Jack Cowin, founder and chariman of Aggressive Meals Australia.
Courtesy of Jack Cowin
As a child, Jack Cowin shoveled snow, delivered newspapers and offered Christmas playing cards for money. By the point he reached his 20s, it was burgers as a substitute of playing cards. Quick ahead to right this moment: The 82-year-old is a billionaire, due to his quick meals empire.
Cowin is the founder and chairman of Aggressive Meals Australia, the corporate that operates Burger King as “Hungry Jack’s” in Australia. He’s additionally the most important shareholder of Domino’s Pizza in Australia, and backs a plant-based meat substitute firm referred to as v2food.
Earlier than founding Hungry Jack’s, Cowin was answerable for bringing Kentucky Fried Hen to Australia in 1969. Then in 2013, he offered off his KFC franchise of 55 shops in a deal price about $71 million, in keeping with a consultant at Aggressive Meals Australia.
At the moment, his enterprise is price over $3 billion and brings in over $300 million a 12 months, Cowin advised CNBC Make It.
An enterprising child
Rising up in Canada, Cowin realized early on that he wished freedom in life. His father was an worker on the Ford Motor Firm and was required to journey incessantly for work.
And as a child, I wished to have the liberty to do what I wished to do. I feel I noticed that comparatively early, as a result of [I saw that] dad’s on the treadmill of right here, there and all over the place.
Jack Cowin
Founder and Chairman, Aggressive Meals Australia
“He had a cellphone name someday, you are going to Brazil, or you are going to Mexico, or issues like this … If you work for a giant company, the company decides the place you are going to be, [and] what you are going to do,” Cowin mentioned.
“And as a child, I wished to have the liberty to do what I wished to do. I feel I noticed that comparatively early, as a result of [I saw that] dad’s on the treadmill of right here, there and all over the place,” he mentioned. He did not wish to be on the “whims and beckon name of an organization.”
In order a baby, Cowin spent his time outdoors of faculty mowing lawns and delivering newspapers. “I by no means needed to ask for cash as a child,” he mentioned. “I used to be a gross sales man from very early, like 8 or 10 years outdated.”
By the point faculty rolled round, Cowin was going from farm to farm promoting “timber, shrubs and nursing inventory,” he mentioned. He was so profitable at it that he was making $8,000 a 12 months whereas his college professors had been making solely $5,000 a 12 months, he mentioned.
He graduated with a bachelor’s diploma from the College of Western Ontario in 1964, and went on to get a job promoting life insurance coverage he mentioned he was superb at.
“I had a status of being somebody that might promote,” he mentioned.
Putting gold Down Beneath
By the late Nineteen Sixties, Cowin had begun to quiet down in Canada together with his spouse and his first baby when he someday obtained a cellphone name from a few highschool buddies.
His buddies had landed a job with the American Kentucky Fried Hen firm and had been despatched to Australia to do some market analysis about whether or not they need to increase into the nation.
At that stage of the sport, the restaurant enterprise in Australia was fish and chip outlets, Chinese language eating places and fancy white tablecloth eating places.
Jack Cowin
Founder and Chairman, Aggressive Meals Australia
“Since my father had been there [for work], and I used to be the one man … that knew the place Australia was on a map … they phoned me up and mentioned: ‘You have to be down right here. It’s best to come and see this.’ So with no second’s discover, I am on a aircraft and I fly to Australia,” Cowin mentioned.
Cowin landed in Australia in February 1969, and spent three weeks there serving to his buddies conduct analysis — finally discovering that there was certainly a marketplace for fast food in Australia.
Jack Cowin owns over 380 places of Hungry Jack’s as of 2024, in keeping with an official firm consultant.
Sopa Pictures | Lightrocket | Getty Pictures
“At that stage of the sport, the restaurant enterprise in Australia was fish and chip outlets, Chinese language eating places and fancy white tablecloth eating places,” he mentioned. In the meantime, McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC and different fast food eating places had been all rising in reputation in North America.
“So on the finish of the three weeks, I pay $1,000 as a deposit on a Kentucky Fried Hen franchise [and] if the American firm goes to open a retailer, then I used to be going to have a ten retailer franchise,” he mentioned.
His ‘greatest break’ in life
Six months later, he obtained a cellphone name saying that the American KFC firm agreed to increase into Australia and Cowin had the chance to personal his first franchise location. However he did not have the funds, so he began elevating cash.
The most important break I’ve had in my life was … I bought on my bike and I bought 30 Canadians to lend me $10,000 every, so bought $300,000.
Jack Cowin
Founder and Chairman, Aggressive Meals Australia
Think about this “child comes into your workplace and says he needs to borrow $10,000, which might be about $100,000 right this moment or extra … he is bought no expertise within the enterprise, no curiosity in your cash … how lengthy earlier than you throw him out of your workplace for losing your time?”
“The most important break I’ve had in my life was … I bought on my bike and I bought 30 Canadians to lend me $10,000 every, so bought $300,000,” he mentioned. “In any other case I would nonetheless be shoveling snow in Canada. I hadn’t had the funds again then.”
By December 1969, Cowin moved his household to Perth, Australia, the place he opened his first KFC franchise. “It was like drilling oil and hitting oil in your first wildcat nicely, as a result of it was a booming success,” he mentioned.
“Then, you open two extra, you get into the hamburger enterprise, you get into the pizza enterprise, you get into the meals manufacturing enterprise, and right this moment, that enterprise is a $3 billion enterprise and makes $300 million a 12 months.”
At the moment, Cowin owns 98% of his firm whereas the opposite 2% is held by a few of his unique buyers and shareholders, he mentioned. “That unique $10,000 is $40 million at e book worth [today]. So everyone’s bought their a reimbursement, and people who stayed in have performed more and more nicely,” he mentioned.
When requested what his secret to gross sales is, he mentioned, “I feel the key is, no matter you do, do it nicely … The those who lent me the cash actually backed me because the funding. I used to be the funding.”
“And an expression [I have is] when you possibly can’t inform the distinction between work and play, you are in the best place … I’ve by no means actually labored a day in my life as a result of I’ve loved it.”
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