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 conference the leading independent liquor group launched the liquorbarons.com.au. E-commerce platform. Two years later liquorbarons.com.au continues to grow and attract new customers to the group.

Another part of the success of this now 60+ store group has been the high level of compliance Liquor Barons stores adhere to, prompting their emergence as the only independent group able to join Woolworths and Coles in the Aztec market read through their scan data at point of sale.

The theme of the 2015 conference is “The Importance of Category”.

Chris O’Brien, Liquor Barons managing director, said “we look forward to welcoming over a hundred delegates to this years pivotal event. We have put together an excellent programme to support our theme and convince our attendees that the days of emotional and indulgent buying are over.”

“As a leading independent retail group we must work with our suppliers using our data to ensure we all make objective data driven decisions. This is new ground for the independent liquor sector in Australia.”