Former Virgin boss Jayne Hrdlicka lands top job at Dan Murphy’s, BWS

Former Virgin chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka will become the new boss of Endeavour, the operator of bottle shop chains Dan Murphy’s and BWS and hundreds of pubs around the country, which has been facing pressure from investors to turn around its flagging performance.

Hrdlicka will start in her new role on January 1 next year, with executive chairman Ari Mervis continuing in his role until then, the company said in a statement to the ASX on Tuesday morning.

Endeavour Group chairman Ari Mervis with incoming CEO Jayne Hrdlicka at the Alexandria store in Sydney.Credit: Louise Kennerley

“Endeavour Group has much to play for,” Hrdlicka said in the announcement, adding she was looking forward to work with the company’s more than 30,000 employees.

“I have a long history with Endeavour’s retail and hotel businesses, initially as a consultant to Woolworths, including on their early liquor strategy, and then as a Woolworths Group Board member.”

Hrdlicka will be paid an annual salary of $2 million, with short-term bonuses of up to $3 million and long-term incentives of $4 million.

Former Woolworths CEO Roger Corbett, who engineered the deal to buy Dan Murphy’s for the supermarket giant at the time, has been a vocal critic of Endeavour, which he said had “run down deplorably” since it floated to the ASX in mid-2021.

“I know Jayne really well. Jayne is a very capable executive, but she’s sure got a challenge with Endeavour,” Corbett told this masthead.

“The Dan Murphy’s I bought for Woolworths many years ago has completely lost its mojo.”

“It’s a wonderful set of assets, as are the hotels. They’ve been deplorably managed, and the board should take full responsibility.”

Endeavour’s share price closed Tuesday’s session 0.5 per cent higher.

The American-Australian executive led Australia’s second-largest airline for four years before announcing her resignation in February last year.

She did not provide a specific reason for leaving, but said the last four years had been “heavy lifting across the organisation during the toughest of times”.

Before she officially stepped down from Virgin on March 14, Hrdlicka told her LinkedIn followers that she “could not be more proud” of the company’s achievements.

“My time as the CEO of Virgin Australia has been a career highlight,” she said. “It is extraordinary just how far we have come. It is testament to the importance of having clarity on where we were headed and real conviction to deliver it.”

Mervis said Endeavour’s board believed Hrdlicka was the right person for the company as she had a proven track record of leading consumer-facing companies to success.

“She has led many complex organisations and delivered significant shareholder value by capturing the true potential of a company’s brands and assets. After an extensive global search, the board is delighted to have secured such a highly capable leader,” said Mervis.

“Jayne brings many strengths to the role including a history of using deep consumer insights to define successful strategy formulation and execution and extensive business transformation experience.”

Before her time at Virgin, Hrdlicka was CEO of infant formula maker A2 Milk, but left after just two years. The circumstances of her departure were contested by her and the company, with a war of words erupting between then-chairman David Hearn who demanded Hrdlicka retract “falsehoods” and “mistruths”.

She spent eight years in the Qantas Group, including as Jetstar’s CEO for five and a half years. Hrdlicka’s background is in consulting where she spent nearly two decades with Bain & Company (a separate, unaffiliated company to private investment firm Bain Capital, the majority owner of Virgin).

Hrdlicka will be tasked with lifting the performance of the liquor and pubs giant, which has been facing declining sales as consumption patterns shift to lower frequency but higher quality.

The $7.2 billion business was spun off Woolworths in June 2021, but Endeavour’s share price has since fallen by 33.8 per cent.

Endeavour’s chief executive Steve Donohue, who has been with the business for three decades after beginning on the shop floor, shocked the market when he resigned in late September last year after six years in the top job.

Donohue and then-chairman Peter Hearl faced calls to resign at the company’s annual general meeting in late 2023 as part of a campaign by pubs billionaire and investor Bruce Mathieson who was agitating for leadership change at the company. Mathieson is the company’s biggest shareholder with a 15.1 per cent stake.

During the meeting, Corbett launched a ten-minute attack on Hearl, who he said had “become a problem” for the business. “I call for your immediate resignation,” Corbett said at the time.

Hearl ultimately stepped down in early January 2024, as did Mathieson’s son, Bruce Mathieson jnr.

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