This Feature

WESTBUSINESS
I N S
August, 2014
D E R
10years
John Gillam
THE BLOKE WHO BUILT
BUNNINGS
Plus Adam Gilchrist’s new challenge • Perth’s flour king
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WELCOME
WESTBUSINESS
From the editor
Mr do-it-yourself
In 2004, John Gillam moved from CSBP to become managing
director of one of WA’s most storied companies — Bunnings.
Since then he has been author of a stunning growth story. Sean
Smith charts the rise of a hardware hero. P8-10
New boundaries
Adam Gilchrist forged an unparalleled reputation for honesty and
fierce competitiveness on cricket grounds around the world.
Stephen Bell discovers the famed gloveman has brought the
same tenaciousness to the boardroom. P12-14
Flour power
Greg Harvey is hardly a household name but the Claremont
father-of-two tells Brad Thompson he is determined to use a
basic food staple to make us healthier. P22-25
P30
PLUS
Wine: Inside Murray McHenry’s cellar. P10
Lifestyle: Living in the sky. P17-21
Fashion: Stylish warmth with the best in winter coats. P27
Motoring: Porsche’s middle child. P29
Lunch with: RAC president Esme Bowen. P30
P12-14
P22-25
EDITORIAL Ben Harvey Group business editor West Australian Newspapers. 08 9482 3752 [email protected] DESIGN John Henderson
PRODUCTION Heather McKinnon ADVERTISING WA: Elizabeth Poustie 08 9482 3254 [email protected] National: Peter Stevens 0412 922
839 [email protected] NSW: Charlton D’Silva 02 9252 3476 [email protected] VIC: Linda Nameh 03 9826 5188 [email protected]
QLD: Abby Rosamund 07 3844 5888 [email protected] SA: Tony Mangan 08 8379 9522 [email protected]
Does anything smell better than
sizzling sausages and onions outside
Bunnings on a Saturday morning?
Grabbing a $2.50 hotdog before
entering the home improvement
wonderland that is a Bunnings store
is a weekend right of passage in WA.
But few West Australians realise
that the man who has steered the
warehouse’s stunning growth over
the past decade is a Wembley
Downs boy done good.
As Wesfarmers executive John
Gillam marks 10 years as the boss of
Bunnings, WestBusiness Insider pays
tribute to one of WA’s lesser known
business titans.
In this edition we catch up
with cricket legend Adam
Gilchrist and find that his
new life in business
knows no boundaries.
And we chat to Esme
Bowen — a quiet
achiever in local
business whose
unheralded
achievements will
warm your heart.
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I
N
S
G
H
T
THE ART OF
THE PERFECT
FLAT WHITE
Few things match the bliss of a perfect cup
of coffee. Perth restaurateur Scott Taylor
explains how the morning magic happens.
Look, I realise oxygen is fairly important.
Food, shelter, family . . . living on a planet just far
enough from a class-C star to support liquid water and
therefore life — yep, all probably vital too I guess — but
in the fuzzy moments after waking, there is one thing
that eclipses all: That first sip of acrid, bracing,
caramelly, silken, heavenly goodness delivered by the
perfect cup of coffee.
Believe me, I’m right there with ya, the pursuit of
truly great coffee can become an obsession. Here are the
commandments gun baristas follow to ensure your
morning doesn’t just begin, it roars to life.
The grind: where quality coffee beans are ground,
ready to have flavour extracted.
Good baristas constantly adjust the fineness of the
grind. If the grind is too fine, the hot water from the
machine spends too long making its way through the
freshly ground beans which means big, bitter, extracted
coffee. Too coarse a grind means a fast flow and not
enough flavour extraction. If your coffee venue isn’t
grinding to order, get out . . . now.
The tamp: compressing the grind into the handle
for extraction.
The grind goes into the handle, then exactly 15kg of
downward force pushes a compact little nugget of
ground guatamalen in to the bottom of the handle. 91.5C
water from the big machine passes through the nugget
to extract a harmonic balance of bitter, creamy, bitey
loveliness. Good venues will have scales under their
tamp to ensure they consistently hit 15kg.
The shot: grind+tamp+water+love = ristretto
28mls of caramel-manna oozing and gurgling from a
two-spouted handle into a single cup is the ONLY way
we gettin’ this done, girlfriend. A two-spout handle into
one cup means twice the coffee grinds that the same
amount of hot water passes through, taking only the
first run of deliciousness. That’s a ristretto — less
volume than an espresso, at least twice the flavour,
without the harshness. A single spout means half the
coffee grinds and a non-stop-quick-shot to bittersville. If
you see a single-spout handle or two cups under a
double spout, you’re getting stiffed. Order an espresso
instead of a ristretto these days and be prepared to be
sneered at by a pierced, tatted 22-year-old.
The milk: where the art comes in.
A great barista can find the point where consistent,
shimmering 69C milk meets the perfect shot, where
the two elements coyly chase each other
around the cup and then magically start to
flirt, then dance, then embrace. Easy
now . . . not too much foam, don’t
rush it! Let nature take its course,
like a snowflake, each cup loved like
this is perfect in its own way. No
showing off please Mr Barista, no
flourishes, flamboyance and wankery
necessary.
Perfection needs no
embellishment.
6
AUGUST 2014
MY OFFICE
VANESSA GUTHRIE
For the managing director of uranium miner Toro Energy,
work-life balance is all a bit of a blur
W
ith a job that requires a lot of travel
both in Australia and overseas,
there is rarely a consistent day that
would describe my “day in the office”.
Every day is different. However, no matter
where I am in the world, my day generally
starts with exercise — either going to the
gym, pilates class or my piano lessons
(exercise for the brain!)
This is about the only time I can routinely
fit exercise into my day, and it means that I
can be disciplined about exercise when I
travel as well. That means being out of bed
before 6am, and into work mode by about
8am.
When I am in the office, I first catch up
with the world news in the uranium market,
then always try to set some of the day aside
to chat with one of our team, and not always
about work.
We are a small team at Toro and personal
conversations are really important to me in
making sure that everyone in the team
knows they are valued as a person first, and
then as an employee.
As a committed Docker member, very
often the conversation takes on a very
purple haze.
Printed diary in the
corner — to remind me
where I should be at any
given time of the day
Mobile next to my
desk phone — so
always on hand
As I am a great believer that “work-life
balance” is actually more of a blend, the
boundaries between my home and work are
often blurred.
This means that the day will generally
include a phone call to my husband Joe, or
maybe texting with either of our sons
Alistair or CJ — even if it is just to decide
what we will have for dinner.
When I am not travelling, I tend to spend
the majority of the day in meetings,
discussions or on the phone. This can be
with other uranium companies, local
service providers, potential investors or
financiers, or politicians and government
officials. No one day is predictable, so this
can mean those calls are late at night as
well.
After 5pm is my office quiet time when I
can catch up with the events of the day and
do the strategic thinking that is so
important in my role.
Given those blurred lines between home
and work, this usually means that I don’t get
home until about 7pm.
By that time I am ready to share a glass of
wine and a quiet reflection with Joe, who is
my “secret weapon” to success.
Mantra and maps on the
pinboard — for handy
reference
Foot rest — to keep
those calves stretched
during the day!
Darryl Docker — he faces the
wall in the naughty corner if
Fremantle lose
Photos of the
family — just to
keep me sane
Be driven to
capture every
moment
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A HARDWARING CENTURY
1886: Arthur and Robert
Bunning, young carpenters
from Hackney in London,
arrive in WA. They start
working on local building
projects and soon buy a
sawmill. By the turn of the
century the brothers are
leading timber merchants in
the colony.
1907: Bunning Brothers Pty
Ltd is incorporated in April.
1936: Robert Bunning dies
at the Palace Hotel during a
party organised to celebrate
his 50 years in business.
1952: Under the direction of
the next generation, in
Charles (pictured left) and
Tom Bunning, the company
P
R
O
F
L
E
Going to Bunnings is a West Australian weekend rite of passage. Sean Smith looks at the man who has headed the hardware
giant for the past 10 years and confirms that John Gillam deserves the respect he commands in Australian business circles
MR DO-ITYOURSELF
J
ohn Gillam prefers that it rains on weekdays, not
the weekend.
The former Churchlands Senior High School
student now celebrating his 10th anniversary at the
helm of hardware juggernaut Bunnings keeps a close
eye on the weather.
Bad weather is bad for business.
“When it’s wet and cold, no one does anything
outside. And outside is a big part of our business,” he
recently told investors.
