Melbourne icon up for $15m sale

An iconic Melbourne tourism business owned by the same family for over 40 years is up for sale with a $15 million price tag.

An iconic Melbourne tourism business owned by the same family for over 40 years is up for sale with a $15 million price tag.

Melbourne River Cruises is the largest boating operator on the Yarra River.

The company operates seven commercial passenger vessels, which run a range of tourist cruises as well as a ferry between the CBD and the suburb of Williamstown, and the sale includes the exclusive use of five berth licences at Federation Wharf and Southgate in Melbourne’s CBD.

A CBD icon, Melbourne River Cruises, is up for sale.

Included in the fleet is the Spirit of Melbourne, a two-storey restaurant boat that accommodates up to 165 people and features a fully equipped commercial kitchen.

JLL Hotels & Hospitality’ is handling the sale and JLL executive Lachlan Persley told The Australian that the company was likely to be highly sought after by tourism operators or that Crown Melbourne may be interested, given the cruise operators proximity to the casino.

“They’ve almost got a monopoly because the other competition has only one or two boats, whereas these guys have seven, one of which, a two story restaurant, is quite popular,” Mr Persley said.

“We’re hoping that a big tourism group that operates boats across the country might come in.”

“Potentially Crown could be a good fit, given that the major berth is opposite the casino and a lot of people who frequent the Crown use the boats as well.”

Mr Persley said setting up a similar business would cost an operator more than $12 million but that in this case Melbourne River Cruises has an established brand name, reputation and goodwill.

Owner James Ganditis spoke on how tough Covid was for the business, but it is forecast to record strong growth this financial year.

Mr Persley said the company had strong financial results in the past year and its revenue is tipped to increase significantly this year with tourists finally returning to the Melbourne CBD, which suffered under prolonged Covid lockdowns.

In its advert for the business, JLL said the business had “robust trading with strong forecast growth for FY2024”.

“There is still a bit of a hangover from Covid, but it’s just going from strength to strength and coming back in a big way now,” Mr Persley said.

The business suffered during Covid with owner James Ganditis telling a press conference in 2021: “It’s just been devastating for me, for my workforce, and I don’t see much hope at the moment.”