Invigor Group pours loyalty for Retail Drinks Australia

Liquor store industry body Retail Drinks Australia (RDA), which represents around 6,600 booze merchants across Australia, has secured an exclusive partnership with ASX-listed Invigor Group to provide data and analytics solutions to its members.

The deal will see Invigor provide a suite of data insights products to RDA members, leveraging Invigor’s core insights technology platform.

Specifically, RDA will access to insights covering promotions, products, customer loyalty and competitive pricing.

Invigor is no stranger to Australia’s $17.5 billion a year liquor landscape, having already forged relationships with Carlton & United Breweries, Moët Hennessy Austalia, Accolade Wines and Pernod Ricard Australia.

Founder and chief executive Gary Cohen could be forgiven for cracking a bottle of bubbles over lunch.

The latest signing is a demonstration of the intestinal fortitude of the serial entrepreneur who founded local health software play IBA Health that later bought iSoft, only to be raided by outsourcer CSC in a hostile takeover in the wake of the GFC.

Liquidity, of the consumable kind, is certainly pouring into Invigor. The latest partnership will bring RDA members including Coco-Cola Amatil, Asahi, Coles Liquor, and Lion Beer Australia into the fold.

In a filing to the Australian Securities Exchange, Invigor said the rollout of its solutions to RDA is slated to occur this quarter.

Cohen said the Retail Drinks Insights solutions have been designed in consultation with RDA’s members.

“It aims to benefit all liquor retailers in Australia, providing more visibility of store performance, while also understanding their customers’, and helping make more data-driven buying and promotions dialogue with their supplier.”

Citing an IBISWorld Industry Report, Invigor said the Australian liquor retail industry has been plagued by stagnant growth resulting from changing customer trends and rising competition - a sentiment echoed in Woolworths’ most recent interim results announcement where they announced a separate data visualisation tie-up with Tableau to overcome the downturn in alcohol profits.

With Julian Bajkowski