Super Liquor financial controller Tristyn McDougall says the company has been on a huge learning journey since selecting 2IQ to begin working on their technology solution three years ago. Prior to 2IQ, Super Liquor used a SQL-based data warehouse to gather sales data from each store. Technical, in-house, IT knowledge was required to export the information from the data warehouse to provide reports to the company.

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“The entire process was heavily reliant on our IT staff which meant that we didn’t have data at our fingertips when we needed it. Each store entered their products and promotional pricing manually which was time consuming and a duplication of work in every store. We then had someone at the support office centralising the data entry before being sent to stores. It was all very labour intensive and time-consuming, not to mention prone to potential human error.”

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Tristyn says Super Liquor selected 2IQ as their technology provider because they wanted to collaborate with a partner that provided personalised service and took the time to understand how their business works. Being able to build an ongoing relationship with a core team of people was also vital.

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“We have a family type culture at Super Liquor so while we were obviously looking for the best technical solution it was also equally important for us to work with a partner who shares our values and provides bespoke service. Right from the first meeting we knew that we had both aspects right with the 2IQ team.”

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The first step of the project involved replicating the existing sales reporting and transferring all the sales data into the new 2IQ system. However, now the real advantages are the ability to include GP (Gross Profit) and inventory reporting.

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“Stores were all on the same POS (Point of Sale), each with their own separate database so they could add anything they wanted. We had to start right there at basics and get the entire system centralised so that we could receive consistent and accurate data from all stores.”

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Several key processes were automated during the initial stages of the process including promotional cycles and new products. Tristyn says this now gives store owners greater visibility of their true GP.

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“The openness and transparency provided by the system has improved the relationship we have with our franchise owners.”

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The 2IQ system was launched at Super Liquor’s Annual Conference in 2019. The 2IQ team were on-hand to demonstrate how store owners could use the dashboard data to make better informed business decisions and provided training on how to use the system.

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One of the main benefits for Tristyn and the support office team has been freeing up time previously spent on labour intensive or technical tasks for big picture thinking about where data insights can help the business to grow and expand its position at the top end of the New Zealand liquor retail market.

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“It is amazing to see how much our mindset has changed around where data can take us. We keep exploring new options for richer data analysis and asking ourselves questions like, “what if we had access to this data?” and “what else could we be reporting on?”

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“I can only see our partnership with 2IQ continuing to develop as we see clearly where data can take us in terms of evolving and growing our business.”

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