Pubs billionaire says Coles outplaying Dan Murphy’s, BWS

afr.com:

Pubs billionaire Bruce Mathieson says the Coles liquor business has been outperforming Endeavour’s liquor retailing chains Dan Murphy’s and BWS and a shake-up is needed.

The hostilities between Mr Mathieson and Endeavour, in which he owns a 15 per cent stake, show no sign of letting up.

In response, Endeavour has accused Mr Mathieson of undermining confidence in a “resilient” business and using selective data from when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted trading, and a better gauge of performance is over the past four years.

Bruce Mathieson says the performance of Dan Murphy’s needs to improve. Louie Douvis

Mr Mathieson is backing a push by former Woolworths executive Bill Wavish to gain a seat on the Endeavour board and help arrest a declining share price at the company which split off from Woolworths in 2021.

The Endeavour board on Tuesday reversed its stance and will allow a shareholder vote at its annual meeting on October 31 on a resolution where Mr Wavish is seeking to become a director.

A letter sent by Mr Mathieson on Tuesday afternoon to Endeavour chairman Peter Hearl claimed that the Endeavour retail chains had been losing ground to their main rival.

He said Coles Liquor had outgrown Endeavour’s liquor retailing business in each of the past nine quarters to June this year since Endeavour demerged from Woolworths. Coles Liquor sales had increased 0.8 per cent over that time, while Endeavour liquor retail had declined 4.3 per cent, he said.

The letter was in response to one sent by Mr Hearl to Mr Mathieson two days earlier.

“If you are unable to acknowledge the problem of long-term loss of market share, then I would expect that you are unable to fix the problem,” Mr Mathieson said in his letter.

But Endeavour Group