Woolworths Group has revealed it will close its discount online wine business WineMarket.
WineMarket is based in Surry Hills, Sydney with its warehouse and stock located in South Australia’s Barossa Valley.
It was a flagship subsidiary of direct-to-home wine retailer Cellarmasters, which was acquired by Endeavour Drinks in 2011.
Dan Murphy’s interim MD Faye Ilhan said the closure was the result of a decision to focus on premium wine customers as it “sets up our
wine business up for success in F20 and beyond”.
“As part of our renewed focus on wine, we have restructured our team to provide a greater focus on premium and boutique wine,” she said in a statement.
“The next step for us is to improve our eCommerce offer to ensure we can provide our customers with a convenient and effortless experience. In order to do this, we need to simplify the way our customers shop with us and in particular make our wine category easier to shop online.
“With this in mind, we have made the decision to close the WineMarket business to focus solely on trading the Dan Murphy’s website and giving our wine customers the best possible offer via Dan Murphy’s.”
While Woolworths works through the logistics of closing Winemarket down it will continue to operate in an interim capacity.
The new look Endeavour Group
The Winemarket announcement follows Woolworths revealing last week that it will spin off its liquor and hospitality businesses into a new company called Endeavour Group.
Endeavour Group will comprise highly integrated store-based and online offerings, with more than 1500 BWS and Dan Murphy’s retail drinks outlets and 327 ALH hotels.
In the loyalty space, Dan Murphy’s currently has 3.5 million My Dan Murphy’s members.
Among the priorities for the Endeavour Group moving forward will be:
- Simplifying into a more customer-centric operating model to create a leaner and more customer focused business across Endeavour Drinks and ALH.
- Further developing its retail drinks and hospitality network to capitalise on network growth opportunities, ramp-up its renewal program and continue new store openings.
- Leverage the store network and digital capabilities to increase online penetration and continue to rapidly expand drive up and last-mile delivery and use rewards to drive personalisation
- Curate range for local customers and selectively build out the portfolio of exclusive Pinnacle brands.
- Unlock the property development potential of its existing real estate and develop key existing venues into large-scale mixed use and accommodation properties.
“There are lots of opportunities in the drinks and hospitality network, Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci said. “We have not invested as we should have in the past few years in Endeavour Drinks in the digital space, for example. E-commerce and home delivery are also very important and are growing.”
