Oliver’s Wines, the online wine information and retail platform created by internationally renowned wine critic Jeremy Oliver, is moving into bricks and mortar, a move spearheaded by Australia’s leading liquor retailer, Tony Leon.
Having operated exclusively in the online space for just over 12 months, Oliver is now focused on developing a strategically placed and highly visible landmark stores tightly connected to the Oliver’s Wines online platform. With Leon, whose stellar career includes taking Dan Murphy’s from a single store to 88, he is currently searching for the first physical location for Oliver’s Wines in Melbourne’s inner suburbs. They will open significant locations in Sydney and Brisbane over coming years.
‘A high-profile bricks and mortar presence can drive sales via our online platform in a way that is too hard to deliver when purely online’, says Oliver. ‘But a physical multi-purpose operation featuring a wine bar plus event and education spaces will greatly help us create and nurture customer relationships. Visitors to our stores will discover our unique brand story and experience the depth and truly personalised nature of our online/offline presence.’
Oliver and Leon are united in their conviction that it’s the ideal time to offer a high-quality and high value range from makers large and small, known and lesser known, supported by a strong emphasis on customer engagement, experience and service.
‘The major retailers are cutting back to smaller ranges of core products from major brands, while the smaller independents are struggling to create a point of difference. So our timing couldn’t be better’, poses Leon. ‘We can fill this niche and we have a story to tell.’
Australia’s wine retail landscape is ripe for change. While the number of quality small independent retailers continues to decline across all major cities, the big end of town isn’t finding it easy either. Over the last year the share price of the Endeavour Group, owner of Dan Murphy’s, BWS, and a large portfolio of hotels, has declined by 25%. Oliver has already heard reports that Coles Liquor’s consolidation under the Liquorland banner of all its 984 stores currently operating as First Choice, Vintage Cellars and Liquorland is leading to reductions in range and choice.
‘This creates massive opportunities for those like us who don’t believe that’s what enthusiastic wine drinkers want, whatever their level of knowledge’. Oliver says: ‘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.’
Jeremy Oliver is thrilled to work alongside Leon. ‘Tony tells everyone how old he is, but he looks as fresh and as engaged as ever I can remember him. He loves developing retail brands in Australian liquor and to be honest there’s nobody I’d prefer to handle our commercial operations. And it’s a quirky thing we both had our starts in this industry working for Dan Murphy himself.’
With physical stores supported by the steadily increasing depth of free content and online experience at www.olivers-wines.com.au, Leon and Oliver hope to reach and engage with those Australian wine buyers who value individual attention, want to learn the stories behind the wines they buy and welcome the experience of discovery that only personal, expert-guided interaction – online or offline – can deliver.
About us:
About Tony Leon:
Tony Leon arrived in Australia in 1977 from a small village in Lebanon where his family had lived for many generations. He has since become one of this country’s most experienced and accomplished liquor retailers. Having commenced there in 1985 as wine buyer, he became a partner of Dan Murphy’s, where he was General Manager for 23 years until the mid-2008, the last nine of those under the ownership of Woolworths. In that role he spearheaded Dan Murphy’s rise into the most dominant liquor superstore chain in Australia, with 88 operational stores by the time of his departure. He then became Managing Director, Liquorland Australia, before becoming joint owner of Steve’s Liquor, an independent chain based in Victoria and Tasmania.
About Oliver’s Wines:
Launched in early 2024, Oliver’s Wines is an online wine platform designed for the wine enthusiast and buyer. It combines free access to the regularly updated body of work Jeremy Oliver created over the last four decades and generates income via its online store, curated very carefully by Oliver to optimise quality at any price. Designed to reinvent the concept of online wine retail, it features the world’s leading wine recommendation system. It aims to reproduce the old-fashioned personal service that used to be associated with wine retail in an engaging online environment.
The platform, which includes a website, iOS and Android apps, is also available in Chinese and has a presence on WeChat with an H5 store.
About Jeremy Oliver:
Jeremy Oliver is widely known as Australia’s most fearless and independent wine critic. He was listed in the World’s Top 20 Wine Critics by the 2018 BWW competition and tastingbook.com and is rated by Sopexa as one of the World’s Top 100 Palates.
Since the publication of his first book, Thirst for Knowledge, in 1984, he has authored a total of 30 books, plus hundreds of articles published around the world. He is particularly known for the nineteen editions of his best-selling The Australian Wine Annual. He has made hundreds of appearances on radio and television and was the first non-Chinese online KOL (key opinion leader) active in China for wine, with four seasons of top-rating online TV designed to engage with and educate the Chinese market.
He launched Oliver’s Wines in early 2024.
Contact details:
For further information please contact Jeremy Oliver at [email protected] or by mobile on 0411 866 384.
