The boss of the Endeavour Group liquor and hotels business says the bricks and mortar liquor retail footprint comprising 250 Dan Murphy’s stores and 1392 BWS outlets is nowhere near saturation point, but there are likely to be more smaller format stores in the next leg of expansion.

Steve Donohue, the managing director of the business which has split off from supermarkets giant Woolworths and will list on the ASX on Thursday as a standalone entity, began his career in retailing as a casual worker in 1994 at one of the early Dan Murphy’s outlets in the Melbourne suburb of Alphington.