“So we prefer rain to fall on Monday and Tuesday
nights, away from our opening hours, and we prefer
sunny weather on the weekends.”
The immediate forecast is rosy.
Wesfarmers is expected to disclose yet another
record profit from Bunnings when it posts its annual
results this month.
The hardware chain’s numbers under Gillam since
he teamed up with chief operating officer Peter “PJ”
Davis in August 2004 speak for themselves.
Store numbers have grown from 228 to 322,
two-thirds of them the big-box cash cows. Revenue has
run to more than $9 billion from $3.8 billion.
Underlying profit is likely to have cracked the
$1 billion mark last year, up from $342 million.
Bunnings’ aggressive growth — it is rolling out new
stores at a record rate to combat Woolworths’ fledgling
Masters chain — has its critics, particularly those
who argue the chain is quashing competition.
But its success is a remarkable achievement for
Gillam, a commerce graduate and keen weekend
cricketer who is being talked about as a potential
successor to Wesfarmers chief Richard Goyder.
The 48-year-old declined WestBusiness Insider’s
request for a personal interview focused on his 10th
anniversary, which coincides with the 20th
anniversary of the opening of Bunnings’ first
warehouse in Melbourne.
adds building supplies to the
existing timber business and
becomes the State’s leading
supplier of WA hardwoods. In
February, the company goes
public and Bunnings Timber
Holdings Limited is
incorporated.
1989: Bunnings’
management embarks on an
acquisition drive. The focus
He had a serious ability to relate
to people and a very savvy
commercial brain way beyond his
experience and years.
Perth dealmaker Charles Fear on Gillam
Responding by email, Gillam admitted to having “a
lot of fun” over the 10 years, but added: “To be frank,
I’ve never been interested in self-promotion.”
Acquaintances and friends paint of a picture of a
savvy business operator with the common touch who
is unchanged by his success.
Gillam grew up in Wembley Downs with two
brothers and a sister, attending Kapinara Primary
School and Churchlands before starting a commerce
degree at the University of WA in 1984.
After graduation, he surfaced at what was then
KPMG Peat Marwick Hungerfords, joining the
accounting firm’s audit division. The young graduate
quickly bridled at the confines of audit.
“He was like a square peg in a round hole,” says
Perth dealmaker Charles Fear, now chairman of
broking and advisory house Argonaut but then the
head of KPMG’s insolvency practice in Perth.
“So they came to me and said, ‘why don’t you take
on John, he sounds like one of your corporate
insolvency guys’.”
Fear says Gillam’s talent came to the fore during the
receivership of Alan Bond’s brewing arm.
Fear and fellow KPMG receiver David Crawford
were appointed to Bond Brewing by the failing
businessman’s bankers in January 1990.
Bond immediately challenged the decision, tying
shifts towards the DIY
market.
1990: Critical deal is inked
to buy WA’s Alco
Handyman hardware
business.
1993: Bunnings moves
east through the purchase
of the McEwans hardware
chain in Victoria and South
Australia.
Crawford up in court. Fear, entrusted with keeping
open the brewing business, roped in Gillam.
“John Gillam was our operational man,” Fear says.
“At that stage, Bond Brewing was turning over $2
billion a year, it was a significant business.
“John did a fabulous job. He had a serious ability to
relate to people and a very savvy commercial brain
way beyond his experience and years.”
Fear remembers his team “worked hard and played
hard” and that Gillam was at the centre of the office’s
KPMG’s social activities, rallying staff for inter-firm
football or cricket matches or an after-work drink.
“It was a really fun place to work, and he was a
ringleader in that,” says another former associate.
“Having said that . . . don’t mistake me. He takes his
work very seriously and is extremely dedicated.
“With some people you wonder how on earth they
got to where they did, John’s not one of those.”
He says KPMG’s leadership saw Gillam as a future
managing partner.
“He was the golden-haired boy ... the next big thing.
They were absolutely gutted when he left.”
Gillam confounded KPMG by quitting in mid-1994 to
join a listed Asia-focused medical products and
healthcare company, Medical Corporation Australia,
as general manager and later chief operating officer.
He was there three years.
In mid-1997, seeking a new challenge, he
successfully interviewed for a coveted commercial
role in Wesfarmers’ business development division.
One of his first major deals was the formation of the
Bunnings Property Trust, a project that brought him
to the attention of Bunnings’ then managing director,
Joe Boros.
Boros later pulled him into Bunnings as his chief
financial officer, putting the 32-year-old front and
centre of Wesfarmers’ transformational $2.4 billion
acquisition of east coast hardware chain Howard
Smith in mid-2001.
Gillam was credited with a major role in getting the
takeover over the line, but didn’t see it out, being
appointed as Wesfarmers’ company secretary before
the deal was completed.
From there, in 2002, he took up first major
operational role at Wesfarmers as chief of its
chemicals and fertilisers business, CSBP.
He was in the midst of a restructuring two years
later when he was suddenly invited to lunch by
Wesfarmers managing director Michael Chaney.
“I thought he must be unhappy about something at
CSBP,” Gillam recalled for Peter Thompson’s
centenary history of Wesfarmers 100, The People’s
Story 1914-2014.
Instead, Gillam was sounded out about taking over
CONTINUES PAGE 10
FROM PAGE 9
Murray McHenry with some favourite reds.
Wartime wine
sparks dynasty
F
or Murray McHenry, the pub affectionately
known as Steve’s on the Nedlands foreshore has
been a major part of his life for as long as he
can remember. His father Stephen McHenry built it
into arguably the best-known watering hole in
Perth, where generations of university students who
would go on to become leaders in politics, business
and academia had their first tipples.
From the earliest days, McHenry can remember
wine being a part of his life.
But had it not been for the fact that his father was
captured by the Germans during World War II and
then interred in an Italian POW camp, wine may not
have had such an important place.
“When he was moved to Italy the locals brought
the POWs food and wine because they were very
proud of what they were producing and that’s where
he got a liking for Italian wine,” McHenry says.
“I remember every Sunday night, even when we
were very young, tasting — but not drinking —
wines and trying to understand the tastes.
“When I took over the pub in 1977 about the first
thing I did was dig a big cellar to hold all the wines
we were accumulating at the time.”
However, McHenry says that these days he’s
probably developed a bit of a cellar palate, especially
since going into partnership with his brother-in-law
David Hohnen in McHenry Hohnen Vintners, a
successful Margaret River boutique producer.
Needless to say McHenry has a pretty extensive
collection of Margaret River wines including just
about every back vintage of Cape Mentelle that was
established by the Hohnens. But he also loves the
wines of Alsace, Rhone, Burgundy and Bordeaux.
“One of my favourites in the Rhone’s Guigal
d’Ampuis, which is a great expression of the region
and site. I think I’m currently drinking the ‘98.”
Of the whites, it is aged Rieslings from Clare and
the mineral crisp wines of Chablis.
IN THE CELLAR
■ Guigal Chateau d’ Ampuis 1998
■ Cape Mentelle Shiraz 2005
■ Cape Mentelle Cabernet Sauvignon 2001
■ McHenry Hohnen Burnside Chardonnay 2012
■ McHenry Hohnen
Amigos White 2005
■ Cullen Diana Madeline 2009
■ Vasse Felix Cabernet 2011
■ Petaluma Hanlin Hill
■ Domaine Francois Raveneau
■ Chablis Premier Cru Vaillons
Ray Jordan
as head of Bunnings from Davis, who had been in the
role for little more than 18 months.
Wesfarmers valued Davis’ renowned retail nous, but
had come to the belief it was better off bringing in
someone with stronger administrative skills to run
Bunnings to enable him to focus on his strengths in
merchandising and marketing.
Gillam says Chaney “asked me if my wife Helen and
I would be prepared to move to Melbourne, because if
we were then I could answer the next question which
was ‘Did I think I could take on Bunnings and make a
difference?’”.
He said yes to both questions.
Chaney broke the news to Davis, who was offered a
new role as chief operating officer. “To his great
credit,” Gillam told Thompson, “within minutes of
this conversation PJ was tracking me down to discuss
how we could make this work.”
Gillam told Thompson Bunnings had
straightforward aims.
“We want to have the best offer. We want to deliver it
with a family feel for our customers. You don’t have to
dress up to go to Bunnings, you feel relaxed when
you’re there and we look after you. We want to have
sincere community engagement to build trust and we
want to keep things simple.”
