Dan Murphy's
"We beat every advertised price!"
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| Subsidiary | |
| Founded | 1878 (Woolworths in 1998) |
| Headquarters | Alphington, Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
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Key people
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Grant O'Brien, CEO Martin Smith, Director Woolworths Liquor Group. Campbell Stott General Manager Dan Murphy's |
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Number of employees
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4250 approx |
| Parent | Woolworths Limited |
| Website | www.danmurphys.com.au |
Dan Murphy's is an Australian liquor supermarket chain owned by Woolworths Limited, with 200 stores across the country. Woolworths also owns BWS, another liquor chain with smaller stores. Dan Murphy's competes principally with Wesfarmers brands 1st Choice Liquor Superstore and Liquor Emporium. As of November 2015, they have 200 stores in Australia. Since 2012, Dan Murphy's has introduced online home delivery and free Click & Collect modes of sales. Dan Murphy's holds more than 50% of online sales of alcohol in Australia.[citation needed]
History
The company had its beginnings in 1878 after Daniel Francis Murphy, a winemaker, journalist, and founder of the first wine club in Australia, began wine retailing in Victoria.[1] Woolworths Limited took over the five Victorian retail outlets in 1998 with the intention of national expansion.[2] While a success for Woolworths, the business has contributed to the formation of an oligopoly in the Australian liquor market, with concerns about the ability of smaller liquor retailers to compete.
Advertising
Dan Murphy's regularly advertises in leading newspapers and online. The business offers a "lowest liquor price guarantee",[1] and a main slogan of the company is "We beat every advertised price".
Criticism
Dan Murphy's pricing strategy sparked an anti-competition problem in 2003, with industry analysts claiming that Woolworths and Coles were seeking to bankrupt rival liquor retailers, mostly by lowering prices of wine.[3] The business has admitted to selling liquor at times below cost to "aggressively drive sales".[4]
Another major concern amongst rival liquor retailers has been Woolworths' aggressive acquisition strategy, buying-up small independent stores to increase market share against main rival Coles Group,[5][6][7] or opening up new stores, placing pressure on existing retailers by taking away sales.[8] In Woolworths' 2006 Annual Report, the company reported 15 new Dan Murphy's stores had opened in the reported financial year, taking the total to 56, and that the company had the sites and licences to have more than 100 stores open within the next two to three years.[9]
References
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Archived August 31, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
