McNab founder hits back at 'savage' rumours to target $1bn turnover

A Toowoomba builder who started with a bank guarantee on his house has defied industry collapse rumours to build a construction empire approaching $1 billion in annual revenue.

McNab Group executive chairman Michael McNab in his South Brisbane office.

Michael McNab believes he’s an “accidental” businessman and his main ambition when he started his eponymous company almost three decades ago was simply to feed his family and stay afloat.

And from these small beginnings, the Toowoomba headquartered company now has a staff of more than 700 and is on track for $1bn plus in turnover in the 2026 financial year.

But Mr McNab would be the first to admit it hasn’t all been clear sailing, especially during the Covid pandemic, when rumours swept the construction sector that the Group would soon be joining the swelling ranks of failed builders.

“We were never in trouble. We were more honest than other builders. Our costs escalated 30 per cent in 18 months and if builders in Queensland say they didn’t have a tough time over Covid they are bullsh**ting,” he said.

“But the rumours about us were savage and they came from a couple of people. We know who they are.

“We were never going anywhere. We were hurting like everyone else. It was terrible and we were down in the trenches working hard. The noise was upsetting our staff, but it wasn’t upsetting me because I wasn’t worried.”

In the darkest days of the pandemic, revenue in the 2021 financial year revenue dropped to $399m and a wafer thin $3.5m net profit before tax which dropped to $2.4m the year after.

However, they recovered and in FY25 McNab reported $834m in revenue and $29.1m profit which included significant investments in technology and innovation projects to support in the company’s five-year growth and productivity goals.

McNab has received development approval for The Tannery Residences in Brisbane’s West End.

McNab’s vertically integrated model, with its construction, development and building services arms, as well as its construction supplies and hire business, has made the company into one of Queensland’s largest private builders and they will officially celebrate its 30th anniversary in March 2026.

The son of teachers, Mr McNab arrived in Toowoomba as a 14-year-old and never really left after attending St Mary’s Christian Brothers College. He then studied civil engineering at the then Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education.

Looking back he said he started out working as an engineer but his career pivoted when he began working on steel fabrication.

“That introduced me to the building industry via industrial steel fabrication tilt panels and that sort of work,” he said.

“My first building of substance was doing a job for Craig Black’s Black Toyota in Dalby and we finished a job for him just the other day.

“I had a bank guarantee on my house when I started which thankfully I didn’t have to fully mortgage to the hilt. I was a good technician. I knew how to build. I was good with people. But I was probably more of an accidental business person.”

Once focused on the agri-industrial and cold storage end of the industry in the past 15 years the Group has moved more into residential projects and from 10-level buildings has graduated to 20 and 30-storey apartment towers.

McNab has received development approval for The Tannery Residences in Brisbane’s West End.

As well as home base in Toowoomba, McNab also has well established Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Southeast Asia offices.

The company opened a Sydney office this year spurred on by loyal Queensland clients asking the team to build their industrial projects in western Sydney.

But they probably won’t be moving too far away from South East Queensland.

“We’re in no rush to go elsewhere. I talk about my Ts – Toowoomba, Tewantin and Tweed. It’s a nice little triangle of four and a half million people and growing at 30,000 to 50,000 people a year and we also have the Olympics coming,” Mr McNab said.

Mr McNab, 61, said the pandemic also convinced him that to was time to relinquish the day-to-day running of the company.

In July 1, 2024 he handed the chief executives job to Kunjan Ganatra who joined the company during the dark days of the pandemic in November 2020 as chief financial officer after 10 years with Flight Centre.

Now the executive chairman, Mr McNab said the growth of the business necessitated the change.

“Covid wasn’t fun and the last few years of it was tough. I knew that I needed to make a change. My own operating style wasn’t going to match what the business needed for the next chapter,” he said.

“It was very clear that we have a bunch of quality managers and now a quality CEO who is going to run the business in the current chapter we’re in. “Am I still around? Am I still an influence? All of the above.”

Part of the “new chapter” is the presence of AI which the group has been using.

“We have to be careful with it and it will be a game changer. We’re using it on low hanging fruit but we have a team working really hard on it to help drive efficiency,” he said.

“We are convinced that unless we make substantial changes in tech, productivity gains will be harder to get.

“The building industry has never been good at embracing the new and that’s something we have to work on.”

And when he finally retires, he might even leave Toowoomba.

“I’ll probably end up at the Gold Coast at some point. I love the beach but I’m in no hurry,” he said.

Originally published as McNab founder hits back at 'savage' rumours to target $1bn turnover