Endeavour executive chair Ari Mervis resigns over ‘disagreements with the board’

Endeavour executive chair Ari Mervis has called it quits at the pubs and hotels group, citing disagreements with the board.

The owner of Dan Murphy’s, BWS and hundreds of local pubs revealed on Monday Mr Mervis would step down from the board immediately.

It has appointed chief financial officer Kate Beattie as interim chief executive until former Virgin Australia boss Jayne Hrdlicka officially starts in January.

Ms Hrdlicka is now consulting on a strategy refresh with the board and senior management.

Lead independent director Duncan Makeig will assume the role of interim chair while the board searches for a permanent replacement.

Despite the board turmoil, Endeavour shares were 3.5 per cent higher to $4.18 just before midday.

Mr Mervis’ exit comes amid a challenging period for the group — which owns more than 1700 bottle shops and over 300 hotels across the country — as it grapples with value-conscious consumers suffering through a prolonged cost-of-living crisis.

The company also faced a lengthy public spat with billionaire pub baron and Endeavour’s largest shareholder Bruce Mathieson.

Endeavour did not provide further details about the disagreements between Mr Mervis — who only stepped into the executive chair role in March, taking over from long-serving boss Steve Donohue — and the board.

Addressing investors and analysts on Monday, Mr Makeig said: “Ari has cited his reasons for resigning to be disagreements with the board, we have accepted his resignation, and we respect that that is his thinking.”

“The role of executive chair is a complex one, and the board and Ari have had numerous discussions as we navigated his tenure,” he said.

“The nature of those discussions have varied, and of course, the board and Ari have not always seen eye-to-eye completely on everything, but there has been nothing that we would characterise as material in that regard. But I won’t go into this further.”

Bank of America analyst David Errington said he had “never seen a situation like this in my life where a company just doesn’t have a clear direction”.

“Listening to the company and watching you over the last 12 months, right now, there’s a distinct lack of accountability,” he said.

“I don’t know who’s accountable for the strategy. I’m just really concerned that this company, and I don’t want to use terrible words, but the company just seems to be rudderless, and it’s been rudderless for a little while.”

In response, Mr Makeig said his focus would “be to ensure that we make the right, transparent decisions for the company going forward that will execute against what I believe is our great opportunity”.

At the same time, Endeavour said group sales for the 2025 financial year were expected to hit $12.06 billion, with net profit between $420 million and $425m.

This includes the impact of several one-off items, among them restructuring and redundancy costs and an impairment relating to the closure of the its Prowine bottling plant in South Australia.

Last year, it reported sales of $12.3b and $512m in profit.

“The groupʼs balance sheet remains in good order,” Endeavour said.

“Solid cashflow generation during (the 2025 financial year), reflecting a disciplined approach to capital management, has driven a reduction in the groupʼs net debt.”

Endeavour is set to report full-year results on August 25.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Michael Toner anticipates a period of ongoing disruption and turnover within Endeavour over the coming year or so.

“Endeavour is currently in the midst of a strategic reset with ongoing redundancies, continued board turnover, and incoming CEO Jayne Hrdlicka already consulting to Endeavour five months ahead of her official start date to ease the transition,” he said.