Queensland’s wealthiest: The top billionaires across the state
Meet the young local entrepreneurs who have rocketed into the ranks of Australia’s richest people this year. Read the full list.
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Young Gold Coast entrepreneurs Nik Mirkovic and Alex Tomic have rocketed into the ranks of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 this year, all thanks to their toothpaste sensation Hismile.
They have turned a laborious twice-daily chore into a global sensation and made toothpaste taste better than you might ever have imagined.
Mirkovic, just 28, and Tomic, 30, are the brains behind Hismile, a business they built after finishing high school on the Gold Coast.
Only 10 years later, their product is stocked in some of the biggest retailers in the world, from the likes of Walmart, CVS and Walgreen in the US, to Sephora in Europe, Boots in the UK, and Coles, Chemist Warehouse, Terry White and Woolworths in Australia.
The duo appear in the full list of Australia’s Richest 250 for the first time worth an estimated $601m. See more at www.richest250.com.au
The pair say they sold almost $300m worth of colourful toothpaste last year, with flavours including chocolate – a collaboration with the latest Willy Wonka movie – blue raspberry, cotton candy, mango sorbet, grape and vanilla.
It’s radically different from traditional brands that use mint flavouring to mask the product’s taste.
“You can add flavours to toothpaste, but it still tastes like toothpaste,” Tomic says. “We all know that fundamental flavour. That’s the difference. Ours doesn’t taste like toothpaste. We’ve really worked hard on that.”
Sales could triple this year, say Mirkovic and Tomic, as teens in particular go wild for Hismile toothpaste and teeth whitening products.
Their mothers both worked at the Dreamworld theme park, and Tomic says family members on both sides instilled hardworking values.
“They were very on top of what their kids were doing,” he says. “You can’t do things half-arsed, you can’t be a bludger. Whatever you do, do it well. Do what you want to do, but do it well.”
While about 40 per cent of their sales come from the US now, Tomic says the pair will always be based in Queensland.
“The Gold Coast is where we want to be. It’s a great place to run our business from. It is home.”
Here are the wealthiest Queensland residents this year on The List
1. Clive Palmer, $21.92bn
The hundreds of millions of dollars in mining royalties that flow Palmer’s way each year allow the ebullient billionaire to spend money in a diverse range of ways. He is a prolific collector of Queensland properties and vintage cars, and has plans to build a car museum at his Sunshine Coast golf resort. He also spends big on political advertising – he outlaid $2 million to support the No campaign in last year’s voice to Parliament referendum – and taking legal action.
2. Chris Wallin, $3.13bn
Wallin raked in $575 million in dividends from his privately owned QCoal last year, despite softening prices undermining profits throughout Australia’s coal sector. Wallin’s main mining company paid out the strong dividend on the back of a $444.5 million net profit. It has an interest in four coal mines in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, producing a mix of metallurgical and thermal coal.
3. John van Lieshout, $2.8bn
Van Lieshout parlayed a fortune made in furniture into property, emerging as a major force in south-east Queensland.
His JVL Investment Group has more than $1bn of commercial properties in its portfolio, as well as property development arm Unison Projects, and property financing business JVL Finance, which has lent more than $170 million.
Van Lieshout’s wealth is derived from the Super Amart furniture chain he founded in 1974
4. Maha Sinnathamby, $2bn
Sinnathamby is still trying to find a big partner to help finish his vision for Springfield, a master-planned city on Brisbane’s south-west fringe.
What he and business partner Bob Sharpless have achieved there is already impressive enough, with about 55,000 residents living in a modern, thriving city with shopping centres, hotels, a dozen schools, and health and commercial facilities.
5. Sam Chong, $1.89bn
Chong’s coal mining company Jellinbah keeps posting big numbers, declaring a $1.28bn profit for 2023 and handing over $900m in dividends to its owners.
Jellinbah, which has interests in two Queensland mines, is co-owned by Chong, Japan’s Marubeni Corporation and global mining giant Anglo-American.
The 2024 edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 is published on Friday in The Australian and online at www.richest250.com.au
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