Andrew and Nicola Forrest to buy iconic Aussie hat maker Akubra
They’ve hatted PMs, Diggers, Crocodile Dundee and a Pope but after 147 years the Keir family have called time on the business and sold to mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest and his ex-wife Nicola.
NSW
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Australian business titans Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest and ex-wife Nicola are embarking on one of their most ambitious ventures yet – a multimillion-dollar takeover of iconic Aussie brand Akubra.
It’s the bombshell deal that few knew was coming until this week, after the Forrest and Akubra-owning Keir families finally put pen to paper.
While the Keirs have had several offers down the years, siblings Nikki, Stacey and chairman Stephen Keir IV believe they have chosen the right people in the Forrests to take the brand further.
The sale between the families was years in the making.
But on Sunday Twiggy and ex-wife Nicola Forrest’s investment company Tattarang will be handed the keys from the Keirs to the historic Kempsey factory.
Mrs Forrest, who split from the mining magnate in July, is likely to take a leading role in the company.
One of Tattarang’s first orders of business is setting their sights on the overseas market and bringing Akubras to the rest of the world.
With their flagship RM Williams George St, Sydney store set to open in a few weeks, the Tattarang team makes it no secret that seeing Akubras in the city again - and not just the bush - is part of their dream.
On top of that, ensuring the company that has hatted Diggers since World War One remains Australian-owned, was a key factor in the deal.
“Tattarang invests to ensure companies like Akubra remain Australian-owned and we’re proud to be able to ensure the growth of Australian manufacturing, both protecting and creating new jobs, particularly in our regions,” Mr Forrest said.
FROM THE HEART
But there is also some sentiment behind the deal. To this day Mrs Forrest still treasures the Akubra her late father was almost buried in.
It’s a reminder for Australia’s second-richest woman of her days watching her father farming on the land in rural NSW between Dubbo and Mudgee where she grew up.
The sweat marks, dust and stains on that old hat are the symbol of the backbone of Australia.
While it’s a prized family heirloom, it is now also the driving force behind one of the biggest sales in Australian retail history.
She was on hand on Thursday afternoon in Kempsey with that same hat as a tearful Mr Keir told workers on the factory floor that they planned to pass on the company to the Forrests.
Mr Keir, who has worked almost every job in that factory, was given a standing ovation from his loyal staff, many of whom are second and third generational workers from the small mid-north coast town.
“Growing up in regional NSW, my parents taught me lifelong lessons about hard work and resilience,” Mrs Forrest said.
“The image of my father’s tireless energy and perseverance, measured by the sweat on his Akubra, remains etched in my memory.
“An Akubra has always been part of my life, and as a new custodian, I am excited to help new generations discover this treasured Australian icon.”
STILL A TEAM
Despite announcing their split in July this year the Forrests plan to continue working together, particularly on what is considered a passion project like Akubra.
While they are not yet divorced the pair have plans to split their wealth, estimated to be around $35 billion.
They are moving their attention to philanthropy, tackling climate change and turning their mining company Fortescue “carbon neutral” together.
Their deal marks the transfer of another major Aussie brand to the Forrests and Tattarang, which already has Bega Cheese and bootmaker RM Williams in its portfolio.
Since the Forrests took over RM Williams in 2020 they have added almost 500 more staff to their Adelaide operation.
Their ambitions for Akubra are just as lofty.
They plan to double the 100-plus workforce already operating out of the Kempsey factory they’ve called home since the 1970s, to which The Sunday Telegraph was invited this week.
The Keirs themselves are the first to admit that, on their own, they can’t keep up with the demand for the hats.
“I’ve met Nicola and I met Andrew and their intentions are fantastic for Australia,” Stephen Keir said.
“So in manufacturing them here, that’s why we decided that we’ve lifted the company to a level but we can’t get past that level.
“It needs something else.
“I’ll be the first to shake their hand on Sunday.”
THE DEAL
John Hartman is the $30 billion man at the helm of Tattarang, one of the biggest investment firms in the country.
In 2010 he was jailed for a $1.4m insider trading plot alongside PR guru Roxy Jacenko’s husband Oliver Curtis.
