Cheers and jeers for Qld business movers and shakers in 2022

It’s been a year like no other for Queensland’s business movers and shakers. City Beat looks back at who made the news.

Here we are at the end of 2022 and while everyone has tried to get back to ‘how things were’, the shadow of Covid still looms large. Although it’ been a rocky road for some there have been success stories amid the challenges. Here is a look back at the notable highs and lows for Queensland’s business community.

Dud investment award

It’s been a tough year for crypto with the fallout of the giant FTX Exchange’s demise claiming several local victims. Brisbane crypto operator Digital Surge called in administrators earlier this month after it emerged it was owed $33m by FTX, the failed global cryptocurrency platform. According to documents lodged with ASIC by Digital Surge’s administrators KordaMentha, the debt relates to assets tied up in the FTX lockbox. Digital Surge had been using the FTX platform for some of its trading with 30,000 of its Aussie customers unable to trade or withdraw money. The Digital Surge trading platform, set up in 2017, allowed customers to access more than 300 different digital currencies. Administrators also were appointed to Queensland crypto firm Trigon Trading, a sponsor of NRL team the Gold Coast Titans. Trading as TrigonX, the Gold Coast-based company was announced as a sponsor of the Titans in November last year, with the football club saying it would become an executive partner for the 2022 and 2023 season. TrigonX operated a 24/7 digital currency exchange and was co-founded in 2014 by Matteo Salerno. Separately, Brisbane-based Swyftx, founded by Alex Harper and Angus Goldman and one of the country’s biggest crypto exchanges, laid off 90 staff to cut costs earlier this month.

Swyftx co-founders Alex Harper and Angus Goldman.

Boss of the year

Hutchinson Builders chairman Scott Hutchinson did better than the traditional gift of a gold watch when he farewelled a stalwart of the construction firm in October. Hutchinson decided to mark the retirement of Greg Quinn after 21 years as managing director of the family company with a Morgan 2019 Roadster six-cylinder sports car. While Quinn will no doubt go away from the job well provided for, Hutchinson says he wanted to give him something personal as a thank you. Quinn was the first non-family member to be managing director of Hutchies and drove an increase in the company’s turnover from $130m to $2.7bn. He will remain on the board as a non-executive director.

Hutchinson builders chairman Scott Hutchinson. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

Frequent flyer award

Brazilian Beauty founder Francesca Webster remained holidaying in Europe as it emerged companies she was a director of owed creditors more than $4m. Bill Karageozis and Paul McLeod, of McLeod & Partners, were appointed administrators of Brazilian Beauty Stores and Brazilian Beauty Australia in October. English-born Webster opened her first Brazilian Beauty salon in New Farm in 2004, expanding to 20 stores over the following decade with ambitions to open 50 around the country. Along the way she picked up several gongs including a finalist in the 2014 Telstra Business Women’s Awards. Webster’s Facebook and Instagram postings show her enjoying a holiday in Barcelona and her native United Kingdom while her companies were put into administration. The Brazilian Beauty stores were later transferred to her daughter.

Brazilian Beauty founder Francesca Webster. Picture: Peter Cronin

End of the road awards

Mirvac’s decision to close the flood-ravaged Toombul Shopping Centre in May was greeted with sadness and anger. Up to 130 businesses – ranging from national to small operations – were told that their leases were terminated, three months after the February floods which closed the 54 year-old shopping centre. The floods and closure cost business owners tens of millions of dollars with many facing the prospect of not being adequately insured. The centre opened as Westfield Shopping Town Toombul in October 1967. It was originally anchored by a Barry and Roberts Department store, Coles supermarket, Bayards store and 60 specialty stores. It was the first shopping centre in Brisbane built with air-conditioning and had off-street parking for up to 1500 vehicles. This year also saw the end of the iconic Eagle St Pier, the scene of billion-dollar deals, visits from Hollywood stars and even an ejected crown prince. Phil and Gary Hogan, of Jade Buddha, were the last tenants to leave the pier, which will be demolished to make way for a multi-billion dollar redevelopment.

