The group has experienced early success and its share price has been rising, while Woolworths shares have generally been going the other way as its supermarkets business battles high COVID-19 costs and logistics disruptions.
It also wants to speed up the “last mile” delivery. Donohue eyes companies in the food delivery sector as something to aspire to when it comes to the delivery component for impatient online customers. Donohue worked part-time initially as a casual at the Dan Murphy’s store in the Melbourne suburb of Alphington, where he rose quickly to become assistant store manager when he was 19 years old.
Donohue says he learnt a lot from Murphy. “His core knowledge and capability was around the product. Knowing customers and what customers want and what motivates them” were the main lessons.Donohue was destined for higher honours and spread his wings with lengthy stints in the Woolworths supermarkets business, which included running the Countdown supermarkets chain in New Zealand.
Further afield, Donohue admires the ability of former US president Barack Obama and former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke to communicate clearly and build connections. “Barack Obama had a very natural connection to people and that is something to admire”. “It was just the most amazing experience to see how many people stepped up into jobs that we would never have asked them to do because they were bigger, more challenging, roles that others weren’t able to fill.