‘I love being Australian’: fast food king Jack Cowin
The man who brought fast food to Australia and built Hungry Jack’s into a national giant is still optimistic about the country’s future.
It is 55 years since Jack Cowin made a trip from the other side of the world that would change his life – and help change the way Australians eat.
A Canadian by birth, Cowin was selling insurance in Toronto when he decided to take his father’s advice and take a trip to Australia.
The elder Cowin had described Australia as a land of opportunity, having seen it in his job as an executive of Ford.
In February 1968, Cowin spent 24 hours – including stops in Los Angeles, Honolulu and Fiji – flying to Sydney. It was there, while looking for an idea for a business, that Cowin noticed 50 people waiting for Chinese takeaway one evening, and compared that with the booming fast-food chains like KFC and McDonald’s back in North America.
Cowin’s idea was to bring that method of serving food to Australia, which at the time consisted mostly of fish and chip shops, Chinese takeaways and white tablecloth restaurants.
After raising $10,000 each from 30 Canadians, Cowin opened a KFC franchise in Perth’s Rockingham in 1969. He has since built Hungry Jack’s into a national giant and is also chairman and major shareholder in Domino’s Pizza.
His private Competitive Foods business, which includes Hungry Jack’s, now has more than $1.7bn in annual revenue. Hungry Chains, which Cowin started in 1971, has grown into a business with more than 440 outlets around Australia and 19,000 employees, while competing strongly against some of the biggest international fast food chains.
“A highlight of my career was starting a business from scratch and being able to build a successful business competing against large multinational corporations,” Cowin says.
In the King’s Birthday Honours this year Cowin was made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to business, and to philanthropic support.
“I love being an Australian. We are fortunate to have the best quality of life on this planet,” Cowin says. “Where would you rather live?”
Cowin’s varied corporate interests over the past five decades also include stints as a Network Ten director and shareholder, investing in the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb business, Stanbroke Pastoral, Torbreck Vintners Wine and Fairfax Media. More recently he invested in the plant-based meat firm v2foods.
The billionaire’s philanthropic interests include supporting Sydney Opera, Western Sydney Opera, St Vincent’s Hospital, Bond University and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance.
Cowin has expanded his interests overseas, including investments in Hong Kong and the US, where he is a majority owner of the Houston-based logistics and oil and gas industry services company Apache.
But Australia is Cowin’s main focus, and a country he says is resilient enough to withstand the looming economic downturn.
“I am an optimist. Cycles are part of business. Difficult times produce opportunities which are not around in good times. Hard work helps. Australia is well positioned to grow and prosper, as our relationship with Asia grows” Cowin says
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