Food and Beverage Attendant

Coles Liquor sales slump 3.3% amid growing demand for value and convenience. Aug. 25, 2026 By Cody Profaca Coles Liquor sales revenue declined 3.3 per cent to $3,547 million in the 52 weeks ended 28 June, with the rate of decline moderating to 2.5 per cent in the fourth quarter. EBITDA earnings took a 19.1 per cent hit, reflecting a shift in Liquorland's sales mix towards convenience, which now accounts for 90 per cent of national store footprint. The results follow Endeavour Group's report of $10 billion in retail sales across Dan Murphy's and BWS, an increase of 0.7 per cent year-on-year despite EBIT earnings slumping 17.6 per cent. Endeavour Group CEO Jayne Hrdlicka said the result "reflect a period where the Group started to implement the actions required to execute its strategy and realise the potential of our portfolio of Retail and Hotel assets." Metcash Liquor, owner of Independent Brands Australia, reported a similar result, posting 1 per cent revenue growth, despite a slight decline in EBIT. The three financial year reports shine a light on the trends shaping off-premise liquor sales in Australia. Growing consumer demand for value, product innovation and smaller pack sizes is increasingly influencing channel and category mix, contributing to elevated promotional activity across the sector, particularly in large format. Ongoing cost-of-living pressures and subdued consumer sentiment further impacted sales, with the impact becoming more pronounced in the second half amid heightened geopolitical uncertainty. Both Coles Liquor and Endeavour Group reported improving sales trends in the first two months of fiscal year 2027. Coles completes Liquor strategic review. Coles Liquor said it was happy with an uplift in customer satisfaction metrics following the completion of its Simply Liquorland program, reflecting stronger in-store execution, a simpler omnichannel experience and increased Flybuys engagement, while noting that the FY26 financial result was below expectations. Coles Group has completed a strategic review of its Liquor business and is now executing a program to improve the financial performance by creating a "more integrated food and drink proposition", optimising the store network and simplifying the operating model. This includes the changes to its customer experience, digital, loyalty and technology functions announced in July. Coles Group CEO Leah Weckert said: "We enter FY27 with good momentum and a strong balance sheet. We are now investing in the next phase of growth, including through an accelerated store opening and renewal program, coupled with a clear strategy to improve the performance of our Liquor business which will ensure Coles can maintain its growth trajectory." A strong start to the new year. Coles Liquor's sales trajectory strengthened across the first eight weeks of FY27, following an improvement in the final quarter of FY26. This was supported by continued growth in its convenience portfolio, alongside improved performance of its LiquorlandWarehouse stores. "We know what matters most to our customers: delivering great value, quality and convenience every time they shop with us," Leah Weckert said. "We have made significant progress over the last three years, and have a strong plan for the year ahead to keep improving the customer offer, strengthen the business and support sustainable long term growth." Endeavour Group shared a similar trend in the first seven weeks of the new financial year, with Retail sales up 4.6 per cent following continued elevated "competitive promotional activity". Momentum for Metcash Liquor continued into the first seven weeks of FY27, which began its FY27 on 30 April, two month ahead of Coles and Endeavour, with sales up 1.3 per cent year-on-year, albeit led by on-premise supply, with a more-subtle 0.2 per cent rise in wholesale sales to IBA retail & contract customers. Outside Liquor, Coles Group posted strong sales results, with group revenue up 2.8 per cent to $45,580 million, driven by a strong Supermarkets performance.

