The Guy Matthews Hotel Group has rebranded into Piermount, as a period of consolidation ends and a phase of new growth begins.
With some big plans for growth and development coming up, Brett Matthews and family have rebranded their SA pub group from the unofficial Guy Matthews Hotel Group title, to Piermount.
The Matthews family have a long history in pubs in South Australia, with Brett’s grandfather, Seymour Matthews, starting the business in the 1940s, along with his father Guy and uncle Tony. Following the passing of Tony Matthews in 2019, in 2020 the business was split between Tony’s children – Lisa, Scott and Ward – and Guy and his sons.
The former took on the name Matthews Hospitality, while the latter operated their venues under the informal name of Guy Matthews Hotel Group. Brett said this was in large part due to other ventures happening at the time. Along with publicans Ed Peter and Martin Palmer, he founded Duxton Pubs, and took on the leadership of that enterprise. However in 2024, Mark Condi was appointed as CEO of Duxton Pubs, meaning Matthews could return his attention to the family business.
“I stepped back into the family business, and that’s when we launched and decided to focus on our own family brand again,” explained Matthews.
The Matthews family remains the largest individual shareholder in Duxton Pubs.
Launching Piermount
In March 2024, the process to rebrand the pub group – comprising several venues in South Australia including Mansfield Park Hotel, Stirling Hotel, The Marryatville Hotel, Seaton Hotel and the Australasian Goolwa – commenced.
“We had not established a group name for a number of years and as we move into the next phase of growth and development for our family, we felt a name to identify us as a group was fundamental,” stated Matthews.
The group worked with KWP and Partners to bring the rebrand to life. It was a lengthy process with many meetings and venue visits, in which KWP & Partners thoroughly went through the evolution of the family. Together, they landed on Piermount as a brand that embodied the group’s values, celebrated its history, and aligned with its goals for 2025 and beyond.
“The name Piermount is a nod to our family’s history in hospitality. It combines the names of two hotels of significance. The Largs Pier Hotel at Largs Bay and the Mount Gambier Hotel. While we no longer own or operate these venues, they played a huge role in shaping our group today. Given the impact they had on our journey, it felt very fitting to carry a piece of that legacy forward into this new chapter.”
With the Piermount name and visuals launched, the group is now focused on its future growth and development.
New growth plans
In one of its first significant moves as Piermount, the group acquired the freehold of Corio Hotel in Goolwa, with tenants in place. The Corio Hotel is situated nears its boutique accommodation asset, the Australasian.
“As a family, we have spent many summers down at Goolwa. There is a great demand for a great hotel in the town, which therefore made this a very attractive acquisition. Especially because we had recently purchased the Australasian accommodation facility adjacent to the venue,” Matthews explained.
The Australasian will undergo a small revamp in the near future.
In a much larger move, Piermount has had its plans for a new greenfields pub, Heysen Hotel, in the Mount Barker region approved by the Licensing Court of South Australia. On the outskirts of greater Adelaide, the Mount Barker area is one of the state’s fastest-growing areas of development, with a current number of residents of 30,000 residents expected to jump to 50,000 by 2030.
While there are other pubs in the Mount Barker region, there are none on the southern fringes where the new developments are occurring – hence the need for Heysen Hotel.
“Mount Barker is one of the fastest-growing regions in South Australia, yet there hasn’t been a new pub built in over 100 years. We see this as a real milestone, not just for us but for the whole community. This will be a new social hub for Mount Barker as well as the jobs that it will create within the community,” stated Matthews.
A significant win at scale
Heysen Hotel is the first greenfields hotel site with gaming machines to be approved in South Australia in over 20 years, with Matthews calling the move “incredibly significant”. Matthews puts the win down to a successful argument for the hotel from a whole-of-community perspective.
The pub’s construction, expected to cost roughly $20m, will generate 40 FTE roles on site, with an additional 70 jobs supported indirectly. Once open, the pub will generate more roles for the community, as well as being a local gathering hub.
“The judge saw the need for it in the community, it was fantastic.”
The hotel plans are for a venue with a capacity of 1000 people, and will include a bistro and lounge area, a separate sports bar and lounge, a large outdoor area, a gaming room with up to 40 EGMs, an underground carpark and drive-through bottleshop, two courtyard spaces, and two function rooms.
“The vision is to create a true community destination where locals and visitors feel at home.”
With the area surrounding the hotel site still growing, Matthews has looked to equivalent residential developments and their pubs in other states for inspiration.
“I principally looked to a lot of what was happening in outer western suburbs in New South Wales and what the likes of the Laundy family and those guys were doing in those suburbs. There’s been quite a few in Victoria as well, on the eastern fringes of Melbourne, and out towards Dandenong. So I really looked into state of what everyone was doing, and looked at the scale.
“I think the key to those greenfield sites in new emerging markets is scale. You’ve got to have large footprints, got to be very diverse in your offer. You’ve got to have a wide range of offerings: multiple food offers, functions, event space offers, sports bar, TAB, a family offer, playgrounds, that sort of thing.”
Brett Matthews, director, Piermount
The aim is to have Heysen Hotel open by late 2027. In the meantime, Piermount is working with KWP & Partners on a new group loyalty app, and is on the lookout for any other hotel opportunities within South Australia.