Endeavour Group Cuts BMF as Cost Mandate Reshapes Marketing
Endeavour Group cuts BMF and loses its CMO in a A$100m cost-cutting drive. A cautionary tale for agencies relying on CMO relationships.
Endeavour Group has cut its creative agency and lost its chief marketing officer in the same week, the most visible sign yet of a cost-cutting mandate reshaping how one of Australia's largest retailers thinks about marketing.
The ASX-listed drinks and hospitality company confirmed it will end its partnership with creative agency BMF at the close of FY26, just under two years after appointing the agency to lead brand campaigns for Dan Murphy's and BWS in July 2024.
The move follows the quiet departure of CMO Josie Brown last month. Brown had only recently been confirmed in the permanent role after serving as interim CMO following the exit of Jo Rose in November 2024. Head of brand marketing An Le has also left the company, according to Mumbrella.
The A$100 Million Mandate
The restructure is being driven by new CEO Jayne Hrdlicka, who took office at the start of 2026 carrying an explicit brief: return the business to profitability after a difficult year. Endeavour's FY25 net profit fell 15.8% to A$426 million, falling short of analyst expectations, as sales contracted 0.3% to A$12.1 billion. Consumer sentiment weakened materially in March amid the escalating Middle East crisis, compounding the pressure.
Hrdlicka has responded with a A$100 million cost-saving program targeting delivery by FY27. The program covers headcount, procurement, and supplier relationships. Agency fees sit squarely in that category.
"We have identified a significant opportunity to drive costs out of the business and improve productivity and profitability," Hrdlicka said.
For Endeavour, this means reclassifying what was previously framed as strategic investment (creative agency partnerships) as an addressable procurement line.
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What BMF Leaves Behind
BMF produced two campaigns during its tenure: "Eye for Value" for Dan Murphy's and "Here for It" for BWS. Both were cited by Catriona Larritt, Endeavour's recently appointed Chief Customer Officer, as examples of work the company was proud of.
"While we've made the decision to evolve our agency model as part of our broader strategy refresh, we do so with immense respect for the BMF team," Larritt said in a statement. "We're incredibly proud of the work we've created together and grateful for the passion they've brought to our brands every single day."
BMF CEO Stephen McArdle acknowledged the ending with measured diplomacy: "We're incredibly proud of the work we created for Endeavour Group over the past two years, and the partnership we built, one grounded in ambition, a genuine commitment to creative effectiveness and ideas that resonated both culturally and commercially."
Notably, Endeavour is retaining Plus Also, a content production agency that is part of Howatson and Company, despite the broader restructure. That decision signals a deliberate distinction: embedded, lower-cost production capability survives; the large creative retainer does not.
Marketing Leadership: Complete Turnover
The speed of change at the leadership level is striking. In fewer than 18 months, Endeavour has seen four senior marketing exits.
Katie Dally, GM of marketing and creative, left in September 2024. Jo Rose, then CMO, departed in November 2024. Brown stepped in as interim and then permanent CMO, only to exit in April 2026. An Le, head of brand marketing, has also departed.
The function left standing is very different from the one that existed two years ago. Catriona Larritt, who joined from Qantas where she was Chief Customer and Digital Officer, now leads a consolidated unit bringing together marketing, customer insights, digital, ecommerce, data and AI, and loyalty.
This is not a like-for-like CMO replacement. It is a structural reconfiguration, one that signals how Endeavour wants its marketing function to operate going forward: less brand-led, more data-driven, with tighter operational oversight.
What It Signals for Agency Relationships
The Endeavour-BMF split is a case study in how quickly client economics can override creative performance. The campaigns worked. The relationship was, by all accounts, professionally conducted. None of that was sufficient protection against a CEO-level mandate to reduce the cost base.
This pattern is playing out elsewhere in the industry. When a new chief executive arrives with an operational efficiency mandate (as Hrdlicka did, drawing on her turnaround experience at Virgin Australia and Jetstar), agency retainers become visible targets in the same procurement review as store labour and supply chain costs.
For agencies that win large retail accounts, the lesson is sharp: the relationship you build with a CMO does not carry over to a new leadership team whose primary lens is cost reduction. BMF had built genuine creative effectiveness into its work. It was still shown the door.
Endeavour says it will appoint new creative partners "in due course" and is understood to be in the early stages of reviewing its creative roster. The restructure continues.
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