Endeavour Group has marked its first year as a standalone business with a minor increase in profit on static sales, results released today show. 

The former Woolworths Group subsidiary, which owns Dan Murphy’s and 344 hotels and clubs, achieved sales of $11.6 billion and a profit of $495 million, up 2.8 per cent. The result was significant given the disruption to hotel trading due to Covid movement restrictions during the first half, offset in part by increased online sales of liquor to house-bound consumers. It also shows how the group overcame widespread disruption on the eastern seaboard from flooding which saw some of its stores and hotels closed for weeks due to damage. 

On the retail side, Endeavour Group opened a net gain of 32 stores during the year while on the hotel side it completed 40 renewals and acquired five new properties. 

“The investment in our digital connections with customers has been accelerated in recent years given Covid-19 restrictions and we emerged from FY22 with both record sales and record numbers of customer connections,” said Endeavour Group MD and CEO, Steve Donohue. 

He said the company’s fortunes continued to improve during the first seven weeks of the new trading year, as the hotel division recovered further and retail trends “are consistent with a return to normal patterns of trade”. 

Compared to the same period in FY20 – prior to the advent of Covid-19 – retail sales were up 12.7 per cent and hotels by 13.4 per cent. The company warned that sales comparisons to last year are not meaningful given the impact of Covid restrictions in place at the time.