Unmasking JP Drake, the supermarket titan taking on SA’s shoplifters

JP Drake admits he was once working 70 hours a week at the family-owned business, Drakes Supermarkets. But it’s set him and his daughters up for life with a multi-million-dollar sale.

He’s the social media crusader with thousands of followers whose viral online antics have made headlines around the world. But at his home in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs, John-Paul “JP” Drake is a doting, hands-on dad, meticulously planning and packing his daughters’ lunch boxes every morning.

“I love it,” says the 48-year-old face of Drakes Supermarkets, who makes breakfast for Layla, 10, and nine-year-old Scarlett every morning.

“Every Sunday night, I precut the carrots, the beans, the snow peas, the sugar snap peas. Today I did wraps, ham-and-cheese wraps, but I also do tiger loaf rolls and sandwiches. On Fridays, I sneak in a chocolate bar or something a bit more over-the-top.

JP Drake is known as a social media crusader with thousands of followers, whose viral online antics have made headlines around the world. Picture: Tom Huntley

“I’m full-on as a dad because I can be. I busted my guts as a kid and I’m not afraid to say I was one of those dudes doing 70-80 hours a week, I was getting in any extra money over the weekend and not complaining, which sounds rare in this day and age.

“But now I have children, they are my No.1 focus. If I am there as a dad, I’m there and, more importantly, I’m present when I’m there. My old man goes, ‘Why don’t you answer your phone?’. It’s because if I’m with my kids, I don’t answer my phone. I don’t want to be answering it every five seconds because, you know what, work never ends. I’ve always made the time for my family.”

SA WEEKEND - JP Drake with his wife Natalie and daughters, Scarlett, 9 and Layla 10, on June 25th, 2024, at his Beaumont home. Picture: Tom Huntley

It’s a different family dynamic to the one Drake grew up in. His father, Roger Drake – founder of the billion-dollar supermarket chain that has grown to 67 stores in South Australia and Queensland – spent long hours at work and split from JP’s mum, Fay, when he was eight.

“He was never around, as a kid, he was always working and whatnot,” Drake says.

“Dad worked his guts out to get what he’s done and that’s had its complications, but my relationship with my dad is the best it’s ever been for probably the last 20 years or something like that.

“You know what, I could have been some emo kid who sits there and hates life but … I’m a big believer in playing the cards you’re dealt and get the best hand you can with what you’ve got.”

The ace in Drake’s hand has been his crazy, fast-paced persona that famously gave the finger to Covid toilet paper hoarders, frenetically targets shoplifters, takes a bold stand against Australia’s supermarket duopoly, hilariously taste-tests new products – and drives a booming cult following on social media.

Roger Drake (right) and John-Paul Drake (left) bosses of Drakes Supermarkets. Picture: Supplied

JP Drake at Drakes Wayville, sharing his approach to balancing dad life and work. Picture: Tom Huntley

It’s seen him blast out of the shadow of his father, a household South Australian name who built the 50-year-old family empire from a single supermarket in Mitcham. To the younger generations, the patriarch is now known for being JP’s dad – a transition that has not been lost on Drake’s “old man”.

“Someone came up to Dad the other day and he said he was Roger Drake and they said, ‘Oh, so you’re John-Paul’s dad’ and Dad laughed because they didn’t realise he started Drakes, they thought I did,” says Drake, who boasts more than 150,000 followers on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube and has become a darling of breakfast TV.

“I think Dad’s one of my No.1 fans, he watches all the content, he’ll give me feedback on it. He quite likes someone sticking it up the duopoly that we live in.

“Parents or kids will pull me up when I’m walking around the supermarket and want to have a photo or mums say, ‘I want to send my kid a photo’. It happens every day. It’s pretty trippy, I get quite tripped out.”

The new face of the family business may be its No.1 – and only – son, but Drake insists he’s far from the kid with a “silver spoon in his mouth”.

Not all heroes wear capes but this one does. Picture: Tom Huntley

JP Drakes has a high success rate for helping police arrest those who steal from his supermarkets. Picture: Tom Huntley

Beginning as a teenage trolley boy, Drake forged his way up the ranks, from nightfill to assistant manager and then state manager in Queensland, where he spent 10 years expanding the company’s turnover from $75m to $400m while sweating through 80-hour working weeks.

“I’ve worked full-time my whole life and even during school I was working. And I’ve always been earning money because I’ve always wanted to make money,” Drake says.

He has been back in Adelaide for 10 years and is now a director, answering to the company’s stalwart general manager, Bob Soang.

But the entrepreneurial Drake is also his own financial success story. He’s made a personal fortune, independent of the supermarket chain, as an investor in his mate Brad Moran’s start-up company, CitrusAd. The business, which created a wildly popular online advertising platform, sold for $205m in 2021.

“I do not have to work, I work because I enjoy work,” Drake says. “It surprises everyone, I think it surprises my dad.”

He is still an active investor with a portfolio that includes OMG medicinal cannabis, Airspeeder drone racing, Big Shed Brewing, RASCube flatpack satellites designed by Lot 14-based 20-year-old Edward Robinson and a secret space project.

