Endeavour Group secures Beachfront Hotel, commits $10m in Top End over three years

Endeavour Group, which is behind some of the most iconic pubs in Australia, will invest millions of dollars in its Top End venues after purchasing a beachfront favourite.

The company behind some of the country’s most iconic pubs, including Young and Jackson in Melbourne and the Breakfast Creek Hotel in Brisbane, will invest $10m in its Top End venues over the next three years.

Speaking in Darwin on Monday just days after the ACCC announced it had approved Endeavour’s purchase of the Beachfront Hotel in Nightcliff, group chief executive Steve Donohue said the company would invest in upgrades to its existing Top End assets.

The Beachfront Hotel will be Endeavour’s fifth Top End acquisition along with the Airport Hotel, Palmerston Tavern, Parap Tavern and Bell Bar and Bistro.

It also owns a BWS outlet in Alice Springs.

The $10m investment into its Territory pubs will be done in consultation with local communities.

“A couple of our pubs could do with a bit of improvement, shall we say,” Mr Donohue said. “What we’d like to do is engage with the local community to understand what their needs and expectations are and obviously, get appropriate planning approvals so we can get it done the right way and at the right time.

Endeavour Group chief executive Steve Donohue and long-time Beachfront owner and NT businessman Doug Sallis after the ACCC approved the popular pub's sale.

“Really what we’re saying today is we’ve got a depth of commitment to the Territory and that’s off the back of having got the opportunity to go ahead and acquire the Beachfront.

“That was really a catalyst for us because now we know with confidence we can invest in the future of our venues in the Territory.”

The Endeavour Group employs about 28,000 people nationally and including the Beachfront the company now has a Territory workforce of about 250 people.

Its national portfolio includes Young and Jackson opposite the landmark steps of Flinders Street Station in Melbourne, Brisbane’s Breakfast Creek Hotel, Kirribilli Hotel in Sydney and Dan Murphy’s outlets.

The owners of Young and Jackson in Melbourne will invest $10m in its Top End venues after aquiring the Beachfront Hotel in Nightcliff. Picture Rebecca Michael.

The ACCC’s review into the purchase of the Beachfront on competition grounds was the second high-profile government intervention into an Endeavour Group venture in the Territory after the Gunner Labor government initially opposed plans for a Dan Murphy’s outlet in Darwin.

A negative ACCC finding on the purchase could potentially have impacted Endeavour’s NT plans.

Beachfront owner Doug Sallis recently spent $3m on a major renovation of the venue he owned for 22 years.

“It’s a hungry beast but a very rewarding venue that responded to your efforts which was always a great feature of the hotel,” Mr Sallis said.

“If you were innovative in what you did the venue responded to you.

Once notorious as a bikie-dominated pub with cage-dancing, not everybody welcomed its transition into the hotel mainstream when Mr Sallis took over.

“As a new owner you come in and start tampering with these old institutions and it’s a little bit overwhelming so you need to trend carefully and be strategic how you do that, but the changes we made reflected what was going on already in Rapid Creek and Nightcliff anyway. “It was becoming a more cosmopolitan suburb and we were changing to reflect what was really happening around us in any event.”

Mr Sallis is not retiring from hospitality or business and will continue to operate Yarrawonga’s Pitlane Bottle-O, Humpty Doo Tavern and is currently upgrading his Dundee assets including the Lodge of Dundee.

Iconic pub’s sale cleared after months of delay

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has decided not to block the sale of the Beachfront Hotel to the Endeavour Group, paving the way for the multi-million dollar deal.

A year since the iconic Rapid Creek pub was put on the market, the competition watchdog released a statement signalling it had backed away from attempts to block the sale.

An Endeavour Group spokeswoman said the company thanked previous owner Doug Sallis and welcomed the decision and finalisation “of the acquisition will take place in due course”.

“Australia’s leading drinks and hospitality business Endeavour Group welcomes today’s announcement by the ACCC that it will not oppose its proposed acquisition of the Beachfront Hotel in Darwin,” she said on Thursday.

“The Beachfront Hotel will now join Endeavour Group’s Australian Leisure and Hospitality hotel portfolio as proposed.

“The Beachfront Hotel is a well-established, premium venue, popular with families, locals and tourists. It is an iconic pub and an important part of the local community.

“We look forward to working with the existing team and community to build on the pub’s popularity while maintaining the qualities that make it so well-loved today.”

The Beachfront Hotel in Darwin at sunset

The Beachfront was on the market in March 2022 and within two months Endeavour Group announced it had bought the property and flagged a planned multi-million dollar upgrade to its Territory assets.

ACCC announced in December it was reviewing the sale but in a statement posted on its website this morning, acting chairman Mick Keogh said the sale had been given the all-clear.

“The ACCC looks closely at acquisitions that result in consolidation in local markets and initially identified concerns with this proposed acquisition,” Mr Keogh said.

“However, after taking into account further information from the community and the parties, we were satisfied that the deal would not likely substantially lessen competition for the purchase of takeaway alcohol because of the variety of alternatives in the local area.”

The ACCC concluded a sufficient variety of “liquor stores would remain in the area post-acquisition”.

“Consumers in the local area would continue to have access to two Coles’ Liquorlands and a variety of other liquor stores, operating under a range of banners including Cellarbrations, Thirsty Camel and Bottlemart,” Mr Keogh said.

He said three owners of large liquor stores and 11 independently owned small liquor stores would remain in the 5km area of the Beachfront hotel.

“It is important that local consumers benefit from competition between different stores with different promotions, pricing, ranges and service offerings,” Mr Keogh said.

The ACCC statement said it had considered the supply of on-premises services at the Beachfront Hotel but concluded Endeavour would continue to face competition from a number of alternative liquor, food and gaming providers after the acquisition.

It said the proposed acquisition was “unlikely to materially affect the competitiveness of other independent liquor stores in Darwin”.

Originally published as Endeavour Group secures Beachfront Hotel, commits $10m in Top End over three years