Line ball call for Sukkar’s sports role; Profit brews for local Starbucks

Josephine Sukkar has until 5pm Sunday to reapply for her role with the Australian Sports Commission.

Intriguing times at the Australian Sports Commission, where doubts are emerging as to whether business identity Josephine Sukkar will stay on as chair after only three years in the role.

Sukkar, the principal of construction giant Buildcorp, has until 5pm on Sunday to apply for her own job as per general government processes operating now that says boards like that of the ASC have to advertise all their positions.

Which we presume means Sukkar and other directors will be busily dusting off their CVs and spending half the weekend filling in paperwork rather than, say, heading to the racecourse in Melbourne or Sydney or taking in some grassroots sports events.

Sukkar’s term finishes in February, having previously been appointed under the then Morrison government in early 2021.

Her fate is in the hands of Sports Minister Anika Wells, and the rumour is that Sukkar has not been given an indication one way or another whether it is worth her while putting in another application.

Is this a bit strange? Standard procedure, apparently.

“A national recruitment process is under way to identify a pool of candidates to fill current and future ASC board vacancies, including the position of ASC chair,” an ASC spokesman told us.

“This approach is in line with the Australian government’s commitment to conduct transparent, merit-based national ­recruitment processes for all ministerial appointments, which includes ASC board positions.”

“All current commissioners, including the chair Josephine Sukkar have been encouraged to apply should they wish to be considered for reappointment.”

Maybe we’re being a bit harsh, or ignorant (not surprisingly), but that doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement.

And word is that Sukkar is not exactly a meek chair, which may not have impressed Wells.

A few other names are floating around the traps should the minister appoint another female chair and/or board members, including corporate names such as Ann Sherry, Gabrielle Trainor and Sam Mostyn, as well as ­netball legend Liz Ellis.

No matter what happens, there’s a lot of CVs for the minister to read over during the next few months.

Hey true brew

Take that coffee snobs!

It turns out that Aussies don’t mind a bit of Starbucks peppermint mocha or caramel coffee frappuccino after all.

The local arm of Starbucks is owned by Australian billionaire Russell Withers of 7-Eleven and his wider family, including the children of his late sister, Beverley Barlow.

And according to the Starbucks Coffee Australia financial accounts lodged with the corporate regulator this week, the business has finally made a profit this year!

The business made a $3.1m statutory profit, compared to a $5.8m loss last year, and about $26m in earnings before interest and tax, depreciation and amortisation.

Revenue reached $157m, up from $117m in 2022.

So well is Starbucks going down under now that the Withers and Barlow families, who are trying to sell 7-Eleven for up to $2bn, are going to keep it in their hands post any sale of that wider convenience store business.

Starbucks’ Australian operations are owned by Russell Withers.

The 7-Eleven team has stepped in over recent years to operate Starbucks here under a trademark and technology licence agreement with the chain’s US managers, after a previous foray into Australia under its American managers ended up in a meek retreat.

The US giant had the Australian market in 2000, but within eight years racked up $143m in losses and had to take another $72m in loans from its US parent to keep operating.

By 2008 there were reportedly 84 Starbucks stores in Australia, but after a $27.6m loss for the year management decided to shut 61 stores and sack 685 staff.

Australia now has 67 outlets after the Withers family opened eight during the 2023 financial year.

While there are separate entities, the US giant does now have some sort of Australian flavour too – literally.

Starbucks is seemingly ubiquitous across North America as Margin Call can attest from our frequent – and always disclosed – junkets to the US (hello Paul Barry!) over the years, and the chain even carries the old Aussie favourite in the “Flat White” on its menu these days.

Globalisation is clearly making the world just that little bit smaller.

In customers’ shoes

Staying on the theme of overseas trips, we did enjoy some moments of levity that emerged during the Qantas annual general meeting in Melbourne on Friday.

Given the trials and tribulations the airline has experienced of late, causing issues galore for outgoing chairman Richard Goyder, already gone chief executive Alan Joyce and almost everyone else at Qantas too it seems, it was no shock the AGM was a bit stormy.

Of particular amusement was one question from a Qantas shareholder from the floor, who asked the airline’s 11 directors to put up their hands if they had slummed it in economy on an overseas trip in the past year.

Antony Tyler was apparently happy to fly with the plebs.

Only one board member, Antony Tyler, was seen to meekly raise his arm.

Look, we wouldn’t be caught dead at the back end of the plane on an overseas junket either, but we’re also fans of full disclosure regarding such travel.

It means directors like Todd Sampson – on brand in casual clothes but also hilariously accused of “completely misreading the zeitgeist” in recent years by one shareholder – haven’t found themselves “in the shoes of our rank and file customer base”, according to the questioner.

Not sure many shareholders would be cool enough to wear whatever shoes Sampson dons either though.

‘Family ties’

And talking of annual general meetings, we note the fun and games at Endeavour Group this week, in the ongoing stoush between major shareholder billionaire Bruce Mathieson and chairman Peter Hearl.

Mathieson has called on Hearl to resign and enlisted great friend and ex-Woolies boss Roger Corbett to get stuck into Endeavour at its AGM on Tuesday.

Hearl hit out at Corbett saying he had “close family ties” with Mathieson, without really explaining what he meant. Corbett shouted “that’s an insult!” and matters moved on.

However, we can inform that the family ties reference is regarding private energy saving and management firm Beovista.

Corbett chairs the company and his son Robert Corbett is its head of sales and marketing. Mathieson is a director.

The firm’s client list includes, yes, Endeavour’s ALH and Dan Murphy’s, as well as IGA, Walmart (Corbett senior was once a director) and Woolworths.