“Citrus was the one that sorted out everything for me. I love trying to help other people out with whatever skills I have,” he says.

That enterprising streak started as a student at Prince Alfred College, where he would peddle 237ml Coke bottles from the supermarket “with a free plastic straw” to his schoolmates for $2 a pop.

“(It was) unbelievable. Not as good as the porn business, though – I sold porn mags at school. They didn’t like that,” he says.

“I started selling ninja stars back in the day – some kid killed a cat or something like that, I still deny it to this day. I would have been not even a teenager, I don’t think. This was all before year 7. Then you got serious, obviously.”

JP Drake in a video on Facebook exposing an accused shoplifter he has dubbed Mr Potato Head bandit. Picture: Facebook

His viral videos are watched around the world, with JP Drake even featuring on US news station. Picture: Facebook

Drake has brought that cheeky, rule-breaking spirit to his online posts, attracting thousands of followers – and making headlines.

His videos exposing “magicians” who make high-end meat cuts and other pricier products such as cheese and shampoo/conditioner “disappear” from his supermarkets have not only gone viral, they’ve also led to convictions for those identified by viewers.

“We have an 85 per cent conviction rate once we post the video and within minutes we will have the addresses of whoever those customer magicians are,” he says. Drake estimates that 90 per cent of the feedback he receives is positive.

“I let my team of young kids edit it and be creative like young kids do because I’m not 18 anymore – I think I am but I’m just not. We give them the ability to come up with some of this content that makes people realise it’s lighthearted but it’s serious.”

Drake’s full-throttle mode comes in handy at The Bend racetrack, where he indulges his lifelong passion for motorsports.

He owns a Wolf F1 Mistral race car and competes with Jam Motorsport in the Australian Prototype Series amateur competition, often ending up on the podium.

“I wanted to be a Formula 1 driver but unfortunately Dad didn’t put billions of dollars into my motorsport career. In fact, he put nothing into it,” jokes Drake, who keeps a wall of 772 Hot Wheels classic cars at the company’s Torrensville headquarters (his entire collection numbers more than 1200).

As the supermarket scion has raced energetically through the past 20 years, wife Natalie has been by his side.

They met when Drake – dressed in “purple, crushed-velvet Adidas pants” – was introduced to Malta-born Natalie by friends, who had pegged them as perfectly matched. They clicked instantly but it was a while before she realised who his family was.

“We were in Foodland – because it was before we just became Drakes – at Fulham and all she knew was that I worked at Foodland. She had a Drakes 2l milk in her hands and she goes, ‘Don’t you think it’s a bit funny that your name is on this?’,” he says.

“And I’ve looked her and said, ‘Are you f--king serious? That’s us, that’s Drakes.’ She had no idea, like zero idea that Drakes – well Drakes back then wasn’t what it is today – but zero idea and I just went, ‘Oh, you’re a keeper.’

“She is the planner and I’m sort of out there … we’re very, very different but we work well together. She’s also one of the funniest people you will ever meet.”

The couple’s oldest daughter, Layla, was born in Queensland. Scarlett arrived shortly after they had moved back to Adelaide.

JP Drake was set up by friends with his now-wife Natalie. Picture: Tom Huntley

The family has settled into a happy home life, where Drake takes charge of the weekend supermarket shop at Wayville or Newton, his two closest Drakes stores.

“I love doing the shopping but the problem is it takes me a couple of hours because I’ll talk to the team members and before I know it it’s ‘Where are you?’,” says Drake, whose favourite products include Nutella biscuits, pizza “ropes” and Red Rock balsamic vinegar.

“Natalie always gets online orders because she hates it. She looks to add to the order to try and get the free delivery – it’s outrageous. I tell her, ‘I make no money online so go into the store and bloody buy it.’”

Life’s come full circle for the boy who grew up in his dad’s supermarkets. Today, the girls love spending time with their dad trawling the aisles.

“They critique everything, they face up shelves, they’re very opinionated on how things should work,” Drake says. “And yeah, they love it.”

The young Drakes are even having an impact on what’s for sale on the shelves.

Last year, they discovered Hismile, a flavoured toothpaste being hawked by a favourite American influencer, Mr Beast.

“They saw Hismile on Instagram. They said, ‘Dad, you’ve got to get this in.’ I’m like, ‘Is this just a fad thing?’ … nek minnit, you know, we sell Hismile, we were the first independent supermarket retailer to have it.”

It’s not just his own kids that Drake loves seeing involved in the business.

With 64 per cent of Drakes Supermarkets’ 6000-strong workforce under the age of 24, he puts his faith in them to build the company’s future.

“I love seeing the young crew – nothing wrong with the old ones – but seeing people grow as a career,” Drake says. He calls each young staff member by name during a visit to the Wayville store.

“They come in their gap year and they end up staying with us. We’ve got so much to provide – retailing, logistics, wholesaling, IT, advertising, marketing. We can provide all of this.

“And who knows what’s going to happen in the next 50 years because it’s been such a wild ride to get us where we are today.”