After selling it off for $200m, Tony Quinn reveals real reason he bought Darrell Lea six years ago

IN the wake of selling Aussie lolly icon Darrell Lea for $200 million, Gold Coast rich lister Tony Quinn has revealed the real reason he bought the company — and what he plans to do next.

IN the wake of selling Aussie lolly icon Darrell Lea for $200 million, Gold Coast rich lister Tony Quinn has revealed the real reason he bought the company — because his mum Yvonne told him he should.

“I’d been in the office and my managing director Rex Devantier mentioned it to me — I said `no bloody way, we’re busy enough with the pet food, let’s keep doing what we’re doing’.

“But when I got home, my mum phoned me up and said `you have to buy that Darrell Lea, it’s a good product’, so I went into work the next day and had another look at it.”

A Darrell Lea Mum's Gift Box — seems appropriate in the circumstances.

QUINNS SELL BREATHTAKING MT TAMBO MANSION

It was July 10, 2012, and the beloved confectionery business had melted into administration off the back of years of loss. The Quinns gobbled it up for about $25 million and reversed its failing fortunes.

The family’s $200m sale of Darrell Lea to Quadrant Private Equity followed its $410 million sale of VIP Pet Foods to the same firm in 2016.

They will retain a significant share of the Darrell Lea brands — as high as 15 per cent, depending on the structure Quadrant settles on.

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Klark Quinn. Pics Ian Svegovic

CEO Tim York will keep his position, and he has said there would be no job losses as a result of the sale.

“It’s been a good deal for everybody, I feel confident with the business of Darrell Lea and the growth,” he said.

“It’s a great business, a sound and solid business.”

People outside a Darrell Lea store in Melbourne in 1980.

Mr Quinn, 60, said the family didn’t buy Darrell Lea with the intention of turning it around for a lucrative sell-off: “it was just adding to the empire at that point”.

“It was about taking something that was not that healthy, recognising what the problems were and quickly fixing them with a bit of capital investment and a bit of shrewdness about taking the products to market,” Mr Quinn said.

“We know what we’re doing and we know what the customers are looking for — and we deliver.

“There are way too many companies in Australia making promises to the customers and they spend all their time making excuses why they didn’t deliver it.”

Tony Quinn and his son Klark Quinn (left) at Darrell Lea’s Ramsgate factory.

Mr Quinn, who lives at Main Beach but is also a regular visitor to New Zealand, has recently bought a home in Byron Bay, where he hopes to spend more of his time.

The family also operates motorsport facilities and other businesses, including popular entertainment centre Game Over at Helensvale — which he said had scope for expansion to other cities.

But rather than eyeing off the next big acquisition, the straight-talking Scotsman said his immediate problem was working out what to wisely do with the week’s whopping windfall.

“I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve done well in business and I haven’t ruined anyone on the way through,” he said.

“The problem now for anybody in my position is what to actually do, sensibly, with the situation you find yourself in.

“You can’t pass on massive amounts of money to your family without ruining them.

“It would be so easy to just all go on a holiday or whatever, but the thing I’ve enjoyed in my life is the journey.”

Tony Quinn in his Aston Martin Vulcan, a car limited to 24 in the world, parked at Game Over Gold Coast, Helensvale. Picture: Jerad Williams

Mr Quinn, whose autobiography Zero to 60 hit the New Zealand top 10 bestsellers list, is having lunch with his mum today to “tell her how the deal went down”.

“I hope she’s not unhappy with me selling it because I’ll have to go and buy it back.”