Paramount Retail, a division of Paramount Liquor, has unveiled plans to open over 100 corporate-owned bottle shops over the next four years. This includes plans to open more than 75 Bottle Stop stores and 25 Barrel & Batch stores, marking a notable change from its original pre-acquisition five-year roadmap from February.
Already, Paramount Retail has secured five new Barrel & Batch locations and three new Bottle Stop locations, catering to premium-focused and convenience-led consumers respectively.
According to Leigh Rowe, CEO of Paramount Retail, "it became clear to us that establishing a chain of corporate-owned independent bottle shops made a great deal of sense for us, as well as our supplier partners. We will be able to deliver the consistency and compliance that suppliers seek in representing their brands to a high standard.”
Paramount Liquor has also confirmed it will continue to offer its network of Sessions stores as an independent banner group option for liquor retailers.
“Paramount Liquor will continue to expand its network of Sessions stores as its banner option to independent liquor retailers to trade with our wholesale division," Paramount Liquor CEO Nathan Rowe told Drinks Trade.
"The Bottle Stop and Barrel & Batch brands moving forward will be solely owned and operated by the Paramount Retail department of the group."
Underpinning the expansion is Paramount Retail’s acquisition and rebranding of BoozeBud and Barrel & Batch. Following the acquisition, online liquor brand BoozeBud was rebranded as Bottle Stop, supporting the same-named Paramount Retail banner that was unveiled in February.
Intended to cater to a more mainstream and less premium market sector compared to Paramount Liquor’s original Sessions banner, Bottle Stop has been designed around Beverage Cloud, the Group’s new beverage industry specific POS system.
On top of this POS system and integrated multi-channel platforms, Paramount Retail is also planning on incorporating technology in-store in a way it believes will offer a competitive edge on other major retailers.
“As a tech-led independent, we're nimble and flexible enough to capitalise on opportunities and do things differently, which is what suppliers are telling us they need," said Rowe.
“Banner groups face enormous challenges in transitioning to a digitised store network, and the corporate chains have such a volume of stores and legacy systems that network-wide upgrades could take years to complete… The ability to digitise stores as we acquire them is another example of our control of the in-store environment as an independent chain, combined with our flexibility and speed to market.”
Already this year, Paramount Retail has opened three Barrel & Batch stores in NSW in Alexandria, St Peters, and Marrickville, and has successfully acquired a further two stores in Paddington and Darlinghurst. Three Bottle Stop stores have also been secured in Victoria in Kyneton, Monbulk, and Newport.
Paramount Retail’s new five-year goal of opening 75 Bottle Stop stores and 25 Barrel & Batch stores marks a notable change from its pre-acquisition roadmap of expanding its Sessions banner from nine to 50 Sessions stores and opening between 150 and 200 Bottle Stop stores.
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