Paramount Liquor is targeting $1bn in revenue by 2028. CEO outlines recent progress

In 2024, Australia’s largest family-owned on-premise liquor wholesaler Paramount Liquor continued to diversify and amplify its business model far beyond a purely on-premise focus. This included hosting its inaugural Re:Tail event in February, where its new Bottle Stop banner group was first unveiled.

Since then, Paramount Liquor has outlined plans to open more than 75 Bottle Stop stores and 25 Barrel & Batch stores over the next four years as part of its plan to reach $1 billion in revenue by 2028.

Here, CEO Nathan Rowe reflects on the year gone by:

“2024 marked a year of exciting advancements in tech and innovation for Paramount Liquor, two key pillars that are at the heart of our ambitious growth strategy to reach our target of $1 billion in revenue by 2028.

With Paramount Marketplace, customers will now have access to a state-of-the-art shopping experience over 10,000 suppliers nationally. Through marketplace, we’ve been able to extend our unparalleled range with both well-known and up and coming suppliers, specifically across our wine and beer categories. We know this will introduce even more options and equip our customers with additional tools for success, and we’ll see it come to life early next year.

We've made significant investments in developing a brand-new website and enhancing our loyalty program, delivering a much more refined user experience. Additionally, we've expanded our capabilities to provide our supplier partners with greater visibility and new advertising opportunities.

Our national and state sales teams continue to set the standard, delivering best-in-class performance and adapting to meet the ever-evolving needs of our customers. Our commitment to investment in expanding our digital sales capabilities allows us to reach more customers than ever before. Paramount Connect continues to welcome new suppliers, and with the recent addition of a trade marketing channel, we are enhancing our agility and evolving our sales tools to better serve our partners.

From a marketing lens, Future Proof will be a continuing focal point for bringing together industry leaders, suppliers, and the hospitality community at large. The event will also see an evolution this year, with an elevated platform for networking, collaboration, and insight into the trends defining the drinks sector. It’s just one example of how we’re committed to fostering growth and driving positive change within the industry.

Our partnerships with leading digital innovators in the hospitality sector are key to driving our ambitious business goals. Whether introducing industry-first drinks tendering to Australia through our collaboration with EzTenda, delivering advanced digital training for the hospitality community via Frntlne, providing 24/7 customer support (even on nights and weekends) with AI Voice, or investing in state-of-the-art last-mile dispatch and routing software to boost fleet efficiency—our business is at the forefront of hospitality innovation and delivering exceptional supplier experiences.

In the retail sector, we’ve taken a significant step forward in realising our vision. In an exciting development for our group, we’re transitioning our core retail strategy from a banner group model to a Paramount-owned retail liquor store model - through the use of our two retail brands BottleStop and Barrel & Batch - to drive growth and innovation more effectively.

This strategic shift will enable us to deliver a higher-quality, data-driven customer experience, a core passion at Paramount Liquor. Having purpose built our own Point Of Sale (POS) system and integrated it with our digital ticketing system in all stores, we will be offering real-time national pricing across the network via scan deals, providing greater flexibility and promotional opportunities for our supplier partners. Additionally, with the use of our best in class e-commerce websites for both brands, we will be offering click and collect and same-day delivery from our physical retail outlets. Ultimately, this move strengthens our brands, positioning BottleStop and Barrel & Batch to become household names across Australia, as we begin our journey to grow our national retail store network to over 100 stores by the end of 2028.

Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, our goal is to exceed expectations for both suppliers and customers, striking the perfect balance between being small enough to care, and big enough to deliver.”

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This article was written by Nathan Rowe for Drinks Guide 2025, which was distributed nationwide in December and can be viewed digitally here. If you did not receive a physically copy and would like to be added to the Drinks Trade/Guide magazine mailing list, get in touch with the team now.