He says Bunnings has worked hard on its service
levels, particularly since 2006 when it worked with
John has hit them straight
between the eyes. Whenever
Masters start up a store, he goes
and puts a bigger one next door.
Wesfarmers insider
Professor Earl Sasser, one of a group of Harvard
University researchers who developed the
service-profit chain linking a motivated workforce
and enhanced customer service with better profits.
Gillam makes it a point that either he or Davis
attend every store opening to welcome new staff.
A former teammate who caught up with him this
year at the 30th reunion of Subiaco-Floreat Cricket
Club’s first Colts premiership side, which went
through the 1983-84 season undefeated under the
captaincy of former ABC commentator Glenn
Mitchell, says personal skills are a strong suit.
“I know at Bunnings John will go out to the stores
and do a sausage sizzle for the staff,” he says.
“And he will actually do the cooking so that
everybody has to come up to him to get the food so he
can say g’day and talk to them.
“A lot of people who get to that level become aloof
and can’t be bothered with that stuff.
1994: Bunnings
becomes a
wholly-owned
subsidiary of
Wesfarmers and opens
its first big-box
warehouse — in
Sunshine, Victoria. The
“Lowest Prices Every
Day” advertising slogan
is christened.
2001: The
Wesfarmers takeover
of Howard Smith
allows Bunnings to
bring the BBC
Hardware businesses
into the fold.
Bunnings’ footprint
now extends to all
parts of Australian
and New Zealand.
Team player: John Gillam at the Innaloo store.
“But John makes a point of getting to the coalface
and trying to talk to as many people as he can.”
Bunnings under Gillam and Davis is a much
changed business, not just bigger but smarter.
They’ve installed playgrounds, established separate
trade centres (33 at last count) to free up space,
evolved a range of store formats to suit any site,
including new multi-level vertical outlets, and pushed
the product range into new territory.
“You have to look outward, respect and understand
your customer choices and keep evolving, keep
developing your business,” Gillam says.
He points out that Bunnings has only 17 per cent of
Australia’s $43 billion home improvement and outdoor
living market.
“We can see a huge runway in front of us,” he says,
adding that the “traditional” hardware market defined
by tools and screws is a “long way behind us”.
Bunnings these days is not just about the
do-it-yourself market but about snaring more of the
commercial market.
“Every product that we sell has a market
opportunity way beyond the home,” he says.
“Once you get your head around that and you start
thinking about everything that is in a building and in
an outdoor structure, and you think about what is in
our range, you can then see why our addressable
market is so much wider once you swing into the
commercial space.”
Bunnings’ plan is to maintain its accelerated rollout
of new big-box stores at around 20 year until perhaps
next year, when the rate would normalise at 10-14.
One former Wesfarmers insider says Masters’ entry
into the market has been a key factor in keeping
Gillam at Bunnings past the usual three or four-year
tenure of a divisional managing director.
“There have always been challenges,” the insider
says. “The growth strategy needed tweaking, different
formats, multi-level stores etc, and then Masters came
in and gave him a really strong challenge.
“John has hit them straight between the eyes.
Whenever Masters start up a store, he goes and puts a
bigger one next door.”
2004: John
Gillam appointed
managing
director.
2005: Bunnings
staff members
appear in ads and
the “Lowest
prices are just the
beginning” tagline
is launched.
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Safe
hands
No boundaries: Adam Gilchrist
has found his feet in WA’s
business world. Picture: Iain Gillespie
I
N
T
E
R
V
E
W
Fearless yet fair, Adam Gilchrist’s on-field reputation is without peer. He talks to Stephen Bell about
maintaining his drive in his new life in business, and how the humble Kombi van won him his wife
A
s sporting theatre it was pure gold. On a
warm May evening last year at a
mountain-shrouded ground in
northern India, Adam Gilchrist played
out his last game of international
cricket, captaining the Kings XI team in
the Indian Premier League.
With his team’s victory well in hand, wicketkeeper
Gilchrist cheekily brought himself on to bowl his first
and, as it turned out, last ball in IPL cricket, against
Mumbai’s Harbhajan Singh.
When his innocuous off-spinner was lobbed straight
into a fielder’s hands at deep mid-on, Gilchrist broke
into wild, wicket-taking celebrations, including an
impromptu Gangnam-style dance routine that had the
crowd in raptures.
It was an uncharacteristically flamboyant end to a
stellar career spanning two decades. Normally, the
unassuming champion let his bat and wicket-keeping
gloves do the entertaining.
Now, a year-and-a-bit into “retirement”, Gilchrist is
still chalking up big scores — mostly in boardrooms
and office blocks round the globe — as he makes the
transition from cricketing all-rounder to business
all-rounder.
The 42-year-old has been preparing for a
post-sporting life for a decade-and-a-half. It was 1999,
the year of his test debut at the Gabba in Brisbane,
that Gilchrist made his first notable commercial
decision by acquiring a stake in then unknown, and
unlisted, plantation company TFS Corp.
It was a brave move for a late-20s lad who grew up in
Lismore, northern NSW. Back in those days,
plantation managers had a reputation for going broke,
not delivering shareholder returns.
There have been a few ups and downs on the market
since TFS listed in 2004 as a sandalwood specialist but
the cricketer turned canny capitalist has recently
cashed in big time.
After rising in value by nearly 60 per cent in the
past five months, his stake is worth a cool $3.8 million.
With a nest egg that size, who could blame “Gilly”
for putting the feet up, toasting the trophies that
adorn his Shenton Park home office and — alongside
wife Mel and the four kids — playing the family game
full-time?
But taking it easy doesn’t seem to be in his DNA, as
he goes about transferring his sporting brand of
fearless aggression combined with impeccable
fairness (he was renowned for walking when he
considered himself out) smoothly into the business,
charity and media arena.
He’s an ambassador for TFS, marketing sandalwood,
both as a plantation product and investment
opportunity, in Australia, the Middle East and India;
chairman of the National Australia Day Council,
which co-ordinates the Australian of the Year awards;
part-time cricket commentator; and he also holds
marketing roles with Suncorp Bank and the
University of Wollongong — the institution Gilchrist
was enrolled in after high school but never attended
once he was offered a scholarship at the-then Cricket
Academy.
More recently, he helped launch Leap Performance,
a business coaching organisation packed with retired
sports stars such as seven-time world surfing
The difference between now
and my playing days is I can
dictate the schedule.
champion Layne Beachley, West Coast Eagles legend
John Worsfold and former Sydney Swans players
Michael O’Loughlin and Jude Bolton.
The venture includes professional business coaches
and psychologists alongside the sports personalities,
who provide advice to people wearing suits rather
than lycra or Speedos. Initial Leap clients include
CGU Insurance, Deloitte and BDO accountants.
In one sense, Gilchrist’s working week is similar to
his former sporting life: bursts of focused preparation
and intense activity punctuated by plenty of air miles,
overseas hotel rooms and family commitments.
“It’s fits and spurts,” Gilchrist tells WestBusiness
Insider. “But the difference between now and my
playing days is I can dictate the schedule much more.
Generally school holidays and weekends I will
quarantine for family time, whereas in cricket the
schedule ran your life.”
Total working hours per week?
“You’d have to ask my wife that question,” he says.
“She’d probably say a number which is a lot more
than the number I’d give.”
He doesn’t dispute a figure of 40-plus hours.
Of course, not every elite athlete negotiates the
transition to “civilian” life successfully. Some have
battled boredom, substance abuse and depression
after the wrenching shift from highly paid celebrity
status to just another face in the crowd.
There was never much chance Gilchrist’s face
would blur into the background, however, given he is
one of Australia’s most recognisable, and trusted,
personalities.
That high profile has bred a few interesting
rumours on Wikipedia, including one that he used to
read Karl Marx in the change rooms on tour
(“Never!”) and another that he was courted by Federal
Labor to contest the seat of Stirling at the last election.
“I’ve never been formally approached by either side
of politics,” he responds, conceding there have been a
few polite inquiries.
“I don’t have any desire to get into politics at this
point in time.”
As for business, he’s made the transition look as
easy as one of his elegant cover drives.
Partly that’s because he was lucky enough to play in
an era when cricketers were well paid and invested
wisely.
There are no “secret herbs and spices” to his
investment philosophy, Gilchrist says, which relies on
a blend of corporate roles, commercial and residential
property, and the long-term bet on TFS.
“I was also fortunate to have people around me who
encouraged forward thinking and understanding
when an opportunity was sitting right in front of you.”
