Richest 250: Mecca founder Jo Horgan breaks into the wealthy elite as cosmetics sales boom
Mecca is a true Australian retail success story born in Melbourne. Now, Jo Horgan is returning to build her company’s biggest ever store on Bourke St.
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Cosmetics queen Jo Horgan has vaulted into the ranks of Australia’s wealthy elite this year, thanks to the success of her Mecca beauty empire.
Horgan and her husband Peter Wetenhall, through their company Mecca Brands, are said to control more than 10 per cent of the Australian beauty market, which is worth about $4.5bn annually.
According to documents lodged with the corporate regulator, Mecca has annual revenue of $570m and pre-tax and interest payment profits of more than $42m.
It is enough for the duo to make their debut on The List – Australia’s Richest 250, published by The Australian on Friday.
Horgan opened her first Mecca cosmetics store in Melbourne’s South Yarra in 1997 and has gone on to build a beauty empire with more than 100 outlets. It was slow going at first though, with Horgan losing her first day’s takings – found 18 months later in a cupboard behind the store’s sink.
The pandemic has turbocharged Mecca’s online sales, but Horgan is betting on the bricks and mortar retail experience still being important to her customers. Mecca is taking over two floors of the former David Jones menswear store in Bourke St, with a total footprint of 3000sq m that will make it the biggest beauty emporium in the southern hemisphere.
She said that while she never discusses figures for the privately owned company, Mecca was “the number-one beauty retailer in Australia – clearly number one”.
Meanwhile, beer and pizza have fuelled Anthony Pratt’s wealth to reach record heights this year, with the cardboard box and packaging magnate the richest Victorian.
Just about anything that gets home delivered in a box is made by the Pratt family’s Visy in Australia, which has factories dotted around Melbourne. That includes pizza boxes and beer bottles.
Pratt’s wealth reaches $27.77bn on the 2022 edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250.
It is enough for Pratt to reach third place on The List overall, and puts him almost $20bn ahead of the next wealthiest Victorian in Reece plumbing boss Alan Wilson and his family.
John Gandel is next, who made one of the smartest deals in Australian history almost 40 years ago when he paid $37m for the Chadstone shopping centre.
Chadstone is now worth $6bn and Gandel still owns half.
Next wealthiest is trucking magnate Lindsay Fox, with an estimated $4.36bn fortune and then two petrol magnates in Eddie Hirsch and Avi Silver.
Their estimated $3.66bn is from the United Petroleum that has about 500 sites around Australia, an increasing number of which contain the duo’s Pie Face retail business.
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart tops the The List this year with a fortune of more than $30bn.
The full 2022 edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 is published on Friday in The Australian.
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