Business as usual as Brett Ralph invests in V8s
Adding a stake in the Dick Johnson Racing team to an existing portfolio that covers rugby league, basketball, netball, baseball and horse racing, Brett Ralph and his brother Shaun have spent tens of millions of dollars in sport.
Meet the one-time motorbike courier who might be the most prolific sports investor in Australia.
Brett Ralph last week added a stake in the Dick Johnson Racing team in the Supercars motor racing series to an existing portfolio that includes the NRL’s Melbourne Storm, Melbourne United in the National Basketball League, Super Netball’s Sunshine Coast Lightning and baseball club Melbourne Aces.
Then there are the dozens of community sports clubs Ralph’s Jet Couriers business sponsors. He even owns some racehorses.
Save for an entrepreneur such as Gerry Ryan, co-owner of the Storm, professional cycling and women’s basketball teams and horses, among his many interests, it is hard to think of an Australian sports owner who has as many sporting assets as the little-known Ralph.
While he is loath to reveal exact details, Ralph and his brother Shaun would have spent tens of millions of dollars in sport in recent years.
They have quietly become the second-biggest shareholders in United, own most of the Aces and a stake in the Australian Baseball League itself, and have long been entertained by having the corporate box next to voluble Storm coach Craig Bellamy’s coaches box at AAMI Park.
So why has a bloke who got his start in business by putting down a $10 deposit on a motorbike and borrowing the remainder at a whopping 27 per cent interest rate back in the 1990s become so into sport?
“Well, we worked really hard and did very little else,” Ralph told The Weekend Australian with a laugh. “And then we got to a point in our lives we thought, ‘hey, let’s do some things that are fun’. We’re looking to win, because winning is fun!
“We’re legitimately sports lovers. And in every one of these opportunities, the opportunities come to us. We say, number one: does this sound like fun? Two, can we do it well – because everything we do we try to do it well. And then three, can we make it sustainable?”
So far, Ralph is winning. The Storm won the NRL grand final in 2020, months after Ralph bought a stake of about 20 per cent, the Aces the last two ABL titles and United the NBL grand final series last year. As for the sustainability part, in the case of United and the Storm, Ralph said both were in “extraordinary shape” when he was presented with an opportunity to invest.
“So I think that all those businesses were keen that they didn’t want somebody who was going to come in and disrupt what was working,’’ he said. “It was more about giving them more of what they already had.
“The Aces were in a different situation. The Aces were in a precarious situation. So they needed to find a stable path.”
His latest purchase, the DJR racing team that he says is profitable and “by no stretch of the imagination a rescue mission”, got off to a good start last weekend when Will Davison won the first race of the Sandown Super Sprint in Melbourne’s southeast.
The Ralph family will be owners of DJR alongside the legendary Dick Johnson and executive chairman Ryan Story.
Ralph said he could see the irony of watching those races trackside, given he grew up in nearby Noble Park.
“The first motor race I saw live was at Sandown Park in 1981,’’ he said. “It was a round of the Australian Touring Car Championships and Dick (Johnson) won. Here we are 40 years later.”
Noble Park has the reputation as a tough area, but Ralph said he and his three brothers had all become successful in business. Their father, a Vietnam veteran, worked in the transport and logistics sector and was, Ralph said, the “hardest working man I know” who set the standards for the family’s work ethic.
Ralph and his brother Shaun would form Jet Couriers, which now has annual revenue of more than $100m, 200 employees and 1000 contractors working from offices around Australia and the US.
“I handle the administration and the sales and marketing side of business,” Ralph said. “And Shaun handles the operation side. Which means that he pays the bills and I get the glory!”
It was a passion for baseball – Ralph admits to being a “very average club baseballer” in his younger days – that led to Jet Couriers opening offices in the US, where the business now has branches in Dallas, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Houston, as well as a dispatch centre in Auckland, New Zealand.
The connection the business has with sport has helped.
“The staff and clients are drawn to the teams we are associated with,’’ Ralph said. “And even to the extent that US staff ended up with some enthusiasm for teams that we’re involved with. So they’re up at all hours watching it.”
As for what else, besides having fun and deep pockets, Ralph brings to his sporting investments, he said some basic business principles came in handy.
“As we have with the other things, we try to be good listeners and trust experts. So it is about making sure that all of those people that we know are capable of doing great jobs have everything they need to do a great job.”
After that, it is all about enjoying the winning.
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