Dan Murphy’s and BWS owner Endeavour Group is looking to raid start-ups for technology talent as it expands its online stores as shoppers increasingly turn to liquor apps to buy drinks.

The boss of the company’s digital arm endeavourX, Claire Smith, said Endeavour would be casting a wide net to fill 300 new roles.

“To fill this number of roles, we are going to need to attract people from a variety of different industries. We see that diversity of backgrounds being critical to our success,” she said.

This could include drawing on talent from Australia’s startup scene, which has recently been hit with waves of layoffs in the face of challenging market conditions.

Border closures have also led to shortages of software developer talent over the past two years.

Alcohol sales have been performing strongly despite cost of living pressures across the rest of the economy. Endeavourx, which includes the company’s online stores for Dan Murphy’s and BWS as well as its membership programs, has exceeded $1 billion in online sales during 2022, the company said.

“We certainly continue to see online demand be significantly above where it was pre-pandemic, and we are seeing customers choose pickup options more and more. That’s why we’re continuing to invest in that,” Smith said.

Endeavour’s tech hiring spree will bring data scientists, software engineers and managers into the business at a time of fierce competition on price across the grocery space.

Digital retail is a significant part of Endeavour Group’s growth strategy – at the company’s May investor update the company outlined it had 4.4 million loyalty members, while 40 per cent of store sales were influenced by the company’s digital channels.