The leaders of Australia’s biggest liquor and hotels business have offered cautious reassurance to investors, as declining alcohol consumption continues to weigh on the bottom line.
Endeavour, which owns brands including Dan Murphy’s, BWS and a portfolio of pubs and hotels, managed to grow total sales by almost 2.8 per cent in the 14 weeks from July 1 to $3.18 billion.
However, the result missed forecasts, compounding woes for shareholders, who’ve watched the company’s value shrink by more than 60 per cent since August 2022.
“We acknowledge it has been another challenging year for Endeavour shareholders,” chair Duncan Makeig told its annual meeting in Sydney on Friday.
“The board also shares your frustration and disappointment that since listing on the ASX just over five years ago, Endeavour’s financial performance and share price have not met expectations.”
Revenue growth from hotels moderated over the period as high living costs and fuel prices hammered Australians’ hip pockets.
Retail sales improved by three per cent, outpacing the broader liquor market thanks to Dan Murphy’s.
However, the growth had failed to keep up with inflation, shareholder David Kingston told Mr Makeig and chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka, who was facing her first shareholder meeting at the helm after a remarkable turnaround at Virgin Australia.
In May, Ms Hrdlicka announced a $300 million cost-saving plan, including offloading wineries and streamlining hotel operations, which was announced before the company slashed its shareholder dividend.
“We’re all drinking less, and consumption per capita is continuing to fall,” Mr Kingston said.
“Terrific that Jane is pulling out a lot of costs, but it’s very hard to shrink to greatness.”
While some shareholders complained their income had fallen relative to the executives steering the company, most took comfort in Ms Hrdlicka’s leadership.
For her part, Endeavour’s boss noted the strategy didn’t depend on expansion.
“We have a lot of work to do to get the fundamentals right, in addition to getting our experiences right to tap the full potential of the customers who are already shopping with us, and so our strategy does not depend on market growth,” she said.
“Market growth would be nice.”
There was still work to be done to re-energise the category, which was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Post-COVID, I think the entire industry was so busy trying to figure out what happened that not enough thinking was going into how do we re-engage consumers post the trauma of COVID,” Ms Hrdlicka said.
“The industry was not thinking about how do we capture the attention of consumers with innovation and how do we think about the upcoming generations that had social challenges during COVID, and didn’t get to be out and about doing things that you normally do when you’re 17, 18, 19, 20.”
Shares in Endeavour were up by about three per cent to $3.34 around noon.
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