The List - Australia’s Richest 250 debutants: Dr Sam Prince, Fung Lam, Jo Horgan
Meet the little-known powerhouses, including one worth $1bn, who made The Richest 250 for the first time.
Meet the little-known powerhouse behind Australia’s burgeoning e-commerce industry.
Fung Lam, 40, has quietly built a business that underpins some of the biggest names in the Australian online retail sectors.
Incredibly, his New Aim lays claim to having delivered to about half the households in Australia over the past four years, through a combination of online retail and wholesale businesses, and a unique “dropshipping” delivery mode that is the quiet yet effective backbone of many e-commerce sites.
Lam is one of 29 debutants on The List – Australia’s Richest 250 this year, published in a special edition of The Australian on Friday.
The List - Australia’s Richest 250 debutants: Dr Sam Prince, Fung Lam, Jo Horgan
The highest debutant is entrepreneur Dr Sam Prince, who arrives in 112th position with wealth of $1.18bn. Dr Prince oversees one of the fastest growing takeaway businesses in Australia, the Mexican-themed chain Zambrero that he started in Canberra in 2005.
Zambrero has more than 230 restaurants and is expanding in the US and UK, but Dr Prince also owns restaurants in Sydney and the cloud-connected chain of medical centres Next Practice, as well as a majority interest in video-based hiring platform Zapid Hire and beverage brand Shine.
Beauty retail phenomenon Jo Horgan and her husband Peter Wetenhall place on The List for the first time with a combined $647m fortune, while Rode Microphones founder Peter Freedman is another notable debut at 194 with $667m. Rode products are sold in almost 120 countries around the world, most of which are made from a state of the art facility in Sydney’s Silverwater.
Other notables debuts include Nick Andrianakos, the founder of Milemaker Petroleum, who has wealth of $886m and pub magnate Sam Arnaout, who has estimated wealth of $922m after buying dozens of hotels and the Lasseters Hotel Casino in Alice Springs last year for $100m.
Australia's Richest 250
Rinehart tops Richest 250, Canva’s Perkins the big mover
The top 10 on The List are wealthier than ever before, led by two of the country’s most successful businesswomen who have changed the face of corporate Australia.
Can restaurant king Justin Hemmes take on Melbourne?
The Sydney bar tsar reveals what his plans are for expanding his empire beyond his home turf.
How dark moments gave birth to vast Canva fortune
The Canva founders were rejected by more than 100 investors before they got their first ‘yes’.
Newcomers: The 29 wealthy debutants making their mark
Meet the little-known powerhouses, including one worth $1bn, who made The Richest 250 for the first time.
‘One service station was never going to be enough’
For Nick Andrianakos, a ‘journey of discovery to the lucky country’ has led to an estimated $894m petroleum fortune built over a lifetime.
Retail lobs into the ‘Meccaverse’
For Mecca founder Jo Horgan, there’s nothing so ‘viscerally delightful’ as going into a store and playing with products.
Tech guru Richard White’s plan to give back
WiseTech’s Richard White wants to beef up Australia’s STEM capacity. He’s setting up a new technology education foundation to get the ball rolling.
How ‘snowmobile approach’ made Bonett a billionaire
Online gift card billionaire and commercial property magnate Shaun Bonett says there are very few people who invent things. The real art is in putting things together in a better way.
Bevan Slattery kicks off his last hurrah
If Bevan Slattery’s has big plans: to pull off what will be the largest private digital infrastructure project in Australia’s history.
‘I just love anything that’s difficult’
If it sounds too good and big to be true, unstoppable property developer Lang Walker knows it’s the project for him as he loves nothing more than proving the doubters wrong.
The fortune four million parcels built
Meet the little-known powerhouse behind Australia’s burgeoning e-commerce industry.
How our billionaires relax
It’s not all work for the big players on The List: The Richest 250. They wind down in various ways, from the sporty to the leisurely – or just collecting ritzy houses.
Simple lessons in David Dicker’s 25-year overnight success
It took until the fast car enthusiast was 50 to realise what he needed to change to be a success in business – pay staff well, hire more women and stay out of the way. The results have been startling.
How Culture Kings founders made millions
Australian retail phenomenon Culture Kings is about to launch its biggest play, with its 30-something founders taking on the US market.
Gina Rinehart tops The List as NFT revolution takes off
This year’s edition of The List - Australia’s Richest 250 will show how mining and technology are now the country’s two most successful sectors.
Cars and politics fuel Clive Palmer’s passion play
Clive Palmer makes more income than almost every other Australian billionaire. But how he chooses to spend it is unique.
High flyers: Private jets the new toy of choice
Forget fast cars, super yachts or luxury houses. The hottest trophy asset for Australia’s rich elite right now is a $100m jet. So who has bought one?
Lam believes there is plenty of growth to come for his company. “Look at what the online (retail) market here is in Australia,” he tells The List.
“In China the percentage of the population (buying online) is 40 per cent. In the US, it is probably something like 30 per cent. In Australia, and Covid has accelerated this, on a good day it is 30 per cent. So you have that percentage growing I think, and also the overall population is growing as well.”
So quickly is New Aim growing that it has gone from leasing one warehouse with 11,000sq m of space in 2013 to now selling more than 6000 products. Its annual revenue is more than $300m.
All of which is a long way from when Lam started his business in 2005, after graduating from university. He would buy goods in bulk from two-dollar discount shops and sell them on eBay for profit.
“I think the best deal I did then was buying a laminating machine for $40 and then selling it again online for $80, including postage,” Lam says with some pride.
The 2022 edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 is published on Friday in The Australian