The economic cheerleader for Brisbane has been gutted by staff cuts and a reduced budget
Budget cuts and staff lay-offs gutted Brisbane’s premier body to spruik our “new world city’’ around the globe but the changes are worse than first believed.
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MARKETING MESS
It’s worse than we first thought.
Budget cuts and staff lay-offs gutted Brisbane’s premier body to spruik our “new world city’’ around the globe earlier this year.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner and his offsiders wouldn’t comment on the nitty gritty of the brutal shake up inside Brisbane Marketing, which saw about $4m a year slashed from its coffers.
But it was reported when the June budget came out that about a third of the workforce, or up to 30 employees, had been handed pink slips in a round of redundancies.
Now a City Beat spy tells us that in fact more than half the 100-plus staff have been axed from the council-owned agency, which has been rebadged as the Brisbane Economic
Development Agency but is still headed by Brett Fraser.
Among the senior players who got the chop were chief commercial officer Rob Nelson and top digital operative Cat Matson, who is now spearheading economic and community development at the Ipswich City Council.
Both had been there for about six years, with Matson a key player aiming to promote small business and start-ups to drive the growth of what she called “high-value, future-facing industries’’. Anybody remember the goal to become “The Smart State”?
Programs that will be key to helping the city rebound from the pandemic have been eliminated, such as Study Brisbane, aimed at attracting foreign students.
“Education was the city’s number one export agency and it’s ready to re-establish itself as a growth sector. So are we giving this industry up to Sydney and Melbourne?’’ one insider asked.
“Investment attraction to get businesses to relocate here from interstate or overseas was a major focus. It doesn’t exist anymore. Nor does the hotel investment arm that saw such a growth in the city’s hotels over several years.
“Many business people are now becoming aware and shaking their heads wondering what Schrinner stands for.’’
A spin doctor for the Lord Mayor didn’t respond to a request for comment this week and instead punted our questions to a BEDA colleague.
She declined to provide any details about job losses or any specific initiatives now under way to help the city recover from COVID-19.
“Brisbane Marketing had to pivot to reflect the dramatically different environment and was refocused to drive the city’s economic recovery instead,’’ she said.
“The restructures have ensured staff retained…have the relevant skill sets and experience to deliver a very different set of initiatives from those of Brisbane Marketing.
“This includes economic recovery initiatives that support local businesses such as industry development programs, securing and leveraging business and major event activity and the expansion of industry and trade in Brisbane.’’
FLAT TYRE
A Brisbane-based wholesale distributor of cycling and sporting gear has run afoul of the consumer watchdog over pricing issues.
The ACCC revealed on Wednesday that it had launched Federal Court action against B&K Holdings (Qld) Pty Ltd, which trades as FE Sports based at Seventeen Mile Rocks.
The regulator alleges the company engaged in illegal “resale price maintenance’’ by prohibiting its bike shop clients across the country from offering discounts.
The lawsuit claims that between February 2017 and June last year FE Sports provided 328 agreements to current or prospective dealers that prohibited the promotion of anything less than the recommended retail price.
It’s alleged those actions resulted in 242 agreements with dealers, with the ACCC seeking unspecified fines, injunctions and other penalties from the court after previously issuing three warnings to the company.
“Resale price maintenance is anti-competitive conduct which limits the ability of retailers to compete on price and ultimately can mean consumers pay more for products, because the retailers are stopped from discounting,’’ ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court said.
FE Sports owners Branko and Keren Brkik, who launched the company 20 years ago, declined to comment when we rang for a chat. They have not yet filed a defence.
RAISE A GLASS
Things looked grim for The Wine Society back in August.
The membership-based cooperative, launched 74 years ago, had crashed into administration with $1.45m owed to unsecured creditors.
Among the 125 parties owed money were industry heavyweights such as Tyrells, Casella and Oatley.
But the group’s 20,000 or so members now have a reason to smile and raise a glass or two for a toast.
It’s been given a new lease of life as one of five wine-focused entities which have merged to form The Wine Collective.
The online-focused business, which has access to a potential client base of 500,000-plus, just wrapped up an $8.28m capital raising last month.
Boss Lloyd Heinrich said the cash windfall will help drive its “digital wine marketplace,’’ which has already seen a 120 per cent spike in sales during the first quarter of the financial year.
Consumers, who appear to be numbing a bit of pandemic pain, can choose from about 7000 different wines. That number’s tipped to hit 10,000 soon.
GREEN TARGET
One of Australia’s biggest gold miners won’t be joining the exodus from the Queensland
Resources Council over its controversial campaign against the Greens at the state election.
Evolution Mining boss Jake Klein told this week’s Diggers and Dealers conference at Kalgoorlie that his firm would retain its membership in the peak lobby group.
That’s despite the departure of BHP and Origin Energy, which quit the QRC after it approved a “Vote Greens Last’’ initiative.
Both industry giants made clear they have misgivings about the singling out of a specific political party, as opposed to the targeting of a policy position. Several other big resources players are also understood to be reconsidering their positions.
Evolution’s decision to stay put is not terribly surprising since the company’s chief operating officer, Bob Fulker, is a QRC board member who signed off on the anti-Greens effort.
That undertaking includes the use of billboards to warn of jobs threatened by the Greens, who have called for a huge spike in coal royalties over the next four years.