No doubt it helped that he was an open, gregarious
sort of chap. At innumerable corporate functions
during his playing days, teammates were usually
placed on separate tables.
“Some guys had no interest in going to functions
because they had to talk to strangers,” he says. “But it
only takes a minute to stop and realise: That’s the
major sponsor and they’re probably part of the reason
you’re getting paid. Secondly, it’s a chance to meet
some people, have a chat, and you never know, it might
lead to an opportunity post-cricket.”
That open-minded approach worked well in the
early 2000s when he met English entrepreneur Lloyd
Dorfman, the founder, chairman and chief executive of
Travelex (then corporate sponsor for the 2001 Ashes
campaign) at an official launch.
Gilchrist joined Travelex as a non-executive director
in 2003, a position he held for five years.
“That was purely from having your eyes wide open
rather than shut,” he says.
The tactic also worked a treat during his playing
days in India, when he noticed the pervasive presence
of sandalwood, whether as incense or carvings at
functions, ceremonies and temples; perfumes in the
markets; or even as an ingredient in a popular
chewing gum.
Over-harvesting and increasing demand for the
scarce product has led it to being dubbed “wooden
gold”.
Top-quality Indian sandalwood, rich in the fragrant
oil, can now fetch more than $115,000 a tonne — so
valuable that it has encouraged widespread illegal
harvesting of WA’s sandalwood, which mostly grows
naturally in the bush as a parasitic tree.
And the rising demand has not gone unnoticed by
global markets. Middle Eastern sovereign wealth
funds and other offshore investors, impressed by TFS’
near monopoly on management and ownership of
sustainable plantations, has bought into the company,
which has finished its first Kimberley harvest.
Having formed a friendship with chief executive
Frank Wilson, it was a natural progression for
Gilchrist to become a “global ambassador” for TFS in
2010, two years after his retirement from Test and
one-day cricket.
The role was also driven by his huge profile in
cricket-mad India.
After finding his feet in marketing, Gilchrist joined
the TFS board in June 2011 while still captaining the
Kings XI. He served as a director for three years,
stepping down this year because of increasing media
and professional commitments, including the Leap
start-up.
The latter is seeking to muscle in on the boom
sector of business coaching, which raises the
question: How does belting bowlers out of the park, or
diving sideways to take acrobatic catches in front of
CONTINUES PAGE 14
FROM PAGE 13
the slips, qualify a bloke to advise corporations?
“I don’t see myself as an expert,” is Gilchrist’s frank
response. “I raised the same question when asked on
to the board of Travelex in 2003. When Lloyd said, ‘I
want you on the board’, I asked, ‘Why?’” The
chairman explained that he already had plenty of
foreign exchange experts, lawyers and accountants; he
needed an outsider, with no idea about the business,
but who had been in a successful organisation and
could ask some “dumb” questions.
“It’s fair to say I upheld my part of the bargain
there. In my sport, we spend 80 per cent of time
preparing for the opponent — training, getting your
skills right, and focusing on what is going to happen
on match day, and only 20 per cent is actually playing
the game.”
In business, however, every day is game day, he says.
“Each day you are opening your doors and trying to
outperform — taking on a competitor, working with
customers and just keeping your business
functioning.”
Unlike sport, corporate players don’t have the
luxury of downtime between plying their skills.
“You don’t often get that 80 per cent of time to be
able to stop, analyse and assess, work out if you are
focusing on the right things,” he says.
“You barely get 20 per cent of the time.”
With that perspective, Leap’s sporting stars hope to
translate their skills — both on and off field — into the
much less physical, but equally pressurised, office
environment.
Our family grew up in
Kombis. It was a bit
embarrassing at the time
because they weren’t cool
then.
“All of us, in a sporting context, have so many
scenarios that we can bring as examples of fine-tuning
that preparation.”
Gilchrist is conscious of the fact that retired sports
folk trying to earn their stripes in business need more
strings to their bows besides motivational speaking.
In India, doors opened readily for the
wicketkeeper-batsmen wearing a TFS hat.
“Sport is a wonderful ice-breaker for a business
meeting and a great first 10 minutes of conversation,”
he says. “But if you haven’t got a good product,
service, or story, that’s all it will be: an autograph
session and a few photos.”
The Indian and Middle Eastern markets are also
prominent in Gilchrist’s gig with the University of
Wollongong. He’s often seen in Dubai, the United Arab
Emirates’ most populous city, where the university
has had an offshore campus since the 1990s.
It has grown to 5000 students, the majority of them
Indian. His role is to forge business and research links
between Dubai and India, with the university
considering a campus in the latter country.
A centre of excellence for mining already operates
out of Ahmedabad, Gujarat state, the hometown of
Narendra Modi, India’s new Prime Minister.
The university also has links with several Indian IT
companies which, according to Gilchrist, are looking
to set up businesses in Australia.
Gilchrist’s cricketing life may have smoothed the
way into business but it was a German-style classic
that drove him to his love match.
The VW Kombi wagon holds a special place in the
hearts of many nostalgic 40-somethings, none more so
than Gilchrist and his wife, who are part-way through
a refurbishment of the van once owned by Mel’s father.
“Our family grew up in Kombis. It was a bit
embarrassing at the time because they weren’t cool
then,” says Gilchrist, who proudly displays a framed
print of a 1960s model in his office.
“Mel and I went to school together and the first date
we went on was at her place. I was trying to get Mum
to drop me at the corner and walk the rest of the way
to hide the van. But we drove in the driveway and I
looked . . . ours was bright orange . . . and in their
carport was a bright yellow Kombi. So I thought, ‘This
actually might work’.”
A few years ago Mel’s dad was about to throw out
his last van, a 1976 model, before Gilchrist nabbed it
and hired a Lismore-based restorer to bring it back to
life.
When the rebuild is finished next year, he plans to
“take the horde over there, get in it and drive it back”.
The voyage will echo a move two decades ago when
the Western Warriors convinced Gilchrist to leave the
east coast for greener pastures in the west.
It was a defining journey for his cricketing, and
ultimately business, career.
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City spaces
Development
in
and
around the CBD means
Perth is now more than just
a nice place to raise a family.
Marissa Lague reports
P
erth’s CBD has found itself in
the unusual position of being
sandwiched between two
major infrastructure projects that
will increase the city’s footprint to
the north and south.
Mining boom revenue and
investment, the knock-on effect of
a constrained office market and
an awareness of inner-city living
have converged on the city, setting
the scene for an unparalleled
period of growth.
On the waterfront, there is the
$2.6 billion Elizabeth Quay and on
land reclaimed from train lines
that once divided the CBD and
Northbridge, the $5.3 billion Perth
City Link is taking shape.
In between the developments
flanking the city, major infill
developments are flourishing
with a slew of new office towers,
hotels and apartment buildings
making their way into the market.
“If you think back a few years
ago the answer was ‘no’ to many
things but the new planning
regime is looking at ways to make
a better city,” says Philip Griffiths,
president of the WA chapter of the
Australian Institute of Architects.
“We now have a planning
scheme that allows more intense
development
but
safeguards
things we love with incentives for looking after
heritage.”
The line-up of market forces behind the enormous
level of development happening in the city has been a
long time coming and if there is a downside, it’s that it
didn’t result in a series of staged projects.
“The government has had, through its various arms,
control over when Elizabeth Quay was going to happen
and when City Link would happen and perhaps a bit of
off-setting of time might have been the smart thing to
do, but on the other hand there’s an appetite for doing it
and getting it done, so for the moment, we are city
circulation
victims of our
own
success,”
Griffiths says.
Private
developers,
including
a
growing
contingent from Asia, have been
quick to take up the new
opportunities delivered in master
plans signed off by various planning
agencies.
Perth’s tallest apartment building is
planned for the last of three residential
lots being developed by Finbar at the
former ABC site on Adelaide Terrace. At
the other end of the city, Malaysian
developer AAIG stole the march on
established
operators
with
a
memorandum of understanding to build the new
headquarters for Woodside at Capital Square on
the long vacant eyesore once occupied by the
Emu Brewery.
One of the landmark transformations will be
the
Treasury
precinct.
The
restoration
and
conversion of the
135-year
old
Treasury Building
into a hotel, the
33-storey
office
tower
under
construction,
a
new
library,
a
refurbished Public John Williams
Trustee Building
and a new public
plaza behind St George’s Cathedral is all part of
the master plan.
“It will be one of the city’s shining lights,
everything will look right there and it will be in
all the tourism brochures,” Griffiths says.
