Steves Liquor. The dynasty continues

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A late-night phone call from Glen Skelton to Tony Leon some nine years ago brought together two icons of the independent liquor industry which saw the beginning of the Steves Liquor Retail group.

Glen Skelton started a Liquor Wholesalers in the eighties, servicing liquor retailers in Tasmania. Over time, the business grew substantially and expanded into the Victorian market, operating from their 8000 sqm warehouse in Cheltenham.

Tony Leon, who arrived in Melbourne from war-torn Lebanon in 1979, was primarily responsible for the national success story of Dan Murphy’s. Tony started working at their Prahran store in the mid-1980s at Dan Murphy’s. He oversaw the expansion of the business to five Dan Murphy stores before selling the independent business in 1998 to Woolworths as a result of the then Victorian Labor Premier Steve Bracks deregulating the packaged liquor market by removing the 8% limit on liquor licences. The limit was to restrict a person or a corporation from holding more than 8% of the total number of packaged liquor licences.

Their sons, Steve Skelton and Simon Leon, along with Shane Vella (who has many years of liquor experience in the supply and retail channels), have taken up the reins. This new management team established five stores in Victoria, three stores in Queensland and three stores in Tasmania.

MGA caught up with them at their new refurbished St Kilda Store.

Tell us about yourselves and what is your vision for Steves Liquor?

Steve Skelton – I started in the industry by picking boxes and keeping the warehouse nice and tidy for my dad (Glen Skelton) at the wholesale business, then on turning 18, I managed the retail stores. Simon Leon – As long as I can remember, I’ve grown up in bottle shops. As a five and six-year-old, I’d run around the Dan Murphy’s Alphington store all night while the old man (Tony Leon) completed stock takes. Christmas and school holidays were spent carrying boxes to the car for customers and collecting trolleys in the car park. When the opportunity arose to join Dad at Steve’s Liquor in 2013, I could not say yes quick enough. Shane Vella –I had done the full circle, initially starting by working in a drivethrough bottleshop when I was 18 at The Royal Oak Hotel Cheltenham, courtesy of my late friend and next-door neighbour, Tony Glynn. Then I moved into liquor wholesale and went to work at Bacardi Lion as a supplier, and finally back to retail.

We have eleven stores across three states in all different shapes and sizes. We plan to continue to build on these and strive to establish Steves Liquor as a leading independent retailer by offering consumers a rewarding retailing experience.

How do you see the independent liquor retail sector, its strengths and weaknesses, and how do you see it evolving into the future?

The independent sector has always supported its local community, offering personalised service, product knowledge

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and convenience. Our strengths as an Independent is that we can meet our customer’s needs by being nimble, allowing us to adjust and implement things quickly. If we had any weakness, it would be the lack of willingness of fellow independents to partner up and come together to further grow the sector, as opposed to just viewing each other as another competitor.

How important is Store Branding to you, and what role should wholesalers play in the market?

Store branding is vital. It identifies who we are. Banner Groups such as Cellabrations and The Bottle O, which we trade under, have to play a key role by supporting their bannered members by constantly negotiating appropriate promotions whilst hitting competitive price points which reward our customers. Banner groups add value to our business and build scope and credibility within the market. It is a tricky job for wide range of wholesalers as the middleman tasked to collectively bargain for their members to achieve competitive sell price points with reasonable margins when competing with the national Chains who buy direct.

What are your views on online shopping and its impact on traditional bricks and mortar stores?

Online shopping is important to us and a growing area for our business. However, it is important to partner with the right online platform. With so many different platforms available, it’s almost impossible to stay on top of them. Coupled with the cost-of-living pressures consumers are facing over the coming years. It will be interesting to see if pricing with a delivery fee will impact online sales, as these delivery services are normally more expensive than shopping in-store.

What is your view on government changes to liquor licensing, and what

impact does it have on our sector? We see an issue in the future around licenses being granted to non-traditional outlets, e.g. Convenience Stores / Service stations. In the past, a liquor licence was held in high regard and came with huge responsibility around protecting the community with responsible service of alcohol. Do we really want to be like the USA, with liquor available in a convenience store that a minor can enter and buy lollies & a Slurpee at the same time?

How do you view the relentless pressure by the Health Lobby groups on governments to have more restrictions on alcohol, advertising, availability, and labelling?

We get it. But governments should focus more on the supply, availability and education of future generations of consumers.

How important is it to you to be a member of an employer organisation?

It’s very important to our business. We get the support and advice we would normally have to run around and chase ourselves. We are all too busy running our businesses and don’t have much spare time. We believe the MGA is a onestop shop that can offer many solutions to its members. Thumbs up from us.

If you had the ear of government, what would be the one thing that you would have them do?

The granting of new liquor licences or variations to existing ones. Do we really need any more packaged liquor licences in established areas? Of course, we don’t.

Store Manager Matthew Oldham

George Kovits President MGA Liquor National Support Office Phone 1800 888 479

L-R: Simon Leon, Steve Skelton and Shane Vella