Former Robbo’s Chicken and Meat owner ‘betrayed and miserable’ in retirement
The household name who once ran Robbo’s Chicken and Meat has advice for business owners after his life of hard work that started at 14 has resulted in heartache.
Tasmania
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The household name who once ran Robbo’s Chicken and Meat has advice for business owners after his life of hard work that started at 14 has resulted in heartache.
Philip ‘Robbo’ Robinson has been a butcher nearly his whole life, culminating in unexpected local fame through his television ads with the fun and memorable catchphrase “wow Robbo”.
“It was a bit of a stupid ad,” he said.
“But even people today say ‘wow Robbo’, the staff got onto it and it sort of snowballed. It’s been good for the shop.”
The 73-year-old has since retired.
His plans to enjoy retirement living off savings and funds from the sale of his former company P. J. Robinson, better known as Robbo’s Chicken and Meat, went awry when he learned the former P. J. Robinson bookkeeper had unlawfully taken $420,000 from the business.
The woman Cheryl Ann Kendall was sentenced to six months jail on Tuesday and ordered to compensate the business, which is now in liquidation.
Mr Robinson told the Mercury his savings were at “zero”, living on the old age pension.
He had hoped to travel, but with medical issues ranging from life after triple bypass surgery to ongoing prostate and bladder trouble, and fading eyesight from glaucoma caused by diabetes, Mr Robinson has said there’s little to look forward to.
“I haven’t got any future,” he said.
“I fiddle with a few cars. I still wake early, but there’s no point getting out of bed.”
His Rosetta home is decked out with quirky retro items like an old Ampol sign and bowsers from the era of leaded petrol.
His love for the meat trade inspires him to help share his skills on occasion with the new workers at his former business.
Mr Robinson has also received official recognition for his more than 30 years of “generous” butchery training with TAFE Tasmania and the Skills Institute.
He said his dad told him as a teenager “you’re too stupid to be anything else bar a butcher”, and Mr Robinson’s fate was sealed.
Of his £4.15 wages in the early days, he would give £4 to his parents during “hard times” living on charity food parcels.
He made a name for himself in the industry, which was once so bustling he recalled some 100 little butcher shops existed between Glenorchy and Hobart.
“I can tell you every one of their names,” he said.
“I can look at an animal walking around a paddock and tell you how much it weighs, tell you how much it’ll cost me and whether it’s good quality.”
Mr Robinson had worked at Devonport City Abbatoirs and wholesalers, butcher shops and abattoirs in Hobart and Melbourne with some of the industry’s biggest names before he coined the name of his final business ten years ago.
His advice for business owners was a resounding warning.
“If you get into a business, you should have some sort of training (with) computers so you’ve got a bit more knowledge than blokes like me had,” he said.
“That’s what’s brought me undone is not having the knowledge to check things.
“Working harder isn’t the answer in a business, working smarter is.”
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