Australian membership-owned retailer, Liquor Marketing Group (LMG), has announced the appointment of its new chief financial officer, Jonathan Harrison.
Harrison brings a wealth of experience to LMG, having previously worked for Lion for nine years in several senior Finance roles, most recently as commercial director for Business Development. Prior to that, he served as head of Finance for Malt Shovel. Before Lion, Harrison spent ten years with PwC as a senior member of its Risk and Controls team.
“Jonny Harrison joins our team with more than 19 years’ experience helping businesses tackle complex problems and designing strategies and solutions to drive sustainable growth,” LMG CEO Gavin Saunders said.
“Jonny’s experience as a finance leader with strong commercial focus will be tremendously advantageous for LMG and I look forward to Jonny working with our Board and executive team in accelerating growth in our business and delivering maximum value for our members.”
With over 1,400 stores included under its retail brands – Bottlemart, SipnSave, Harry Brown and Thirsty Camel in Western Australia – LMG has experienced extraordinary growth over the past four years, with membership volumes growing more than 50 per cent during this period.
The membership-owned and operated group has kept operating costs low while investing revenue growth into advertising, price support, store refresh and digital and eCommerce platforms.
“LMG’s investment in advertising, selling and member support has more than doubled over the past four years,” Saunders said.
“This increase has created the opportunity and need for the addition of Jonny Harrison’s role as chief financial officer. Jonny brings to the role vast experience in market pricing analysis, business development, systems and financial management which will support LMG to further drive our members’ sales and profit performance.
“LMG’s focus remains meeting the customers need to drive sales growth for LMG members who operate under the Bottlemart, SipnSave, Harry Brown or Thirsty Camel WA retail banners. Sales growth of 32.6 per cent over the past two years is testament to winning with customers and it is pleasing to give our independent members growth, ahead of what has been reported by other major liquor retailers.”