Anthony Pratt to kickstart $6bn American manufacturing dream
The Australian billionaire is back in favour with incoming US president Donald Trump, whose policies are set to help lift Pratt Industries to its highest ever levels.
Spending big on Mar-a-Lago parties, backing incoming president Donald Trump with a $15m donation, and now new plans to spend a whopping $6bn to quickly expand his business has kept one of Australia’s (now America’s) richest very busy of late.
Billionaire Anthony Pratt’s new life as an American citizen, after recently gaining his green card, is off to a quick start.
Fresh from hosting 700 customers at a swanky party at Mar-a-Lago and only weeks from making a $US10m donation in the last days of the Trump election campaign, Mr Pratt says he is about to splash out even more money in America in a short time.
It is all about reaching a cherished three-decade-old goal the cardboard box-making and recycling magnate set when he first moved to the US in 1991 to run his family’s old paper mill in Macon, Georgia.
Mr Pratt has revealed to The Australian he will spend a record $US4bn ($6.2bn) in the US during Mr Trump’s upcoming four-year presidential term, including opening what he wants to be his biggest paper mill yet — a goal he says he will achieve by the end of 2028.
The sum is double the $US2bn he spent during Mr Trump’s first term, which ended in early 2021, and continues an expansion under what he believes will be a manufacturing boom under the “growth first” agenda of the incoming President.
“I made my $15m ($US10m) donation to [Trump supporting super PAC] Maga Inc, as a show of my commitment to the future of our American business under President Trump, that he was the best choice for America and the American economy,” Mr Pratt told The Australian.
“His policies will jump start the economy in 2025 just as they did in 2017 when he first came to office.”
Mr Pratt told The Australian in an interview in the US a goal he set for Pratt industries when he arrived in Macon, Georgia in 1991 to run his family’s sole paper mill — to one day hit 10 per cent market share in America — is finally in sight.
He jokes he didn’t realise it would take this long and says after 15 years of losses, revenue has gone from $200m in 2004 to $6bn now for his Pratt Industries.
Pratt Industries, the cardboard box making and recycling company owned by Mr Pratt, is now 50 per cent bigger than Visy in Australasia — which Mr Pratt shares ownership of with sisters Heloise Pratt and Fiona Geminder. It has about $4bn in annual revenue.
Mr Pratt says Pratt Industries now has market share of about 8 per cent in America (some within the company estimate it may be higher), and hitting double figures by around the end of the decade will be achievable with some big capital expenditure.
“Every [new] mill we build is another 1 per cent of the market, so we’ve got two more mills to go. It used to take 15 years to build a mill but we’re doing one every four (years) now. I’d like to go even quicker but you have to integrate the mills [with nearby box factories]. But we’re almost there.”
Mr Pratt last year built and opened a $US700m ($1.09bn) state-of-the-art facility in Kentucky producing 1500 tons of 100 per cent recycled paper every day, which is then made into cardboard boxes at nearby Pratt plants.
He says his next mill will be at least that size and he will begin negotiations with several state governors in about June next year about incentives and where to make what will likely be a big $US1bn investment and a major portion of his spending plans.
“Obviously it means a lot of investment, a lot of jobs, and well-paying manufacturing jobs, these are $US40 an hour jobs,” Mr Pratt said.
The $US4bn spending plan comes seven years after Mr Pratt said he would spend $US2bn during Mr Trump’s first term, a target he met. He has since said he would spend $US7bn from 2022 to 2032 in America, but much of the money will now be brought forward to Mr Trump’s upcoming second term.
The President-elect will likely keep policies like his accelerated depreciation law which allows full depreciation of capital spending in a year rather than spreading it over several — advantageous for a business like Pratt Industries which spends hundreds of millions on factory machinery.
Corporate tax cuts and other business-friendly policies also loom, so it is little wonder Mr Pratt says the incoming President is the best for business he has seen in three decades in the country.
“I saw him on the weekend [at Mar-a-Lago] and he’s a remarkable person; he’s relentless. I said to him, you’re the Muhammad Ali of politics,” Mr Pratt said.
“I have a great admiration for President Trump. I think he’s going to be a great president. And he’s been very good to me.”
It is quite a comeback for Mr Pratt as well, given it was at Mar-a-Lago where Mr Trump allegedly shared nuclear submarine secrets with the Australian billionaire after leaving office in 2020 — famously describing Pratt as a “a red-haired weirdo from Australia” when denying the allegations on social media.
But, a trial about Mr Trump’s habits of allegedly loose storage of official secrets at Mar-a-Lago was dismissed by a Florida judge in May, and Mr Pratt maintains his Mar-a-Lago membership and is the biggest spender at the club given the functions he pays to host there.
Mr Pratt played down concerns about his relationship with Mr Trump amid concerns of any falling out after the submarine secrets issue surfaced.
“I’m very honoured to be a Mar-a-Lago customer. I’ve been its biggest customer since 2017 and I am looking forward to continuing that, and I’m looking forward to continuing to bring our customers there,” Mr Pratt said.
“We’ve been doing it for [almost] eight years. That never stopped. We’ve had the same relationship for eight years, and he’s always been very good to me. And, you know, I talked to him [Trump] on the weekend, and he’s very, very hospitable, and he’s a great host.”
Mr Pratt now employs about 12,000 factory workers in America (Visy has about 7000 in Australasia) and has plans to also invest in technology and artificial intelligence to help boost digital box ordering customer numbers, and also to help predict when factory machinery will need maintenance or avoid breakdown.
But, mostly he wants to surf the Trump government’s business-friendly policies to more revenue and profits.
“I think President Trump’s accelerated depreciation was a great tonic to investment … Secondly, I think his plans for [lowering] energy costs will make manufacturing a lot easier. And thirdly, his laser focus on bringing back manufacturing to America.
“These three things really jump-started the economy in his first term, and we’ll do so again in his second term.
“He wants to turn America back into a making society, not a consuming society. And that’s why I’m so bullish on America and our future there under President Trump.”
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