Dan Murphy's

Dan Murphy's

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retail
Founded	1878 (Woolworths in 1998)
Headquarters	Alphington, Victoria, Australia
Key people	Michael Luscombe, CEO Steve Greentree, General Manager Woolworths Liquor Group
Parent	Woolworths Limited
Website	www.danmurphys.com.au

Dan Murphy's is an Australian big box liquor supermarket chain owned by Woolworths Limited, who also owns BWS, another liquor chain with smaller stores.

History

The company has 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

The business offers a "lowest liquor price guarantee",^[1] and a main slogan of the company is that "You would be mad to buy liquor elsewhere".

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

1. ^ ^{a b} "Dan Murphy's - The Dan Murphy Story" (HTML). Dan Murphy's. http://www.danmurphys.com.au/the-dan-murphy-story.html. Retrieved 2007-09-20. 
2. ^ (PDF) How Woolworths Started & Grew. Woolworths Limited. 2000-11-12. Archived from the original on 2007-09-25. http://web.archive.org/web/20070925230415/http://www.dse.com.au/isroot/dse/support/woolworths_history.pdf. Retrieved 2007-09-20. 
3. ^ Ashford, Karen (2004-04). "Wine producers on the rack". The Adelaide Review. http://www.adelaidereview.com.au/archives/2004_04/issuesandopinion_story1.shtml. Retrieved 2007-09-20. 
4. ^ "Inside Business". Greg Hoy. Inside Business. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2003-07-13. Transcript. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
5. ^ Business Sunday. Oriel Morrison. Channel Nine. 2005-06-05. Transcript. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
6. ^ McMahon, Stephen (2005-10-27). "Woolies swallows Taverner hotels whole". Business (The Age). http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/10/26/1130302838155.html. Retrieved 2007-09-20. 
7. ^ "Woolies beats Coles in big pub race". Business (The Sydney Morning Herald). 2004-10-27. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/26/1098667765861.html. Retrieved 2007-09-20. 
8. ^ Stateline (Western Australia). Dianne Bain. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2006-04-21. Transcript. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
9. ^ Woolworths Limited (2006) (PDF). Woolworths Limited Annual Report 2006. http://www.woolworthslimited.com.au/resources/final+report+2006.pdf. Retrieved 2007-09-20. ^{[dead link]}

External links

• Dan Murphy's