A psychic guest, anyone predict that?; Guzman y Gomez taste of things to come
Is there anything more painstaking to arrange than the guest list for a wedding?
Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz kept their invitations to a modest number – 80 people hand picked from their immediate family and closest affiliates. Which is why we could only wonder at how Canberra-based psychic medium Carrie de Block made the cut for the Currumbin Valley celebrations.
Is de Block an old friend of the couple? Was she hired to give palm readings in a candlelit corner of the venue?
Au contraire. Apparently Sharaz is quite a fan of her talents and has been an on-again-off-again client of de Block’s for years – occasionally tapping into her psychic abilities for all manner of guidance.
No doubt de Block’s mystical powers have been severely tested by the couple, especially in the years since Higgins revealed she was raped by former Liberal Party colleague Bruce Lehrmann.
Could de Block’s soothsaying predict the outcome of Lehrmann’s criminal trial? What about his failed litigation against Channel 10? We seriously doubt she could have foreseen the plot twist of Taylor Auerbach opening fire with his Gatling gun of allegations – as Justice Michael Lee dubbed it – in the witness box.
All this kooky psychic stuff is very much a Sharaz indulgence, and Higgins sort of grudgingly puts up with the shenanigans, we hear. Not that Sharaz would tell us a great deal when we asked him to talk about it.
“I have friends from many walks of life and I was grateful to have them all there to celebrate my marriage to Brittany,” he told Margin Call on Monday.
For what it’s worth, de Block’s services “are highly sought after and often leave clients blown away”, according to her website. Her services include “mediumship sessions” and energy healing to unblock the “charka (sic) system”.
Certainly a few guests at the wedding could have used some assistance with de-stiffening over the weekend.
Former TV host Jon Dee and Canberra-based journalist Ginger Gorman were thoroughly backed up over the “mainstream media” taking photos of the event from across a paddock, on a public road.
Dee and Gorman later went on to post their own pictures of the wedding on social media, as did former MP Emma Husar, who appeared to have a jolly good time, judging by the snaps she put up.
This all despite Sharaz and Higgins requesting that guests avoid sharing their pictures publicly.
“We would love you to take photos and share them with us. However, please refrain from taking photos of the ceremony and posting any photos on social media,” said the FAQ on the website for their wedding – an injunction that was clearly relaxed as the night wore on.
Nothing like family ties
Restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez, the billion-dollar burrito, is finally making its pitch to outside investors – and for the first time people outside of the cosy world of private equity get a chance to really see what is under the hood.
Sure, there’s the usual pictures of sizzling meat on the grill, dips, tacos as well as a photo of chief executive Steven Marks not even dressed in a business suit and tie, but jeans and a Guzman y Gomez hoodie!
Times have certainly changed since directors, mostly men, needed to be seen in a prospectus or annual report in a suit. Seriously, how does Marks think he’ll get into the Melbourne Club or Australian Club wearing what club members would view as the kind of accoutrement their ungovernable grandchildren wear to skateboard parks?
But also in the Guzman y Gomez prospectus of course are all the important sales and earnings figures, forecasts and such; and right at the back on page 171 the “related party arrangements” – which are always a fun read. And this chapter is particularly interesting.
It looks like Guzman y Gomez has followed the Australian Football League in terms of the father-son drafting rule for footy clubs.
Guzman y Gomez chairman Guy Russo is one of the best retailers in Australia, and has runs on the board through running businesses like McDonald’s Australia and rescuing Kmart for Wesfarmers. Gaetano Russo Jr is following in the footsteps of dad and is revealed in the Guzman y Gomez prospectus as a franchisee of three restaurants in Melbourne – Box Hill, Eastland and Croydon.
The franchise agreements for each of these restaurants align with the standard terms offered to other franchisees, with minor exceptions, the prospectus reveals.
What is that “minor exception”? Namely, the Eastland franchise agreement contains a special condition which gave Russo Jr a royalty free period of 12 weeks as the restaurant was underperforming when the son of the chairman took it over. And so an agreement was reached to give relief from royalties while the restaurant improved its performance.
Again, this was consistent with the manner in which Guzman y Gomez provides royalty relief at times to other franchisees, says the prospectus.
Then there is Dylan Brett, the son of Guzman y Gomez co-CEO and director Hilton Brett. Dylan has entered into a letter of intent to franchise a Guzman y Gomez restaurant in Mona Vale, Sydney, which has a tentative opening date in December 2024.
Guzman y Gomez is a hot fast-food brand at the moment and gets dozens of inquiries a month from people considering to buy a franchise, so they are hard to get. Russo Jr and Dylan must be good networkers.
Elsewhere, prior to taking on the Co-CEO position in 2023, Hilton Brett worked as an operating partner at TDM Growth Partners which is Guzman y Gomez’s largest shareholder.
The prospectus reports that TDM has agreed to secondments of two of its senior personnel to Guzman y Gomez in fiscal 2024 to support the chain while it was recruiting for those positions to be filled.
For the period up to the end of March 2024, Guzman y Gomez paid TDM a total of $527,125 for the direct employment costs of those executives during their secondment. Now that’s some double dipping, and we’re not talking about dipping the half-bitten end of a corn chip into some sauce.
One of these secondments remains ongoing and is expected to cease on June 30.
Meanwhile, back to Guzman y Gomez chairman Guy Russo. He has been a director for about 15 years and is a substantial shareholder of the company. Given his length of time as a director and a substantial shareholder, the Guzman y Gomez board is not treating him as independent. This is contrary to ASX recommendations. More than that, as at listing, the Guzman y Gomez board will not have a majority of independent directors as is welcomed by ASX recommendations.
Complicating the balance, Guzman y Gomez independent director Bruce Buchanan plans to step down from the board at the 2024 AGM, and will need to be replaced by an independent director to, at the very least, maintain the 50-50 balance of independent to non-independent board members. But it still won’t have a majority of independent directors.
This doesn’t seem to be a huge problem for Aware Super, one of the nation’s largest superannuation funds and a major shareholder in Guzman y Gomez. Much like other industry super funds, the irretrievably woke Aware bleats on and on about ESG, climate change, fossil fuels (boo, hiss!) as they lecture other businesses on how to behave. Will Aware now demand Guzman y Gomez meet ASX board recommendations?
Boss back for damage control
The rumour flying around the Melbourne headquarters of Country Road Group is that Woolworths Holdings chief executive Roy Bagattini will be flying back to Australia to address staff directly when the company issues its investigation into the handling of sexual harassment and bullying allegations at the fashion house.
The last time Bagattini flew in from South Africa to listen to staff on the appalling allegations he was described as being openly emotional about the whole thing. Country Road Group chief executive Raju Vuppalapati has been more visible in the company’s offices of late, insiders report, and the question will be what will happen to him once the investigation report is released.
And what about Adele Preston? She has the oh-so-modern title of “chief people officer” (we think that means she’s in charge of HR) and surely must also account for what allegedly went on – although she was away for the second half of 2023 and only returned in February this year.
Any attempt at a cover-up could cause another protest outside a Country Road store, similar to one held last week led by Victorian Trades Hall Council assistant secretary Wilhelmina Stracke.
More wrongs than rights at the AHRC?
A case of curious priorities over at the Australian Human Rights Commission where hand-picked appointee Giridharan Sivaraman seems to prefer playing politics over action on anti-Semitism.
Freehills partner given notice over synagogue tweet
Herbert Smith Freehills leaders have voted to remove one of its longstanding partners, Damien Hazard, over a ‘deeply offensive’ tweet targeting Jeremy Leibler.