IT’S 2014 and Brisbane hospitality baron Godfrey Mantle poses for a photograph outside outdoor dining fixture Jimmy’s on the Mall in the heart of the CBD.
Wearing a crisp white business shirt and red suspenders, Mr Mantle, is announcing a multimillion-dollar facelift of what was Brisbane’s first outdoor dining venue when it opened in 1982.
CHAPTER 1: Pub giant accused of forcing workers to falsify time sheets
CHAPTER 2: ‘I just couldn’t work there anymore’
CHAPTER 3: Workers most at risk of exploitation
CHAPTER 4: Hospitality king eyes bigger venues
Now 69 years old, Mr Mantle’s business empire expanded to encompass 15 food and beverage venues, as well as agricultural, training and property development interests.
That includes busy nightspots such as the Pig ‘N’ Whistle Riverside on the Brisbane River at Eagle St and The Charming Squire a short walk from the South Bank parklands.
It recently pushed into the Sydney market with its Duck & Rice rooftop restaurant in the city’s CBD and up-market The Squire’s Landing restaurant and brewery with views over the Opera House.
Mantle Group restaurants now employ 800 people across its venues.
The most recent addition is The Sound Garden live music venue in Fortitude Valley, which features two bars, one fronted with brass, the other limestone, marble table tops and hardwood floors.
It has also just secured the 20-year Brisbane City Council lease for a restaurant and cafe with sweeping city views atop Mt Coot-tha after coming in with a top offer of $1 million a year in rent.
The new additions come as Mantle Group look to offload two of its Pig ‘N’ Whistle pubs as it “strategically repositions towards larger format venues”.
Last month it announced it would sell the leasehold of its Pig ‘N’ Whistle pubs at Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley and Indooroopilly.
It follows the sale of the leasehold to another Pig ‘N’ Whistle venue, at Redbank Plains, last August.
The sale came almost two years after its opening in front of 150 guests.
Mantle Group’s shift in focus follows company auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers warning of a “material uncertainty” over its financial position.
Profits dived from $2.9 million to a $563,000 net loss in 2017-18, financial statements show.
It revealed the company had breached loan agreements in 2018-19 and was seeking refinancing.
Last month, it secured an $85 million line of credit from Hong Kong and Singapore-based OCP Asia.
Company records also show sizeable property interests, including land in Papua New Guinea.
Media reports in 2014 revealed Mr Mantle’s Bougainville Islands Group had acquired 99-year-long leases to 15 abandoned cocoa plantations covering 12,500ha.
PNG records listed its business activity as “mineral exploration” and “cocoa plantation.”
Media reports in 2012 said the cocoa plantation operation would eventually employee about 4000 workers, who would be provided with education, training and free health clinics.
Mr Mantle’s development interests span from a 184ha property in Bilambil Heights, New South Wales, bought for $4.8 million in 1997, to properties totalling more than 80ha on the Sunshine Coast.
One 40ha Sunshine Coast property, at Weyba Downs, was listed for sale for $30 million last year.
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