At Elizabeth Quay, the Far East Consortium
will build a Ritz Carlton hotel and 420
apartments. Hilton will build a DoubleTree and
energy giant Chevron will build its new office
tower.
The
Metropolitan
Redevelopment
Authority is weighing up proposals from five
bidders to develop two other sites there.
Although Elizabeth Quay is the most
contentious of the city projects, most agree that
it’s the Perth City Link that will have the most
profound change on the CBD.
The 13.5ha strip of land created by the sinking
They operate on a
scale which is
outside the reach
of the majority of
Perth’s developers.
of
the
railway
line
opens the way for the
CBD to reconnect with
Northbridge.
Bookended by Perth Arena and the
Horseshoe Bridge, a blend of apartments,
office towers, retail space and the new Yagan
Square will be built on the land.
“The city is anticipating that expansion
northwards and looking at the planning north of Roe
Street,” Griffiths says.
Questions already being asked are, he says, what
do we care about, where can there be more future
development, what do we need to look after?
At Kings Square, which will occupy 1ha of Perth
City Link, Leighton Properties is well into the
construction of its seven-building plan, with four
office towers due to be finished from the middle of
next year and work yet to start on two apartment
towers and an additional commercial building.
Developers are also responding to demand for
inner-city living and Perth is acquiring a residential
population that will underpin the future city.
With more people opting for the convenience a CBD
lifestyle offers, Perth is making the transition to
become a safer, livelier city.
The City of Perth has also come to the party with
density bonuses for developers.
With rising office vacancies likely to be
compounded by big tenants relocating to new offices,
a big part of the CBD’s development focus has
switched to the profitable apartment market.
Buoyed by strong sales of inner-city apartments,
developers are packaging competitively priced
apartments into high-amenity complexes with pools,
gyms and communal entertaining areas.
Another new arrival, Singaporean developer the
Fragrance Group, is expected to build an apartment
tower on part of the site at 374-396 Murray Street.
Registrations of interest have opened for Far East’s
apartments at Elizabeth Quay and off-the-plan sales
have started at Finbar’s Concerto on Adelaide
Terrace. More offshore developers, many backed by
private equity and with the financial muscle to
develop core CBD apartment sites, are also expected.
JLL managing director for WA John Williams says
he is expecting more big deals in the CBD from
offshore developers like the Fragrance Group and
the Far East Consortium.
“The benefit for the CBD is that they operate on a
scale which is outside the reach of the majority of
Perth’s developers,” he says.
“They don’t want to build 50 or 100 apartments, this
wave of developers is looking for larger projects.”
Williams says offshore developers have the option
to sell apartments to their own domestic market and
to Australian buyers.
“The next wave of office development could be
beyond 2020 and in the meantime we have offshore
developers looking for opportunities and we have
forecasts for high population growth,” he says.
Page 18
KINGS SQUARE
FUTURE OFFICE TOWERS
CAPITAL SQUARE Malaysian property
developers AAIG took the Perth market by
surprise by luring blue-chip tenant Woodside
to their new office tower planned for the
long-vacant Emu Brewery site. Woodside’s
new corporate headquarters will be on the
corner of Spring and Mount streets.
KINGS SQUARE Kings Square will occupy 1ha in the Perth City Link and
is being touted as the city’s new CBD centre. Leighton Properties will build
seven buildings, including two apartment towers at the site that will have
links to Northbridge and the underground bus port and Perth train station.
Royal Dutch Shell was one of the early anchor tenants at Kings Square,
where it will occupy the 19,300sqm KS2 on Wellington Street. Kings
Square, once occupied by the Perth Entertainment Centre, is part of the
bigger Perth City Link project.
CATHEDRAL + TREASURY PRECINCT
The 33-storey office tower looming over the
Cathedral and Treasury Precinct is being
built by Mirvac and will be home to the
Department of Justice.
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CHEVRON Chevron, the CBD’s
second-biggest office tenant paid $64
million for the first site at Elizabeth
Quay and plans to start construction in
2016 on an office tower to consolidate
its workforce. With the first office and
hotel sites assigned, the next phase of
the $2.6 billion development will be
office sites five and six.
999 HAY STREET 999 Hay Street, by Qube Property and
the ABN Group, will deliver A-grade office space to about
1000 workers at the top end of the CBD when it opens next
year.
BROOKFIELD PLACE Brookfield Place Tower 2 is the final piece in the
redevelopment of Perth’s Brookfield Place, which re-opened historic buildings
on St Georges Terrace and added the Brookfield Place tower to Perth’s skyline.
Brookfield Place Tower 2 will fill a long vacant site on Mounts Bay Road.
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Page 20
FUTURE APARTMENT TOWERS
ELIZABETH QUAY Registrations of interest have opened on the 420
apartments to be built at Elizabeth Quay by Asian property developer Far
East Consortium. The waterfront apartment site will include the five-star
Ritz Carlton Hotel at Elizabeth Quay.
FINBAR’S CONCERTO At 38-storeys, Finbar’s Concerto project will be Perth’s tallest apartment building.
Concerto will join the 23-storey Adagio and the still-under-construction 23-storey Toccato apartment towers on
the former ABC site. The $220 million, 226-apartment project will retain the broadcaster’s original studios and
administration building, which will be refurbished to create the development’s Adelaide Terrace entrance.
TOCCATA Finbar’s Toccata project fronts Terrace Road and
will have 43 luxury half-floor apartments and two commercial
lots over 23 storeys. Like Adagio, Toccatta will offer sweeping
river views over Langley Park and the Swan River.
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BUILT APARTMENT TOWERS
EQUUS One of the CBD’s biggest mixed-use projects, Equus packaged 138
apartments, 48 strata offices and a 2000sqm ground-floor retail arcade with
30 shops into the corner site once home to Cinema City. Receivers were
appointed to the project at the end of 2011 but the announcement of the
redevelopment of the Cathedral + Treasury Precinct on the other side of Hay
Street helped kick-start the project’s office sales.
FAIRLANES Fairlanes Perth helped activate the eastern
end of the city. The 27-storey Finbar project delivered 128
apartments above five floors of office space to the Adelaide
Street site once occupied by the Fairlanes Bowling Alley.
ADAGIO The first apartment complex built by
Finbar on the former ABC site on Terrace Road,
Adagio was completed in 2013 and its 113 luxury
apartments have panoramic Swan River views.
Central Park is an iconic Perth landmark dominating the city’s skyline at the very
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Q Extensive ‘Ride and Park’ end of trip facilities, including bicycle parking,
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THE
WHITE
STUFF
Flour power is changing the way Asia
eats. Brad Thompson talks to a boy
from Bunbury on a mission to mill
“E
ver seen $7 million in cash? It is surprising
how small it looks.”
Greg Harvey is telling a tale from his
days working for the Australian Wheat Board in the
years between the two Gulf Wars.
It was Easter 1996 and the then 28-year-old was in
the Iraqi Embassy in Jordan. He had been summoned
to Amman from his base in Cairo to collect payment
for Australian wheat.
He was a recent arrival in the Middle East, his boss
had been sacked, his only back-up was another
relatively junior AWB employee and he had never met
the Iraqis.
The director-general of the Iraqi grain board had
spent 14 hours driving from Baghdad to Amman with
$US7 million in cold, hard cash. The money was
sitting in the corner of the room and now he wanted
Harvey to collect it and walk out into the streets.
“The first thing I thought was OK, that’s half the
problem solved. At least the money is here,” Harvey
recalls. “Then I looked at the guy with me and he
looked at me. We were thinking the same thing. The
last thing I wanted to do was walk out in the the street
with $7 million . . . it could be a set-up.
“It was pretty intimidating. The thought was, is
someone going to cut my throat?”
When Harvey refused to walk out with the cash, the
Iraqi director-general had another solution.
“He said, why can’t you get the Australian Embassy
to come over and collect it and send it back to
Australia in a diplomatic pouch? We said no.
“We had been to the Australian Embassy and told
22
AUGUST 2014
them why we were there and what we were doing. We
were on official business, the board of AWB knew I
was there and the senior management in Melbourne
were waiting to hear from me.”
Harvey spent the next four days going from bank to
bank in Amman working out a way for the Iraqis to
deposit the money into the international system so it
could be transferred into an AWB account.
It was a baptism of fire for the boy from Bunbury
with a degree in political science from the University
of WA who now heads up Interflour, a flour milling
company with prized strategic assets across
South-East Asia aiming to achieve a market value of
$1 billion by 2016.
