Dan Murphy’s co-founder and former Coles Liquor head Tony Leon has announced he is returning to retail with a new chain called Oliver’s Wines.
Wine critic Jeremy Oliver has hired Leon to help him launch stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to complement his online wine recommendation and reviews platform.
Leon and Oliver are aiming to be the wine equivalent of Apple, with experiential wine stores that offer personalised service but also encourage shoppers to continue engaging online after their visits. The stores will offer tastings and wine bars.
The pair will employ staff who are highly knowledgeable about wine and have avowed the private label model followed by Coles Group and Endeavour Group.
“So it is the Apple model. The Apple model is very much that people will go into the Apple store maybe once or twice a year, check out a new product, but they are Apple customers and purchase regularly online,” Oliver told The Australian.
“We are trying to explore that which I don’t think anyone else has tried. Where you have a relationship with a brand, to become a fan of the brand and then purchase online from the brand.”
Leon, who ran Dan Murphy’s until its sale to Woolworths in 1998 said Australia’s wine retail landscape is “ripe for change”.
“We can do things at a store level that are too hard for the big guys and too challenging for most of the smaller ones,” he said.
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