Cairns pubs in Coles venture

SIX Cairns pubs will be affected by owner Coles announcing a joint venture with Australian Venue Co (AVC).

The deal includes 87 hotels and 243 retail liquor outlets trading as Liquorland, First Choice, First Choice Liquor Market and Vintage Cellars across the state.

The Barron River Hotel, Dunwoody’s, Grafton Hotel, Mt Sheridan Hotel, Palm Cove Tavern and Trinity Beach Hotel will now be owned by Coles and AVC.

The company said yesterday that the local businesses will trade as usual and no hotel-based positions will be lost.

Cairns Chamber of Commerce president Nick Loukas said the joint venture was an encouraging sign for the Cairns businesses.

“It looks like they have set up something similar to what Woolworths have done with ALH ... which is good for Cairns because hopefully we will see more investment in those assets,” he said.

The reason for the joint venture is to comply with Queensland liquor licensing laws, which require the linking of retail liquor sales with hotels. Bottle shop licensees must hold a commercial hotel licence for a pub within 10km.

AVC will manage the dayto-day operations of Spirit Hotels and will receive the economic benefit of this business and Coles will manage retail liquor stores.

The establishment of the joint venture will enable the expansion of both businesses, according to Coles.

“The agreement with AVC will enable each party to bring relevant expertise to the joint venture,” Coles chief executive Steven Cain said yesterday.

“AVC has plans to grow the hotel portfolio in Queensland, which will in turn provide Coles with the opportunity to further grow its retail liquor business in that state.”