Dan Murphy’s has taken out top honours in the prestigious BRW & AMP Capital Shopping Centres 2012 Retailer of the Year awards at a sell-out gala event at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney. The liquor retailer took out the ‘Outstanding Retailer of the Year Award’, ahead of other finalists in the category including Australian Geographic, Crust Gourmet Pizza Bars, Grill’d Healthy Burgers, Oroton Group, Salvos Stores and Telstra.
Of Dan Murphy’s unanimous win, retail consultant and one of this year’s judges Stephen Kulmar, says “It (Dan Murphy’s) is best in class worldwide for what it does. It takes advantage of a growth category and delivers the most dominant and well-considered product offering on the market. It compromises on nothing, whether it’s an $8 bottle of wine or a $1000 bottle of wine.”
Although Woolworths-owned, Dan Murphy’s general manager Martin Smith says it has always been run as a separate business and attributes its success to the culture the founder built. “Murphy, by himself, fostered a focus on wine and wine education with a lowest price guarantee,” Smith says. “That combination of a great product range with staff who know their stuff and a determination to make it available to the general public not just the affluent is something we’ve worked to maintain as we’ve expanded.”