Deal of the year

ANZ announced plans in July to buy out Suncorp’s banking operations in a $4.9bn deal. The big four lender promises no changes to branch numbers and staffing levels at the Brisbane-based bank for at least three years. ANZ, which has never broken into the Queensland market in a big way, saw the purchase as an opportunity to expand in the state which it says has a great growth future in terms of the 2032 Olympics and other investment opportunities. Suncorp boss Steve Johnston said customers will notice little difference in terms of services and in fact will have the benefit of increased products provided by ANZ. There will be a branch sharing arrangement for up to seven years.

Suncorp CEO Steve Johnston. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian.

House of cards

It was another terrible year for the construction sector with the collapse of several major building companies. Almost 300 subbies and suppliers are owed about $14m following the collapse of Queensland building giant Oracle Homes in August. Oracle left 300 homes unfinished across Queensland and NSW and millions owed to an army of subcontractors including plumbers, carpenters and bricklayers. The Underwood-based company – which traded under a number of names including Oracle Platinum Homes and Oracle Hunter Homes – made headlines earlier in the year when it sought tens of thousands of extra dollars from clients to complete their homes amid the deepening financial crisis in the construction sector. In May, Gold Coast-based construction giant Condev called in liquidators after failing to get the support of developers for a $25m rescue plan. Condev founders Steve and Tracy Marais said they were “absolutely devastated for the Condev family of employees, our tradespeople and our affiliates”.

Biggest fall from grace award

It all fell apart for scandal-plagued Star Entertainment group in 2022.

The management and board was eviscerated and the company’s reputation left in tatters after damning findings by independent inquiries in two states. The high-profile departures from Star included former chief executive Matt Bekier, acting chief executive Geoff Hogg, chief financial officer Harry Theodore and chairman John O’Neill. Former Tatts Group and Tyro CEO Robbie Cooke landed the job as new CEO and has pledged to make sweeping reforms to Star which wants to open its $3.6bn Queen’s Wharf project in Brisbane in the second half of 2023.

The Bell Review in NSW and the Gotterson Review in Queensland heard allegations of money laundering, fraud and other criminal activities at the company’s casinos in Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Comeback award

Late last year Sentinel Property Group boss Warren ‘The Property Whisperer’ Ebert was rumoured to be retiring after a statement from his daughter Stacey Jones said he was leaving the group to “pursue his business interests separately”. Indeed, Ebert and 21 of his Sentinel team moved out of the group’s Queen St office following the split with Ms Jones and her supporters to establish a new company headquarters up the road. Twelve months down the track, the fortunes of Sentinel Property Group are looking bright. Sentinel snapped up more than $800m in new assets during 2022, including almost $700m on the purchase of market-dominating retail centres Casuarina Square in Darwin and Caneland Central in Mackay. The boom in business and activity has resulted in staff numbers in these economically challenging times soaring. Sentinel now has 101 staff and Ebert is looking forward to another big year for Sentinel in 2023. “Reports of my retirement were greatly exaggerated,” he says. “There’s plenty of life in the old bull.”

Sentinel Property Group executive chairman Warren Ebert. Picture: Che Chorley

Exit Lounge

This year saw the passing of some big legends of the Queensland business community. Wallace Bishop, the third generation of Brisbane-based jewellers, died peacefully in his home aged 88. His son Stuart Bishop, who is chief executive of the company that bears his name, said his father was in good health until the last 12 months of his life. “He was the driving force, the inspiration. He was into anything and everything. He had a fabulous mind and manual dexterity. If he put his mind to it he could make anything,” he said of his father. In March, Bruce Blocksidge, the scion of the fourth-generation Blocksidge real estate clan, died on only six days short of his 95th birthday after a lifetime spent working in the firm incorporated in 1888. Bruce’s son Jonathan, who is now managing director of Blocksidge Real Estate, says his father was a “respected mentor and fierce friend to many.” Jonathan says that up until a couple of years ago, his father would dress in a suit and drive into the company offices at 144 Adelaide St, the firm’s headquarters for almost a century. One of the biggest shocks was the death of agribusiness leader Tom Strachan, 49, his son Noah and their pilot in a light aircraft accident in August. Strachan, the boss of Packhorse Pastoral Company, leaves a lasting legacy. Last year City Beat wrote about the rural identity making a half a million donation to the Brisbane Grammar School Bursary Fund to ensure more boys from the bush have the opportunity for an education at the school.

The $120m portfolio of Packhorse properties has been put up for sale and promises to be one of the largest rural property deals in Queensland next year.