Endeavour Group has used its first investor day since demerging from Woolworths to lay out a three-year transformation plan targeting $300 million in cost savings, a scaled-back dividend payout, and the exit of most of its winery and vineyard portfolio.
The ASX-listed owner of Dan Murphy’s, BWS and 352 ALH Hotels unveiled the strategy on 27 May 2026 in Sydney, with CEO and managing director, Jayne Hrdlicka, framing the plan as a course correction after a period in which the group had prioritised margin over volume in retail and focused on cost control rather than revenue growth in hotels.
The review identified three priority areas: resetting the multi-brand retail strategy across Dan Murphy’s and BWS; accelerating capital investment in the ALH Hotels portfolio; and simplifying group operations to reduce cost.
Cost savings
The group is targeting approximately $100 million in cost savings in FY27, building to $300 million by FY29. The program spans labour model right-sizing, procurement and supply chain optimisation, site costs, and end-to-end process simplification. Endeavour noted it delivered $300 million in cumulative cost savings between FY22 and FY26, which it said substantially offset inflation over that period.
Hrdlicka said the review had required difficult decisions.
“We examined the business through a number of lenses and have made the tough choices required to deliver the Group’s next phase of growth. With a disciplined focus on customer value, a targeted step-up in Hotel investment, a hard eye to cost and a simplified asset base, we have begun to execute our transformation,” Hrdlicka said.
Pinnacle divestments
The most significant asset move is the exit of the majority of the Pinnacle Drinks winery and vineyard portfolio. The group will divest Chapel Hill, Oakridge and Josef Chromy, retaining only three wineries it considers core to private label activity: a scale winemaking facility in South Australia and regional supply chain hubs in Western Australia and New Zealand. Pinnacle will be refocused as a private and exclusive label business in service of the retail brands.
Retail: price leadership and brand split
The retail strategy centres on reasserting Dan Murphy’s as the lowest-price destination for liquor and repositioning BWS as a convenience-first neighbourhood brand. The group acknowledged it had allowed margin expansion to erode price competitiveness and customer trust at Dan Murphy’s, and that the two brands had lacked sufficient strategic differentiation.
Dan Murphy’s operates 286 stores with an average trading floor of approximately 1000 square metres and around 5.6 million active My Dan’s loyalty members. BWS operates 1451 stores nationally with approximately 4.6 million active Everyday Rewards members. The group’s combined retail network of 1737 stores is the largest liquor retail footprint in Australia.
Hotels: accelerated renewals
ALH Hotels will shift from a cost-control orientation to a revenue-growth model, with an accelerated venue renewals program targeting 50 to 60 hotels per year at steady state, up from 25 in F24 and a forecast 35 to 37 in F26. Renewal types range from light-touch relaunches of less than $700,000 per venue to full repositionings of between $3 million and $15 million. The group is targeting a year-two ROI of greater than 15 per cent on hotel renewals.