Today he’s Twiggy’s right hand and considered the mining magnate’s “$30 billion man” at the head of the Tattarang portfolio.
As one of the instrumental figures behind the deal, Mr Hartman and Mrs Forrest are set to be two of the main players when it comes to the company’s retail plans for Akubra, while Andrew Forrest’s role will be focusing on the industry side of the business.
Both RM Williams and Akubra have had a relationship spanning decades.
“Dad was actually friendly with RM,” Stephen Keir’s sister and Akubra’s outgoing joint-owner Nikki McLeod said.
“We’ve had such a long relationship with RM Williams basically since they started.
“I don’t think they need to be combined but sitting alongside each other they fit well.”
If the future of RM Williams is anything for the Keirs and Akubra to go off, they can be confident their family’s company will reach new heights. A year after taking over the bootmaker from French fashion giant Louis Vuitton, RM Williams was already celebrating record sales.
The deal three years ago saw it return to Australian ownership for the first time since 2014, with actor Hugh Jackman relinquishing his 5 per cent share but remaining an ambassador. Tattarang flagged plans not only planned to build more factories but an ambition to grow its business in the US.
HANGING UP THE HAT - THE END OF A 147 YEAR LOVE AFFAIR
They’ve hatted PMs, Diggers, Crocodile Dundee and a Pope. So after more than a century why are the Keirs calling time?
It’s the end of a 147-year Aussie love affiar.
When Stephen Keir IV closes the shutter doors at Akubra’s Kempsey workshop for the last time this weekend, he does it knowing the family has to hand over the keys after 147 years.
It’s a day no one – let alone the Keirs – ever imagined.
For more than a century the Keir name has been synonymous with Akubra and for fifth generation owner Mr Keir there are no words to describe the decision to hand over the reins.
He’s walked the dusty floors of the Kempsey workshop since he was a young boy. It’s even likely he took his first steps there.
“I might have even been born here. I’m not sure,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.
Casting an eye over the machinery in the workshop, some of which is more than a century old, Mr Keir recounts how he worked his way along the factory floor.
Since he was a teenager he went through every job in the production process to now sitting at the helm of the Australian icon his father, grandfather and great-grandfathers occupied.
But walking through the historic workshop for what was one of the final times this week, he found it hard to not get too emotional knowing it was the final chapter for the Keirs and Akubra.
A tear threatened when talk turned to the Keir family legacy, but the giant man kept composure in his 6’7 frame.
You could probably forgive him for a tear or two. After all, he’s watched his dad, great grandfather and now his own son on the tools in this workshop.
“My father always said to me when I was new at running the business that ‘it’s yours now, and you do what you think is right’,” Mr Keir said.
It is a moment that will go down in Australian history when they eventually hand over the business to its new guardian, mining billionaire Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, his former wife Nicola, and their company Tattarang.
“We know the history of the place, we know everything that every generation has done before us and all that was taken into account,” he said.
“I’ve met Nicola (Forrest) and I’ll meet Andrew on Sunday and their intentions are fantastic for Australia.
“We chose Tattarang because of their track record of what they want to do in Australia. They’re going to be able to do things we couldn’t do as a family.
“You need to grow, you need to be bigger … basically we think they’re going to be great custodians of the brand and now it will expand and do all sorts of things we as a family couldn’t really do.”
Since the late 1800s Akubra has been a national brand in Australia, a rare cultural institution that has stood the test of time. They’ve survived two world wars, economic downturns, stock market crashes, various fashion trends and they’ve been worn by everyone from prime ministers to Crocodile Dundee.
They even made it through the big hair of the 1980s and the fact that it didn’t go the way of the Dodo then can only be down to the ingenuity of the Keirs.
And that’s not to mention rolling Covid shutdowns.
“The pandemic has been really tough,” Mr Keir remembers.
“From employee situations to the first six months of that pandemic, we thought we were finished, everything was cancelled. And then all of a sudden, it has done a complete U-turn.”
Cattlemen, Olympians, Diggers, you name it, it’s been a staple of the bush and the city since Benjamin Dunkerley first arrived from England and set the wheels in motion in the late 1800s.
