The Boathouse Group goes full steam ahead with new management

The Boathouse Group endured some rocky waters in recent years – with new management at the helm – the business is charting a fresh course in the hospitality industry.

Boathouse executives Antony Jones and Ben Collis at their Rose Bay venue. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

It’s the fall and rise of an iconic Sydney business.

The Boathouse Group had some of the most visited hospitality venues in Sydney, with their stunning waterfront locations, sunshiny vibe and young, cheerful staff skittering about. Its cafes, dining rooms and accommodation outlets, stretching from the north shore to the Central Coast, were seemingly doing great business as the multimillion-dollar empire, which started in 2008, began to expand.

But by 2019, rumours were circulating that its owners, Andrew and Pip Goldsmith – popular figures on the northern beaches after opening the doors to their first cafe on Pittwater, were financially stretched.

Their massive expansion campaign, which included grabbing historic Barrenjoey House at Palm Beach and a $5m pub at Patonga, threw the business into a swirling sea of debt.

There were fears its 500 staff would be thrown out of work and that hundreds of creditors, owed a reported total of 1.5m, would be left empty-handed.

The Goldsmiths sold the business soon after the Australian Taxation Office started a wind-up action in the Federal Court to retrieve $868,000.

Inside The Boathouse at Rose Bay. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

A “consortium”, made up of Pip’s father, former federal trade minster Andrew Robb; a northern beaches family – the Sorensens; and a commercial property development company owned by brothers Ben and Jono Isaac, stepped in to take the reins.

The Goldsmiths continued to run the business, on a day-to-day basis, until about a year ago.

They have now left the group and are managing The Palms, an eatery, nursery and homewares store complex at Terrey Hills.

About four months ago, the Isaacs bought out the other consortium members and are now the sole owners of The Boathouse Group, which they describe as an “iconic brand”. They are so passionate about ensuring the rejuvenated business is back from the brink they have brought in two hospitality industry heavyweights, who were top guns at Justin Hemmes’ Merivale juggernaut, to run the group for them.

The pair are overseeing 10 venues, including Rose Bay House (and The Boathouse Rose Bay cafe), Barrenjoey House and The Boathouse Hotel at Patonga as well as outlets at Manly’s Shelly Beach, Balmoral Beach and Moby Dicks at Whale Beach.

And the business is expanding, with more outlets on the drawing board, under new chief executive Antony “AJ” Jones and head of commercial and marketing Ben Collis, who work out of the group’s head office in the Manly Pavilion – another Boathouse bar and eatery – on Manly Cove.

Soaking up the views at Manly Pavilion. Picture: Jessie Ann

The pair have already announced a new venue will take over the first floor of the Mona Vale Golf Club and plans are in place for a restaurant and bar in the newly renovated North Wollongong Surf Life Saving Club.

Their first big project was to seal a deal last year to become the hospitality partner of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) at Rushcutters Bay, home of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

Jones has also managed to lure renowned chef Mark LaBrooy, one of the founders of the popular Three Blue Ducks restaurant chain, into a senior role at the Boathouse Group.

“My focus is quite simple – to keep bringing great people into the business and surrounding myself, selfishly, with great talent,” Jones says. “It was a really big moment for us, to get someone of his level of talent.

“This business obviously has great locations and amazing views, but probably hasn’t put enough emphasis on what’s going on the plate and service.

“We feel that if we can match that to our locations and views, then all of a sudden we’ve got a really next level group of venues.”

And Collis backs up his boss, with an eye to the future, saying that what happened to The Boathouse Group in the past was “not for us to pass judgment on”.

Antony Jones and CYCA CEO Justine Kirkjian. Picture: Jessie Ann Harris

“All we know now is that taking the business, from the point we got it, there are a lot of things we’ve already put into motion that are making the business much more profitable

Collis says, soon after taking over management, they rebranded their Rose Bay operation, putting a “typical” Boathouse cafe downstairs.

“But upstairs, we needed to elevate the brand into something that was more aligned with some of our other restaurant brands like Barrenjoey House and Manly Pavilion ... more of an a la carte dining experience.”

They also “changed the vibe” at the Manly Pavilion (pictured inset). Jones says they changed some personnel and the menu as well as introducing more of a “casual service style as opposed to being quite regimented”.

They also tweaked the music and lighting to grow the popularity of its terrace, looking south down Sydney Harbour past Middle Head.

“We’ve shifted it to a more casual place where you can stop in for a drink and a snack,” Collis says.

The deal with the CYCA was a significant step towards a sustainable financial future for the business, with the opening of a classic breakfast cafe, a restaurant for lunch and dinner, a bar and flexible event spaces.

“That was a significant one for us because it was such an iconic place,” Jones says.

“We always want to make sure that we’ve got these iconic waterside venues. Well, not always, but the majority of the time.”

Outside the Rose Bay venue. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

Collis also points out that The Boathouse Group is always on the lookout for another spectacular location for a new venue.

And it’s important to them that those venues become an integral part of their communities.

“With the Mona Vale and Wollongong projects coming up, these community-based organisations, which have these incredible assets in the spaces that we’re looking for ... they can secure their future by having tenants like us, having their kids working there.”

Collis says one thing the group identified early on was that if it wanted to continue growing at “beautiful waterside venues”, there was a “whole bunch of yacht clubs, surf clubs that hold that type of real estate that are looking for new ways of operating to continue generating foot traffic”.

“Some of them are struggling,” he says. “We can assimilate into their community. That’s the thing with the CYCA, Mona Vale and North Wollongong – there is already an existing community that we are assimilating into and providing more value for the people who are members of the club.”

Jones has even recently been to New Zealand “looking for inspiration and possible opportunities”.

“Nothing is a ‘no’ until such time as we’ve all had a chance to make an input,” he says.

“We don’t individually make decisions. We very much collectively make decisions on things.”

The pair say they can make those important calls with the full backing of the Isaac brothers, whose expertise is in the development of non-hospitality businesses such as childcare centres, swim schools and car washes.

“Primarily, they are not hospitality people, they’re property people,” Jones says.

“Our job is to run their hospitality business. And they are very good at letting us do that. They’ve been incredibly supportive and very trusting in the decisions that we’ve made with their business.”

Ben Collis and Antony Jones have helped transform the business. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

With the decision to buy out their former consortium partners, the Isaacs now have the “agility” to make quick decisions about the direction of the business, Jones says.

“They are very committed to making the next three, four or five projects happen very quickly. But they are very humble and don’t want to be front and centre, at all.”

Collis points out, however, that the Isaacs are closely involved – attending “management strategy days”, for example – and interested in learning more about the hospitality side of the business.

“They are very smart guys.” he says.

Both Jones and Collis reiterated that, with all the changes under way, The Boathouse Group stuck to its philosophy of “guest first”.

“At the end of the day, we’re providing a service and experience to local communities around our venues,” Collis says. “The work we’ve done in the last 12 months is setting us up to really take this business to the next level.”