Paul Lederer was having a big day on Friday. Shortly after announcing the $1.45 billion sale of his family’s smallgoods empire he had an appointment with the New South Wales Premier to discuss funding a new football stadium for western Sydney.

The Sydney salami king, who immigrated to Australia when he was 10, has spent three decades building Primo Smallgoods from a 38-man outfit into one of the nation’s biggest private companies. But when Brazilian food giant JBS came knocking just weeks ago, Lederer decided the time was ripe to let go of the business which is one of his three great passions alongside family and football.