Harvey cut his teeth in agriculture working for the
WA Farmers Federation before joining the AWB as a
grain trader and becoming one of its rising stars.
He looks back on his 21⁄2-year stint in Cairo working
out of the apartment he shared with physiotherapist
wife Tracey as a key period in his career.
“There was a nine-hour time difference with the
bosses back in Melbourne and I was handling
significant grain tenders with the Egyptian
government,” he says.
“When you are trying to close a deal and it is 3am in
Melbourne you learn to make important decisions by
yourself and also learn how to explain those decisions
the next day. It taught me a lot about self-motivation
and taking responsibility for your decisions. In
corporate life there are people who don’t do that.”
Harvey was based in Cairo to look after what was
then the biggest wheat import market in the world.
His responsibilities extended to Sudan, Yemen,
Jordan, Israel and Lebanon.
“It helped teach me the hard skills, the figures side
of grain trading. But also the soft skills needed to go
into places like Sudan and Yemen to develop markets
and find new customers,” he says.
I
It was a bit disconcerting having
security guys turn up and whisk
your wife away and you never
knew how long she would be.
Greg Harvey
Harvey wasn’t the only one making an impression
in Cairo. Tracey’s physiotherapy business, which she
operated alongside her husband in their apartment,
took off and she was asked to treat the family of then
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
“She ended up going to President Mubarak’s
residence once a week to treat his wife and children,”
Harvey says.
“It was a bit disconcerting having security guys
turn up and whisk your wife away and you never
really knew how long she would be.”
The stint in Cairo introduced Harvey to the
business of flour milling and planted the seed that
would lead to him bringing WA’s farmer-controlled
Co-operative Bulk Handling and Indonesian
billionaire Anthony Salim together in the Interflour
joint venture.
AWB decided to take a 30 per cent share in one of
the first private flour mills in Egypt and as a
member of the board Harvey saw the potential to
make big margins in downstream processing as
well as grain trading.
His successes in the Middle East, including
developing markets in Sudan and Yemen,
soon had AWB calling him home.
The AWB was restructuring as it
prepared the ground for
corporatisation and wanted Harvey
in charge in WA — the powerhouse
State in Australian grain exports.
Despite the criticism of AWB
and the scandals with Iraq that
came after his departure,
Harvey is grateful for the
opportunities it gave him in
the international grain trade.
“I’d always been interested in
the outside world and followed
global events. When I got
involved in the grain industry and
understood more about what the
AWB did I said to myself ‘wow, this
is something I would like to be a
part of ’,” he says.
“The largest Sudanese mill today is
owned by friends of mine. They
started off at 500 tonnes (of flour) a day
and are now at 3000t a day and still use
Australian wheat.
“It was fascinating to go to a city like
Khartoum, where the only place you
could get a beer in those days was the
Hilton Hotel.”
Harvey took over as State manager of AWB in the
late 1990s and paved the way for what was to follow
with deregulation of the industry by offering farmers
new options.
N
T
E
R
V
E
W
Instead of simply putting their grain into the AWB
pool and taking the price, they could opt for products
that offered premiums based on protein content and
price-risk management contracts.
The AWB opened offices in Wheatbelt towns to forge
closer ties with farmers still operating under the
single-desk marketing system.
“The individual farmer didn’t have the ability to
manage different parts of their own price risk and
there was a generation of farmers coming through
who wanted that,” Harvey says.
The job meant Harvey worked closely with CBH for
the first time but his passion remained international
trading. It wasn’t long before he jumped at the chance
to go to Melbourne to run AWB’s Asia desk.
Almost immediately, he moved the entire Asia desk
from Melbourne to Hong Kong in keeping with his
philosophy of being close to the market and the action.
It was the start of what many are now calling the
Asia century. And in running the trading team and
handling key clients himself, including Salim’s
Bogasari mills, Harvey quickly saw the power in flour.
It was clear to him that as wealth increased, tastes
would change in South-East Asia. While annual flour
consumption in Singapore is 71kg per capita, it
remains below 30kg per capita in the biggest markets.
The growth from a low base has been phenomenal and
market analysts see plenty more to come.
Harvey joined CBH in 2003 in a business
development role and by 2005 sealed the deal between
the co-operative and Salim to buy the then struggling
Interflour.
Almost a decade later, Interflour is on target to
produce 10,000t a day, which will put it in the top-10
flour millers in the world.
It operates seven mills, including the world’s
fourth-biggest in Indonesia, four in Malaysia, one in
Vietnam and one in Turkey.
New mills are being built at Subic Bay in the
Philippines, near Johor Bahru in Malaysia and on the
outskirts of Bangkok in Thailand. Interflour is also
building a huge malting plant on the site of its port
complex in Vietnam as part of the $150 million
spending spree.
Harvey sees potential for growth beyond South-East
Asia, but not in the short term.
“If we wanted to go beyond Asia, we would look to
go into other emerging markets globally where we
could apply my basic business strategy, putting assets
near consumers and then having a tight supply
chain,” he says. “If there is part of the world like the
east coast of Africa, for example, where we can put
factories in the market and operate a very good supply
chain from Australia or the Black Sea for wheat, they
would be attractive but it is not on our radar at the
moment.”
The network of mills in booming markets with a
ready supply of grain from WA farmers who have a
stake in the business is the envy of many competitors
and a target for major investors.
“We get a lot of people knocking on our door
expressing a lot of interest but to get from where we
are today to what we want to achieve by 2016 we don’t
need their capital,” Harvey says.
CBH has paid off the $70 million loan it used to buy
its share of Interflour, which has returned about
CONTINUES PAGE 24
FROM PAGE 23
$40 million in profits, but a significant number of its
4300 grower members remain sceptical about the
investment.
Interflour has become an important stepping stone
for young guns in the CBH management team looking
for international experience.
CBH operations manager David Capper and
marketing and trading general manager Jason Craig
both had stints running the giant Interflour mill in
Makassar before running to senior positions at the
co-operative.
Nicholas Trim, another former Bunbury boy who
came through the ranks at CBH, is currently general
manager of operations at Makassar.
And Kalamunda product James Kirton is general
manager of Intermalt Vietnam, where Interflour is
tapping into the growing taste of beer as well as bread
in South-East Asia.
But Interflour doesn’t rely just on WA for its
management talent.
Harvey juggles about 20 different cultures in
managing his staff, which includes a foreign legion of
top executives recruited from companies like Archer
Daniels Midland, Ernst & Young, Nestle and from
within the Salim business empire.
He also deals with government-run enterprises and
joint ventures partners on top of signing MOUs to
supply multinational brands.
It is inevitable that Interflour is confronted by the
spectre of bribery and corruption in doing business in
South-East Asia. That’s where Harvey’s ability to dig
VS
It is the right thing to do. We are
fortunate to be in the food
industry where we can do
something about it.
Greg Harvey
his heels in and say no — as demonstrated in the Iraqi
Embassy — comes to the fore.
Harvey won’t buy into the debate about the future of
Interflour beyond saying he wants to put it in the
strongest possible position for the owners to consider
their options.
He knows those options include continued growth
or a partial initial public offering on the Singapore
stock exchange to cash in some of their capital
growth. His focus is on completing the expansion on
time and on budget, and on finding the right balance
between flour and family life.
There are no self-raising children and Harvey
commutes from Interflour’s base in Singapore to Perth
on as many weekends as possible to spend time with
Tracy and their sons Lachie and Lucca.
The family had been living in Singapore but the
Harveys decided it was in the boys’ best interests to
attend school in Perth.
Harvey’s other passion is tackling neural tube birth
defects through the Flour Fortification Initiative.
It is estimated almost 40,000 serious birth defects
such as spina bifida are prevented each year in
Family thing: Greg Harvey with his wife Tracey and boys Lachie and Lu
countries where folic acid is added to flour.
FFI was launched 12 years ago as a public-private
partnership to boost flour fortification. Over that time
the number of countries with mandates to fortify
wheat flour has increased from 33 to 78.
It is a measure of Harvey’s standing in the
international grain industry that he is chairman of
the FFI executive management team, which includes
Bunge and Cargill. Other members include the US
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A battle over passenger comfort
is about to erupt in WA’s skies
s Lachie and Lucca at their Claremont home. Picture: Mogens Johansen
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF,
the World Health Organisation and the International
Federation for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus.
Interflour budgets about $2/tonne to add vitamins
and minerals to flour in a market like Indonesia where
fortification is mandatory.