Even a pope or two has given Australia’s gift to the world a holy blessing down the years. When the flowing hair of Beatlemania didn’t send it broke, people like Greg Norman and the movie “The Man from Snowy River” showed blokes on the land and on George St that hats could be cool.
Norman’s deal with Akubra inspired the iconic “Great White Shark” hat in 1987.
“My father did the deal with Greg Norman over a handshake at the Breakfast Creek Hotel in Brisbane. He was with us for three years. He was fantastic for Akubra and fantastic for Australia at the time.”
While producing hats for the Australian Army is the family’s proudest achievement, seeing the Aussie team in Akubras for the Sydney Olympics was one of many defining moments the family reflected on this week.
“I’ll be honest with you. With (Crocodile Dundee), Greg Norman, The Man from Snowy River and Phar Lap they were probably the proudest moments we’ve had as a family,” Mr Keir said.
“Seeing your product on the world stage, we used to sit there and go, ‘wow look at that can you believe it?’ We’re pretty humble people.”
Their humble nature never more evident when one member of the Keir clan asks: “is this a big story?” while walking the Sunday Telegraph around the Kempsey workshop this week.
But with the rich history and a grand future still on the horizon one question remains: why sell to the Forrests?
Surely there had been a heap of offers down the years?
But just like many topics around the family table at ordinary homes around Australia, the first talk with sisters Nikki and Stacey brought up a lot of emotions.
“The first conversations were, ‘what on earth are we talking about?’ There were tears and, ‘go away we’re not doing that,” Mr Keir remembers.
“And then we just got to a point where we thought it needs more, the brand needs more, the company needs more and it needs more than we can provide.
“So the Forrests will do things that we wouldn’t have even thought to do, to put it bluntly. So yeah, we just feel we’ve done as much as we can do, we’ve got it to a really good level.
“But we can’t get to that next level. We can’t get over that hump.”
Walking along the workshop floor this week the Keirs stop to remember years gone by before they turn the lights off for a final time this weekend.
There’s memories in these floorboards. Like the school holidays, when Mr Keir recalls running around on an industrial trolley, dodging the sea of hats and century-old machinery. Machines that have seen a lot of blood sweat, tears and maybe even a missing finger or two.
Or like the time his sister Nikki eyeleted the wrong set of hats while on many, (not paid) school holiday jobs at the Kempsey factory.
“That was the first mistake I made. Pops didn’t take it well.” Ms McLeod, nee Keir, said.
So how do you tell your workers who have been at Akubra with you for a generation that you are walking away?
For Mr Keir’s sister and joint owner Nikki McLeod the news had been taking a toll.
After all, she went to school with these workers and even babysat for them when they were young – they are family in almost every sense of the word.
“I felt sick to my stomach driving up this week,” Ms McLeod said.
“I babysat some of the kids here, I say kids but they’re nearly my age, but I babysat them or went to school with them.
“Some of them have been here and worked with pops, dad, Steve for generations.
“We weren’t considering selling … we’ve obviously looked at who would be buying and how much they will be willing to pay and stuff, but that wasn’t as much of it, it’s just this is a perfect fit for us.
“We felt sick about it, but (the staff) were all beautifully supportive.”
So what’s next for the Keirs? Is it possible to ride off into the sunset and pick up golf after such a historic deal like this. Would the itch to do something bigger be too much to ignore?
If you’re Stephen Keir, life is about to be a whole lot simpler, except for maybe having to take “HAT” out of his personalised number plate.
“I don’t really know, but I used to play pretty good golf a long time ago,” he said.
“I’ve got a few mates who live on properties and stuff so I’m probably gonna go and just visit, help and do bits and pieces until I work out what I want to do.
“No I’m comfortable with what we’ve done, I’ve got no ambitions on creating some massive thing that is bigger than the world. I suppose the lawns will be mowed about four times in the first week and the garden will be done and I’ll be thinking, ‘what are we gonna do now?’.
“I’ll be honest, the first thing at the forefront of my brain, and all I’ve ever done, is to make sure this place is okay.”
News tips: anton.rose@news.com.au
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Originally published as Andrew and Nicola Forrest to buy iconic Aussie hat maker Akubra
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