NEW LOOK AS DAN’S PREPARES TO SPLIT
DAN Murphy’s managing director Alex Freudmann is unleashing a new wave of innovation at his stores as the liquor giant prepares to demerge from Woolworths with the rest of the Endeavour Group.
The first new-look store, unveiled at South Melbourne on Friday, incorporates a heavy focus on in-store education, more craft beer and digital shelf technology that sends beverage information to shoppers’ phones. It is being positioned as what Mr Freudmann has termed a “shrine to discovery”.
“This is exciting for us because this is definitely the future of Dan Murphy’s. This is the way Dan’s is going to look around the country in both new stores and existing stores that we refurbish,” he said.
Mr Freudmann said Dan Murphy’s planned to soon open at least one store in each state that incorporated the innovations. It comes as Woolworths moves closer to its $10bn demerger of its hotels and liquor arm Endeavour, which was scuttled by the COVID-19 pandemic last year but is now on track for June.
Mr Freudmann said he expected trends that emerged in COVID-19 such as contactless pick-up of orders and a growing interest in local beers and wines to continue once the pandemic recedes.
Drinkers are also increasingly interested in educating themselves about new alcoholic beverages.
“What happened during COVID – and a trend we expect to stay – is people really turning towards really local products and real craft-made products,” he said.
Mr Freudmann said drinkers were also looking for international beverages that could help them connect with other countries which were not accessible to them because of closed international borders.