to provide retailers with the resources needed to develop a more disciplined approach to pricing policies. “The skill of the retailer is to be able to price their products at the level their customers are prepared to pay. This is how, at the end of …

Column By George Rochios from LBW & Partners – Chartered Accountants & Business Advisers When the goods and services tax was introduced to the Australian tax landscape in 2000, there was a lot of angst about the negative effect on the cost of living that this blanket 10 per cent impost would have. A glimmer of consolation was that pulling a cork out of a wine bottle might hopefully be a lot cheape…