Lion Nathan

By CIO NZ staff | Monday, June 30 2008

2007 ranking: 65

Senior IS executive: Darryl Warren, CIO
Reports to: Jamie Tomlinson, CFO
Size of IS shop: 70

PCs: 1600
Mobile PCs: 1130
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 500
Total screens: 3230
Industry: Manufacturing
PC environment: Windows XP, HP
Server environment: Windows 2003, 2008; Red Hat Linux; HP
DBMS: SQL, Oracle, Progress
Address: 111 Carlton Gore Road, Newmarket, Auckland
Website: www.lion-nathan.com
Key IS projects this year: In-Field systems; common selling platform.

LION NATHAN IS an Australasian alcoholic beverages company
employing approximately 3000 Australians and New Zealanders. The
company is publicly listed, trading on both the Australian and New
Zealand Stock Exchanges.

Lion Nathan maintains a focussed and disciplined strategy centred
on beer, fi ne wine, spirits and RTDs in the two countries.
In New Zealand, Lion Nathan has a wide-ranging portfolio across
beer, wine, spirits and ready-to-drink products. Lion Nathan New
Zealand has a beer market share of around 50 per cent. New Zealand
accounts for around 14 per cent of group assets and 15 per cent of
operating profi ts, excluding corporate costs.

Consistent with this approach, Lion Nathan recently established a
joint venture with Linfox called BevChain. This platform allows other
beverage suppliers access to a leading logistics platform at a commercial
rate. The joint venture partners have invested in the platform to
ensure optimum effi ciency. ICT plays a significant role in these focus
areas.

This year’s Top 100 profile for Lion Nathan reflects the ICT operations
and volume of the company’s New Zealand and Australian businesses
combined.

New Zealand CIO Darryl Warren says key ICT projects this
year include development of In-Field Systems and a common selling
platform for Lion Nathan representatives and outlets. Lion Nathan
is also committed to ongoing development and implementation
of ERP and business intelligence systems, unifi ed communications
(with VoIP already completed) and knowledge management and
business continuity systems.

E-business and mobilisation are further areas of focus for 2008.
Lion Nathan is a light outsourcer, with most ICT operations conducted
in-house. Exceptions are some application development and ICT training.
Warren says the organisation is satisfied with the level of service received from
telecommunication suppliers.