Winners made a splash with pizza and coffee; Losers included a failed Dunk Island revamp scheme

It’s been a hard year for business in Queensland, but while some have thrived, others have suffered huge blows - and they’re not all related to COVID-19.

It’s hard to believe now but we all started this awful and interminable year without a clue what “social distancing’’ really meant.

Heck, we used to think it just referred to trying to avoid someone at a cocktail party or de-friending them on Facebook!

Given the enormity of this year’s once-in-a-lifetime shock, City Beat felt somewhat ill at ease trying to pick out some of the winners and losers we came across in 2020.

Winners? Well, in a sense those of us who survived all won through an amazing collective national effort to squash the virus even with a few notable stuff ups down south.

Losers? There are so many industries smashed and jobs lost despite the best efforts of governments to provide life support that we felt a bit churlish calling them out.

But, having said all this, there is still plenty worth recalling as we stand on the cusp of 2021. So, here now, a look back at a few of this year’s notable highs and lows.

WINNERS

TOM POTTER

It was a business plan tailor made for a pandemic lockdown.

Tom Potter got back into the pizza game 13 years after selling his now-defunct Eagle Boys chain to private equity players.

The Brisbane-based bizoid opened the first Pizza Guardians outlet in Toowoomba in April and is now continuing to roll out new stores across Queensland.

Pizza Guardians founder Tom Potter

Potter, in partnership with former Eagle Boys franchisee Nathan Egan, has ambitious plans to expand nationwide and take a slice out of the market share of industry leader Domino’s.

PHIL DI BELLA

Brisbane coffee maestro Phil Di Bella can’t stay away from the hot black stuff.

He’s hard at work building something called “The Coffee Commune’’ and has already been inundated with expressions of interest from industry players.

The groundbreaking project, costing more than $3m and now under construction in Bowen Hills, is expected to open in early 2021.

It will operate as a membership-based business for the likes of suppliers, roasters, baristas and venue owners, with Di Bella likening it to a collaborative “chamber of commerce” for the sector.

More than 100 different coffee businesses have signed up for membership so far and the available office space has already been fully leased.

JOHN WAGNER

Business titan John Wagner revealed plans this year for his next big project: a proposed entertainment and motor sports complex with an end value likely to exceed $200m.

The wealthy Toowoomba industrialist aims to build the project next to his family’s Wellcamp Airport, with work expected to kick off by mid-2021.

John Wagner

The Wagner Group chairman has committed $95m of his family fortune to the precinct, which will be able to accommodate a 40,000-strong crowd and is likely to become a key fixture in revhead circles.

With the Queensland Government kicking in $40m, the question remains whether the Federal Government will stump up a similar amount.

JAMIE WILSON

A Brisbane tech firm was pleasantly startled this year to get a shout-out as one of the best of its kind in the world.

CryptolocTechnology Group stood out as the only Aussie outfit on the list of “The 20 Best Cybersecurity Start-ups To Watch in 2020’’ compiled by Forbes magazine, which reviewed nearly 22,000 such companies around the globe.

Founder and boss Jamie Wilson, who launched the fast-growing firm just six years ago and now has clients in more than 20 countries, was predictably elated with the recognition.

He’s made a splash with his patented, world-first software that protects data in the cloud from ransomware, malware and other bugs. Every document uploaded is secured individually with encryption.

LOSERS

CRAIG GORE

The long and checkered career of Craig Gore finally caught up with him this year.

The disgraced former rich lister and one-time Gold Coast property developer will be spending at least two years behind bars after being found guilty of six counts of defrauding investors out of nearly $350,000 back in 2013 and 2014. Sentenced to five years, he’s got a non-parole period of two years.

Gore, the twice-bankrupt son of late Sanctuary Cove developer Mike Gore who remains permanently banned from the financial services sector, is appealing his conviction for conduct a judge labelled “deliberate and targeted’’.

Craig Gore

JAMES MAWHINNEY

Entrepreneur James Mawhinney talked a good game, outlining a wildly ambitious $1.5bn scheme to redevelop storm-battered Dunk Island and Mission Beach into a new tourist mecca.

But the whole suspect plan, backed by his now-beleaguered Mayfair 101 investment group, completely unravelled this year.

A Victorian court ordered the wind up of the group’s flagship $80m IPO Wealth Fund in September after ASIC alleged that it had operated like a Ponzi scheme.

IPO disputed that claim and is now defending a class action launched by Slater & Gordon against the fund’s trustee and a financial services firm which promoted it.

RETAIL FOOD GROUP

One of Australia’s biggest retail groups had another shocker this year, capped off by a fresh probe into alleged “unconscionable conduct’’ by the competition watchdog.

Gold Coast-based Retail Food Group, headed by Peter George, continue to pile up the losses, with the red ink now exceeding $450m since 2018 and the share price stuck at rock-bottom lows.

Peter George

The embattled group--which includes Brumby’s Bakeries, Donut King, Crust Pizza and Di Bella Coffee--has also been hammered by numerous allegations of poor treatment of franchisees and underpayment of staff.

RFG now faces a fresh headache after the ACCC sued the company in Federal Court this month, alleging it engaged in false, misleading and deceptive conduct when it sold or licensed 42 loss-making corporate stores to incoming franchisees between 2015 and 2019. The company plans to fight the case.

SMILES INCLUSIVE

Few were surprised when chronically-troubled dental group Smiles Inclusive collapsed late this year.

The Gold Coast group, chaired by David Usasz, had 52 practices nationwide when it floated in early 2018 after raising $32m.

But a constant series of dramas soon engulfed the firm, culminating in the appointment of voluntary administrators last month.

A failure to repay a $19m NAB loan was the final straw for Smiles, which suffered huge losses, bitter boardroom brawls, lawsuits and a revolving door of senior executives in its short life.

Two parties are now vying to buy the business and recapitalise it.