“It is the right thing to do. We are fortunate to be in
the food industry where we can do something about
it,” Harvey says.
In the next few months, Perth will be home
to some of the most advanced passenger
aircraft in the sky.
Thai Airways and Air New Zealand are
due to launch 787 services and newcomer
Etihad Airways may follow suit.
The 787 is unquestionably the world’s
most comfortable plane and a quantum
leap over any other aircraft in getting you
to your destination in far better shape.
Key to that performance is its carbon
fibre-reinforced polymer composite
construction that is lighter and stronger
than the usual aluminium frame, which
means the pressurisation altitude can be
reduced from 9000ft to 6000ft.
The composite material also resists
corrosion, which means the cabin
humidity can be upped from 5 per cent to
14 per cent.
These two advances virtually eliminate
dehydration and mild altitude sickness,
which starts about 6500ft.
Before you fly, visit
Its new technology engines are much
quieter, reducing engine noise fatigue.
Interestingly, it is a new cabin filtration
system that removes alcohol and perfume
vapours that is responsible for making
you feel a great deal better on arrival.
With almost 70 per cent of flyer s having
some degree of fear, the 787’s gust
suppression system and bigger windows
will be a blessing.
The turbulence suppression system
built into the wings makes the ride 70 per
cent smoother.
And for those who suffer from
claustrophobia, the windows on the 787
are 50 per cent bigger than on comparable
planes.
This means that regardless of where
you are seated, you have a view to the
world outside.
Next year, Qatar Airways and Cathay
Pacific will introduce the A350 — Airbus’
competitor to the 787 — which offers
many of the same features.
Geoffrey Thomas
For information, the latest news and
d
reviews from experts and passengerrs
EL
EBR ATIN
C
G
20
YEARS
T H E H E A RT O F A N C I E N T J A PA N
BEAUTY IN PARADOX
Sea of Japan
As morning shadows the Shinto shrines in the land of the rising sun,
Kanaza
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where the brazenly modern and breathtakingly new thrive in
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F
TOP A
COATS
Stella McCartney coat,
$2,385, Helmut Lang top,
$895, Jbrand jeans, $299,
Isabel Marant Beslay
wedge boots, $540,
matchesfashion.com
Photographer: Rob Duncan.
Stylist: Elizabeth Clarke.
Hair and makeup: Rebekah Clark.
Model: Sarah Tilleke/Vivien’s Models
Simone Rochas
egg coat
799
coat, $2
$2,799,
Ricarda, Subiaco,
9381 5446
Wool coat
coat, $800
$800,
Scanlan & Theodore,
Claremont, 9385 4747
Zambesi
embossed coat,
$695, Ricarda
Navy wool and black
satin coat, $895,
bassike.com.au
A
S
H
O
N
rguably a woman’s most important fashion
investment is her winter coat. The ultimate go-to
garment for instant style and polish, a beautiful
topper gives corporate and casual wardrobes more
versatility and adds an effortlessly elegant edge to her
look.
Like shoes and bags, a winter coat is a piece in which
you should invest.
“Invest in a great quality, classic style first,” says
buyer Natasha Marshall Donnelly, from Perth’s ELLE
Boutique.
Look for a high-quality version that flatters your
shape, suits your personal style and works effortlessly
with your wardrobe.
“The biggest mistake is choosing quantity over
quality,” Marshall Donnelly explains.
“Do your research and make a list of what you really
need from your coat. Identify what you’re after and
don’t impulse buy.”
Begin by determining how warm you require your
coat to be.
Many think Perth’s mild winter does not require an
extra layer of padding but Marshall Donnelly disagrees.
“I personally love to layer,” she says. “It not only
keeps you warm but changes your look, even when you
might be wearing summer staples underneath.”
A wool coat is ideal for slipping over a silk shirt and
trousers for work, keeping you warm and stylish
between meetings and then easily removed on arrival.
It is a woman’s most stylish travelling companion,
adding instant glamour to the most casual of outfits.
Look for natural fibres such as cashmere and wool
that breathe and add warmth.
Make sure your coat fits across your shoulders
perfectly, and have your sleeves taken up or down so
they hit your wrist bone.
The fit of your coat should flatter, not overwhelm your
frame. Taller women wear full-length coats beautifully
while petite frames are better suited to cropped or
A-line versions.
Be aware of bulky or double-breasted styles that can
add unwanted volume to your frame.
The colour of your coat can either blend in with your
wardrobe or impart a strong fashion statement.
A punchy colour or print is a great way to add
chutzpah to your corporate look. Don’t be afraid to wear
it every day, making it your signature winter piece.
Alternatively, choose a quieter coat in a neutral shade
of black, navy or charcoal that is timeless and less
memorable.
Where you plan to wear your coat will determine the
structure you choose.
This season, the blanket coat, cocoon silhouette and
fur-lined parka are strong trends.
“There is a coat for every occasion and lifestyle,”
Marshall Donnelly says.
“For a casual or sporty environment, it’s definitely a
fur lined parka by Moncler and Yves Salomon. For a
structured feel, it’s Stella McCartney, and for
something on the wacky and wonderful end of the
scale, a coat by Rick Owens or Junya Watanabe.”
Care for your coat by stowing it on a moulded
wooden hanger to maintain its shape.
On weekends, hang it outside in
the shade for a good airing.
Have stains spot-removed
by a professional cleaner and be
sure not to over-clean your coat.
Have it professionally dry-cleaned
only once or twice a year to prevent the
chemicals altering its colour and
damaging the fabric’s fibres.
Elizabeth Clarke
OYSTER PERPETUAL GMT-MA STER II
M
O
T
O
R
N
G
A little Macan-do attitude
Ben Harvey finds
Porsche’s Evoque killer
is a very tight unit
F
irst, a confession.
Insider Motoring is cheap.
Twenty dollar notes leave
our wallets reluctantly.
And rarely in pairs.
A purchase of a good or service
worth more than $50 causes much
furrowing of our brow and triggers
expectations that whatever is
being bought will yield at least 30
years of flawless service.
So we are perhaps not the best
source when it comes to advice on
whether a heavily optioned
Porsche Macan S Diesel, like the
one pictured, is worth $118,000.
If Insider Motoring spends
$118,000 on something we expect to
be able to raise a family in it.
With that caveat noted, this
small-scale SUV is splendid.
It should be, of course, because it
is a Porsche. With the exception of
the 944, Porsche doesn’t
manufacture things that are crap.
The turbocharged 3L V6
produces 250kW and a serious
460Nm of torque.
It will propel this “family car” to
100kmh in 6.3 seconds. The petrol
motor in the Macan Turbo (which
starts at $137,550) shaves 1.5
seconds off this.
That’s a launch velocity
guaranteed to make the drool on
the faces of your kids in the back
seat splatter the inside of the rear
windscreen.
The power under the bonnet is
delivered to all four wheels via a
Doppelkupplung transmission.
It sounds like a weird German
sexual position but is actually a
silky smooth and lightning quick
seven-speed gearbox.
It sounds like a weird
German sexual
position but is
actually a gearbox.
It doesn’t have the race car-style
tacho and speedo that Porsche has
pleasingly persisted with for
decades but the designers have
nodded to the line’s pedigree by
making the clock on the dash
double up as a lap timer.
It is very cool.
If you get entranced by this
device and have to correct hard
then the twin safety angels of
Porsche’s famously huge brake
calipers and the badge’s stability
management system (which
co-ordinates suspension and wheel
movements) will usually see you
grip the road and end up straight.
And if it really goes to pot then
enough airbags will be deployed
from enough angles to ensure you
end up with all your features in the
right places and proportions.
The cabin is far from squeezed
but definitely feels more like a
sedan than an SUV.
It’s got all the bells and whistles
you would expect and want and is
so comfortable that you can easily
forget you are driving something
that’s the brainchild of the finest
minds in high-end motorsport.
Being a European marque, the
Macan has had to comply with that
continent’s slavish devotion to
reducing emissions.
To that end, it is fitted with the
most annoying motoring device
since fluffy dice were invented —
an auto stop function.
WHAT’S IN MY GARAGE
Middle child:
The Porsche
Macan sits
between the
Panamera and
the Cayenne.
Picture:
Michael Wilson
Chellingworth
Motors
101 Stirling
Highway
Nedlands
WA 6009
9273 3131
This means you will save 2
millilitres of fuel worth
0.000000003¢ when you come to a
red light because a standstill
automatically cuts the engine.
