07/29/2026
You may have heard the news recently that Endeavour Dan Murphy’s and co is selling 80% of its grape production facilities. The big names being Oakridge and Chapel Hill. Dave Bicknell, the beating heart of Oakridge, was ripped out of Oakridge’s chest.
The industry is outraged, and not without justification. But I want to argue this could be a good thing because it’s a company finally admitting it should stick to what it’s actually good at.
Dan Murphy’s built its dominance on a Bunnings-style playbook: biggest range at the lowest prices. At some point, under some CEO, they decided to take it further with vertical integration : farmer, winemaker, wholesaler, retailer, all in one. Cut out the wholesaler, get a tax advantage as the winemaker. Sounds smart on paper.
Here’s the problem: the corporate big dogs are not farmers or winemakers. They have no competitive advantage in production, the margins are slim, and worse, it was distracting them from the one part of the business that actually makes money , Dan Murphy’s itself. I imagine the boardroom logic went something like: we have no edge in production, but we have 50% of the retail wine market. That’s our real advantage. Let’s cut the rest and focus.
The way they handled the exit, and the staff , was brutal. But I don’t think the corporates care. They aren’t wine people; casually gutting a business is just part of the corporate gig.
And if I were in the C-suite? Go all the way back to the motto that built you: lowest prices and the biggest range, guaranteed. Right now you’ve got neither, because half your “range” is private-label bulk wine dressed up to look like something it’s not and customers know it. That’s not range, that’s fake.