Dan Murphy's and BWS owner Endeavour Group reports major profit hit. Winning a bigger market share has come at a significant cost. By Damian Murphy Ask 7NEWS anything What caused Endeavour Group's 88% profit drop? How did Liquorland's online discounts impact Endeavour? Why is Jayne Hrdlicka cutting $300 million in costs? A strategic plan by Dan Murphy's to cut liquor prices in order to boost sales is working, but coming at a cost to the business. Endeavour Group, which owns the big box chain as well as the sprawling network of neighbourhood BWS stores, reported an 88 per cent slump in annual profits, dropping from $426 million to $52 million. The result is partly due to a "back to basics" play at Dan Murphy's, to return the brand to its roots as Australia's go-to choice for low liquor prices under new chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka. Hrdlicka is the former boss of Virgin Australia and landed at Endeavour this time last year with a brief to turn the underperforming business around. Sales at BWS and Dan Murphy's have since grown for 10 months in a row, hitting a record $10 billion last financial year. However, lower shelf prices have contributed to the hit in profits. Hrdlicka plans to fix that by cutting $300 million in costs from the business over the next three years to boost the bottom line. "There is no doubt that sales are building in retail following our renewed drive on value and price leadership," Hrdlicka said in a market update on Monday. "There's a lot of additional work underway in BWS and Dan's to continue to stoke that fire." Strong competition. Dan's and BWS continue to face strong competition from challengers including Liquorland, particularly in online sales, with recent promotions offering discounts of up to 20 per cent for orders placed online or via apps. "We haven't seen 20 per cent off before," Hrdlicka said, acknowledging deep discounting is hurting the bottom line. "I would hope that we're not seeing too much more of that going forward but we can't predict (that)." Endeavour also owns 351 licenced venues across the country, including iconic watering holes like Brisbane's Breakfast Creek Hotel. It says sales across the hotels and pubs have slowed in recent months as consumers put less money across its bars amid high petrol prices, the housing wealth downturn and the threat of more interest rate rises. However, the pubs did see an uplift in activity thanks to the recent football World Cup. "There's no doubt that it was a very festive time," Hrdlicka said. "There was a lot of sport going on." The group renovated and renewed 38 of its venues and installed 2000 new gaming machines, with more to come in the year ahead. Meanwhile, Endeavour has put the "for sale" sign up on its six company-owned vineyards, which produce its private label wines, as part of moves to offload non-core assets.

'In it to win it': liquor group sees more GenZ buyers. Kaaren MorrisseyAAP 23 August 2026, 4:17pm One of Australia's biggest alcohol sellers is banking on younger generations to continue to drive sales, as it continues to reset its business under a new leader in a difficult economic environment. Endeavour Group, which owns the Dan Murphy's and BWS networks and hundreds of pubs and hotels across Australia, is fighting for market share on a low shelf price strategy. "You can see in the underlying numbers the momentum that's building in a softer consumer environment," chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka, who joined the company in January, told an earnings briefing on Monday. "The growth that we're enjoying is coming principally from Gen X, Gen Z and Millennials and so we're seeing younger generations now participating in our stores than they were before." But the outlook for consumer spending remains uncertain as higher interest rates and inflation, cost of living pressures and the conflict in the Middle East continue to weigh. Endeavour Group made a bottom line net profit of $52 million for the year ended June 28, a fall of almost 90 per cent. But the 2025/26 result was skewed by a one-off $311 million post-tax expense related to the writedown of assets and costs related to its strategy. It that's taken out, its profit came to $363 million, a fall of almost 15 per cent, after a 1.3 per cent lift in sales to $12.2 billion. Ms Hrdlicka said the results reflected a "year of multiple parts" but the group was "in it to win it". "The investment in price is evident, not only in the green shoots demonstrated by the above market retail revenue growth, but also in the gross margin impact," she added. Endeavour shares were down almost four per cent in early afternoon trading to $3.26. The retail bottleshops business generated $10 billion in sales, up 0.7 per cent, with Dan Murphy's contributing most of that with a sales gain of one per cent. But Endeavour's retail gross profit margin declined by 80 basis points on the back of the lower shelf prices strategy, which began in the first quarter of 2025/26. "In Dans, we have returned our focus to delivering unbeatable value for our customers and this has clearly resonated, delivering both sales growth and market share gains," Ms Hrdlicka. At BWS, the group offers an app that now has more than 730,000 active monthly users, up 15 per cent on the prior year, and more than half of those users are Gen Z and Millennials. In contrast, its hotels business - offering food, beverages, accommodation and gaming - generated $2.2 billion in sales, up 4.2 per cent, with Ms Hrdlicka adding that gaming revenue has moderated in line with market trends. Ms Hrdlicka's reset of both businesses still has a way to go, but she said the first seven weeks of the new 2026/27 year had been positive so far, despite softer consumer sentiment. The retail arm delivered 4.6 per cent sales growth, while the hotels business generated 2.2 per cent growth. "Overall, the outlook for consumer spending remains uncertain," Ms Hrdlicka cautioned, as Endeavour heads toward the Christmas and New Year period. Endeavour has maintained its goal to take out $300 million in costs by 2028/29, including $100 million in the new financial year. It declared a final dividend of 1.2 cents, taking the total for the year to 12 cents.