That saving, it should be noted,
comes at the expense of your
starter motor because when you
are in slow-moving traffic (is there
another kind in Perth at the
moment?) and having to edge down
the Mitchell Freeway 12cm at a
time, the ignition will turn off and
on 700 times during your
30-minute journey.
Fortunately, the boffins at
Porsche have decided not to
completely appease the European
Union (how very German of them)
and have included an off button.
The EU’s ministry of transport
will no doubt levy fines for this
insolence, which Insider Motoring
hopes will harden the resolve of
Germany to drive a tank division
into Brussels in order to put a stop
to the madness coming out of the
eurozone (if only a Panzer had
better mileage . . .).
So, why would you buy a Macan
— a car which sits in a no-man’s
land between Porsche’s undeniably
sporty four-door Panamera and the
unapologetically big and muscular
SUV, the Cayenne?
Perhaps Macan buyers plan to
have children but are in a bit of
denial about the whole thing.
Buying a Cayenne, BMW X5,
Volvo XC90 or Audi Q7 announces
to the world: “We’re breeding but
we’re still cool ‘cos we’re not
driving a Toyota Tarago.”
The Macan, like the Range Rover
Evoque, Audi Q5 and BMW X3, is
less definitive: “We’re thinking
about kids so we can’t buy an
M-series Bimmer but we’re not
completely sold on the idea so a
Rangie Vogue might be a waste.”
Regardless of your motives, the
Macan will serve you well.
And if you do end up having kids
you can flog it and buy a Tarago
and have enough left over for two
years school fees at St Hilda’s.
Leone Magistro Owner of AutoDelta 1974 Alfa Romeo Montreal
The Alfa Romeo Montreal is one of
my all-time favourite cars because
of its unique styling and race-bred,
quad-cam V8.
From a styling perspective, the
Montreal has a Miura-esque
profile, having been penned by the
same designer at Bertone, Marcello
Gandini — the man responsible for
masterpieces such as the Lancia
Stratos, De Tomaso Pantera,
Lamborghini Countach and Fiat
X19, to name a few.
Having worked on and owned a
number of Montreals, I know there
is something about this car which
must be experienced to be
understood.
Looking at a photo of the
Montreal will never do it justice
because it’s a sight to behold and
the V8 sound is mesmerising. The
engine surely has to be the jewel in
the crown as it was derived from
the 2-litre V8 used in the Alfa
Romeo 33 Stradale and in the Tipo
33 sports prototype.
Between 1971 and 1977, 3917
Montreals were manufactured.
Only 180 right-hand drive versions
were made so it’s a privilege to be a
custodian of such an important
piece of Alfa Romeo history. I
bought this 1974 model from a
client about 14 or 15 years ago.
The Montreal has been an
underappreciated classic, but with
fullness of time its pedigree as a
true supercar from the 70s has
meant that it is starting to be
understood and admired by classic
car lovers the world over.
AUGUST 2014
29
D
I
N
N
G
LUNCH WITH
ESME BOWEN
The RAC president and owner of Perth’s
best-known surf shops has a life story
worthy of Hollywood. Ben Harvey fails
to do it justice in 900 words
I
f scriptwriters knew the story of Esme Bowen’s car
crash they would have made it the plot of an
episode of ER, Grey’s Anatomy or House.
A young nurse goes to Europe to study at the world’s
leading spinal injury hospitals and within three
weeks of returning to Perth, she snaps her back in a
head-on collision.
The cruel irony is too reckless to think about.
The force of that crash on Old Mandurah Road in
1987 is so great the blue blouse Bowen is wearing is
burnt by the friction of the seatbelt.
The driver, her husband of six years, is in shock
when Bowen sees a face appear at the windscreen.
It is the driver of the other car. Drunk behind the
wheel, he has swerved onto the wrong side of the road.
He locks eyes with the then 27-year-old Bowen and
looks at the impossible angle her body is forced into.
In an unspeakable act of cowardice, which later
earns him no more than a court-ordered fine, this
serial drinkdriver runs into the Dawesville night.
The horror of what happens next is worthy of the
Saw film franchise.
You see, Bowen understands her back is broken
because she heard the crack of her spine snapping.
And her medical training, which includes her
recent visit to spinal units in Wales, England and
Switzerland, means she isn’t afforded the luxury of
ignorance about what is happening to her body.
Her clinical expertise means she can’t fool herself
about what it means when, slowly but relentlessly, she
starts losing feeling in her legs.
“I started to lose sensation in what they call our
dermatone, the skin on your knees is supplied by the
lower spine. I taught anatomy and physiology around
spinal injuries for years, so straight away when my
knees started going numb I knew that was L3 or L4
dermatone starting to go into my legs. I knew my
spinal cord was damaged and I knew it was important
nobody handled me the wrong way. I knew that
bladder, bowel, sexual function, movement and
sensation were all related to that injury.”
The arrival of help signalled a new danger.
Bowen knew that moving just a millimetre the
wrong way could see the thin, delicate thread of her
spinal cord ruined forever.
So it was with increasing desperation that she
pleaded with rescue teams at the scene not to drag her
out of the car through the windscreen. And she was
forced into another frantic negotiation when medical
staff at Fremantle Hospital tried to roll her over to
remove her jeans.
At 54, Bowen is matter-of-fact when she recounts her
ill-fated surfing holiday down south 27 years ago.
Perhaps her calm is drawn from the quiet
satisfaction of knowing she has not wasted a moment
of the quarter of a century since the crash.
She is a successful businesswoman (she and husand
of 33 years Wayne own three surf stores within
spitting distance of each other in Scarborough), a
30
AUGUST 2014
Advocate:
Esme Bowen
has devoted
her life to
helping those
who need a
champion.
Picture: Sharon
Smith
devoted mother (two children aged 21 and 23),
advocate for the disabled (she is a life member of
Wheelchair Sports WA, president of Wheelchair
Sports Australia and chairwoman of Disability Sports
Australia) and president of one of WA’s most
prestigious organisations — the RAC.
She is also the master of understatement.
“It kind of seems ironic that we did 20,000km in a
clapped out old Kombi with very poor seatbelts
visiting spinal experts in Europe to come home and
three weeks later have a head-on crash.”
With steel rods in her back and intensive
rehabilitation, Bowen became one of the one in 10
sufferers of spinal trauma who walk again. It is a
simple ability at which she marvels whenever she
pads along the beach near her Trigg home.
The legendary Sir George Bedbrook, a pioneer of
spinal treatment in WA, convinced Bowen to use her
experience to help others.
“He said, ‘Esme this is terrific you have had all this
experience as a nurse and now you are going to be a
patient’. Now, at that time I was in ICU, there were
drips, trays and catheters, it was still very early days. I
told him that if he came any closer to me then I would
probably hit him. The registrar told me I couldn’t talk
back to Sir George like that. Sir George said to me
afterwards that as soon as I answered back like that he
knew I would be OK.
“He started me on the speaking circuit. It was called
a personal perspective of spinal trauma. I was able to
talk about the anatomy, physiology and the forces that
caused my injury. It was very cathartic.”
She didn’t let 18 months in a brace slow her and the
woman who started nursing at Princess Margaret
Hospital in 1977 completed a Bachelor of Science at
Edith Cowan University in 1992.
She has since devoted the lion’s share of her waking
hours to promoting the interests of the disabled and
raising awareness of road safety.
WestBusiness Insider, for one, hopes this
extraordinary woman will one day reconsider her
decision not to run for Parliament.
The horror of what happens next is
worthy of the Saw film franchise.
To start
Pork belly parcels,
apple salad, fried shallots
24
Beetroot carpaccio, goats curd,
candied walnut dressing
24.5
Mains
Cone Bay barramundi panzanella
salad, romesco
41
Squid salad
Drinks
2 x sparkling water
25
15.8
133 St Georges Terrace, Perth
08 6323 3000
[email protected]
ONE OF A KIND, JUST LIKE DAD
Buy a selected pair of elastic sided
boots and receive a unique
Australian Saltwater Crocodile Belt
*
FREE!
A handcrafted gift can go a long way.
From that first hand made card to a
crocodile belt handcrafted in Australia
by master craftspeople. Thank Dad
with a gift as unique as he is!
For your nearest retail store or stockist please call 1800 339 532 or visit www.rmwilliams.com.au
*Conditions apply. While stocks last. See in store for details.
Offer ends close of business 7 September, 2014. Not valid in conjunction with any other offer.