Schoolstuff has grown into a business that supplies 50,000 back-to-school packs in SEQ

An idea formed by two Queensland mums 18 years ago over a cup of coffee has grown into a thriving business that supplies 50,000 back-to-school packs a year.

It was over a cappuccino 18 years ago that friends Lisa Jensen and Alison Walsh vented their frustrations over the difficulty involved in ordering back-to-school supplies for their children.

That chat led to the creation of Schoolstuff — the first online store in Australia for school supplies, where orders can be filled all year round 24/7.

Ms Jensen said the issue that sparked Schoolstuff was back-to-school booklist suppliers’ lack of flexibility over cut-off dates for filing orders.

“I thought that’s ridiculous, who says no to business. Alison and I started talking about it and thought it would be great to have something you can order day or night and have no cut off point,” she said.

“We do have a recommended date where we can guarantee we can get the pack before school begins but we still keep on packing and a lot of customers, even if they leave it late. they still order and they will get their packs.”

Armed with a background in education and experience in the corporate world they hit the ground running in their first year and signed up five schools, packing their orders in the changerooms of the local rugby club.

Nowadays, they put together around 50,000 back-to-school supply packs for children at more than 70 public and private schools in South East Queensland from their East Brisbane office/warehouse which also features a retail store.

Schoolstuff founders Lisa Jensen and Alison Walsh at their East Brisbane warehouse.

Ms Jensen said Schoolstuff was still growing mostly through word of mouth.

“We’re increasing by around 15 per cent every year,” she said.

“And there’s room to grow. When you look at what we have now compared to how many schools we have in South East Queensland we’ve only really scratched the surface.”

The company shrugged off pandemic issues in the first two years ago with the surge in Omricon cases this year there have been times they have had to operate with a skeleton staff when people are sick.

But Ms Walsh said there was a silver lining when the Queensland Government announced that school will be starting two weeks later than planned.

“It means that we can continue to accept orders. Given the unusual circumstances anyone who has not placed their orders can go ahead and do that and we will still guarantee they will receive it before school starts,” she said.

Schoolstuff employs about casual staff 70 staff during peak times, up from about 50 two years ago.

They employ students from Year 11-12 and those at universities and their own children have worked at Schoolstuff over the years.

Ms Walsh said it was a “classic” seasonal business.

“We have defined periods where we are planning and marketing, negotiating with schools and then servicing the needs of customers so there is always the next stage to look forward to,” she said.

EXPERIENCE COUNTS

Michael “The Professor” Sherlock has had more than a few interesting experiences in his life.

Mr Sherlock co-founded bakery chain Brumby’s before selling the business to Retail Food Group for $46m 2007, and then wrote about his business experiences in the book Jumpshift.

In the past 10 years he has been Sentinel Property Group’s chief marketing officer and with founder and chairman Warren Ebert experienced the syndicator’s portfolio growth from virtually nothing to $1.3bn.

However, after Mr Ebert’s acrimonious dispute with his chief executive daughter Stacey Jones last year, and the portfolio was split between them, Mr Sherlock believed a change was needed to complement his role in the business going forward.

He has assumed a new title at Sentinel as CXO — chief experience officer.

“The chief experience officer is responsible for making sure the entire organisation culture is on the same page when it comes to how we deliver the best value possible to our investors,” Mr Sherlock said.

“The CXO role covers a lot more than marketing and includes all touch points — office management, Sentinel’s company culture and image as well as training.”

SPG has now settled into its new Brisbane CBD office at 260 Queen Street.

“I have never busier either talking to investors and other stakeholders or completing deals,” Mr Sherlock said.

Sentinel Property Group’s chief experience officer Michael Sherlock.

MORE SUBDIVISIONS

Diversified property group CFMG Capital has expanded its Queensland development portfolio with $20m worth of site acquisitions in Brisbane’s northern growth corridor.

The new sites at Morayfield and Burpengary will help replenish CFMG Capital’s development pipeline with an additional 285 lots and relieve some of the pent-up demand for land in and around South East Queensland.

CFMG Capital general manager Andrew Thomson says the new sites provided a good opportunity to add new lots after a stellar period of sales which saw the group sell 545 lots valued at $156m over the past 12 months.

“Migration to Queensland is approaching the best levels in years, which means strong demand for new house and land in high growth corridors,” he said.

An earial

The Morayfield site is made up of five different sites on Anderson Rd totalling just over 10ha tares were purchased for a total of $13m. CFMG has received preliminary approval to develop the aggregated sites into a new $44m residential community, dubbed Arbourwood, comprising 180 homesites.

Subject to final approvals, CFMG Capital expects to start construction on the project in mid 2022 with completion by the end of 2023.

The company is also in the process of finalising the purchase of adjoining sites, totalling 13.1ha on Coutts Drive, Burpengary.

The sites were acquired for a total of $7.4m and will be developed, subject to approvals, into a 105 lot project called Farriers Creek that will be launched in 2022.

These strategic acquisitions together with other recently acquired project sites take the total project pipeline which is now diversified across South East Queensland and Melbourne to more than 1500 allotments with a total value of more than $450m.

LIFE AFTER BRONCOS

Former Broncos CEO Paul White hasn’t led the grass grow under his feet after leaving the job almost 12 months ago.

He has had his own management consultancy and in April was made the strategic board adviser to media group VMG Venetian.

But with a resume containing resources sector experience, including a role with Anglo American Metallurgical Coal, it was inevitable he would find his way back into the industry.

South Australian-based Magnetite Mines has appointed him to their board as a non executive director.

The ASX-listed company has spent $35m drilling, completing a positive pre-feasibility study, and subsequent optimisation of that study of its Razorback Ridge high grade iron ore concentrate project western portion of the Braemar, 250km northeast of Adelaide.

There are three main ore bodies there — Iron Peak, Ironback Hill and also Razorback Ridge Mineral with a potential payload of millions of tonnes iron ore.

Mr White joins former chairman of Drillsearch Jim McKerlie as a new appointed board member which includes former BHP and Glencore executive Mark Eames.

Paul White has been appointed to the board of Magnetite Mines,