How popular retailer Dan Murphy’s started 70 years ago
The Melbourne man who created the popular alcohol retailer played a huge part in how Aussies drink, but he almost became a priest instead.
Retail
Don't miss out on the headlines from Retail. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Turns out bottle shop retailer Dan Murphy’s wasn’t a brand that was dreamt up by a corporate marketing team but instead came from humble beginnings as a wine store in Melbourne created 70 years ago by a little known Aussie legend.
The founder, however, seemed destined to end up in the alcohol industry despite toying with becoming a priest.
The man behind the brand Daniel Francis Murphy was born into a family of liquor merchants, and after his early education, joined Penfolds Wines as a junior clerk, while studying winemaking.
But in 1936, he turned his back on booze and trained to be a priest.
Just a few years later, he made the decision to ditch religious life to pursue accountancy and commercial law at Melbourne University and also served in the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II.
But the then 34-year-old still had the business of booze in his blood. He chose to combine his passion for wine and business by opening Dan Murphy’s Cellar at 280 Chapel Street, Prahran, Melbourne in 1952.
It still remains today with Dan Murphy’s Prahran Cellar the retailer’s flagship store.
His cellar was located around the corner from his father’s liquor store, but Dan wanted to do things differently to his father and other merchants before him.
“Many people don’t know that ‘Uncle Dan’ was a wine-loving entrepreneur who created innovations that have shaped the Australian drinks industry,” said Dan Murphy’s managing director Alex Freudmann.
Making wine mainstream via an underground club
Back in the 1950s, Australians mainly consumed beer and rum. Having fallen in love with table wines from France, Dan had a vision of converting Australia into a wine drinking community.
To educate customers about wine, he started Australia’s first retailer-based wine club, The Vintage Club, in 1954 in the basement of his Prahran Cellars store.
He hosted exclusive dinners and wine tastings in the underground club, and offered members-only prices on wine.
It grew from 12 members when it started to more than 15,000 by 1969.
He was also committed to the idea of democratising wine and his mission was that everyone deserves a good drop.
When he started out, table wines were expensive, but Dan played a pivotal role in introducing wine discounting to Australia.
By buying wine in bulk and reducing his margins, he was able to make wine accessible to the average Australian.
In 1966, he published The Australian Wine Guide which became a bible for wine lovers.
In the book, he illustrated different wine styles using descriptions such as firm tannins and acid – terms still used today.
Although these were already commonly used in the wine industry, Dan introduced them to the wider public.
A content creator before his time
Tiktok and Instagram might be all the rage now but Dan has his eyes on creating content well before the internet.
He released Vintage Club News back in 1956, a newspaper which he distributed to his Dan Murphy's club members.
The paper included wine recommendations and musings from Dan as well as information about upcoming exclusive tastings and events for club members.
He also shared the exclusive members-only prices, which was one of the popular sections.
He also started writing a weekly column in The Age newspaper in 1967 with his wine recommendations.
However, as he was heavily promoting the very wines he sold in his store, his column was axed in 1979 due to the conflict of interest.
Ditching wine labels
One of the early adopters of cleanskin wines in the 1950s, Dan sold wines in gallon flasks which simply had Dan Murphy’s on the label and a code.
He had bought the wine in bulk from wineries, who did not want him to use their name as it would cheapen their brand providing affordable wine.
Then in 1981, he coined the slogan “Nobody beats Dan Murphy’s’’ with a roll out of the lowest-price guarantee.
To achieve this before the internet age, Dan would read the morning papers and compile the beer, wine and spirit prices advertised by his competitors, and then ask his team members to hit the shop floor and mark the prices down to a new low.
Backing the goon bag
In the 1970s, cask wine was hailed as the most revolutionary wine container since the invention of the glass bottle.
However, the first casks on the Australian market were leaky.
Dan saw the potential, and set up a small wine-cask production line in a back room of the Chapel Street store, along with multiple 9000-litre tanks in the basement.
Sourcing quality wine from South Australia and plastic bags from Japan, Dan created a range for the brand.
By 1984, cask wine represented 64.7 per cent of Australian wine sales.
Later, he went on to super-size his concept and started by expanding his Prahran Cellar store to fill the entire arcade it was in and now there are 257 Dan Murphy’s stores around Australia.
Dan died in 2001 leaving behind his children Ann, Philip, Mark and Clare.
He was grandfather to Alicia, Adrienne, Sophie, Alexander and Thomas and great grandfather of Joe and Grace
Originally published as How popular retailer Dan Murphy’s started 70 years ago
Aldi urged to open in last Aussie state
The Greens have unveiled a $30m election pitch to lure discount retailers such as Aldi to Australia’s smallest state.
Urgent recall amid risk of ‘serious injury’
Aussies have been told to immediately stop using a popular beverage product sold by major retailers, after one person was left injured.