Jack Cowin, founder and chariman of Competitive Foods Australia.
Courtesy of Jack Cowin
As a child, Jack Cowin shoveled snow, delivered newspapers and bought Christmas playing cards for money. By the time he reached his 20s, it was burgers as an alternative of playing cards. Fast ahead to at the moment: The 82-year-old is a billionaire, due to his quick meals empire.
Cowin is the founder and chairman of Competitive Foods Australia, the corporate that operates Burger King as “Hungry Jack’s” in Australia. He can be the most important shareholder of Domino’s Pizza in Australia, and backs a plant-based meat substitute firm referred to as v2food.
Before founding Hungry Jack’s, Cowin was answerable for bringing Kentucky Fried Chicken to Australia in 1969. Then in 2013, he bought off his KFC franchise of 55 shops in a deal value about $71 million, in response to a consultant at Competitive Foods Australia.
Today, his enterprise is value over $3 billion and brings in over $300 million a 12 months, Cowin advised CNBC Make It.
An enterprising child
Growing up in Canada, Cowin realized early on that he wished freedom in life. His father was an worker on the Ford Motor Company and was required to journey steadily 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 in every single place.
Jack Cowin
Founder and Chairman, Competitive Foods Australia
“He had a telephone name in the future, you are going to Brazil, or you are going to Mexico, or issues like this … When you’re employed for an enormous company, the company decides the place you are going to be, [and] what you are going to do,” Cowin stated.
“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 in every single place,” he stated. He did not need to be on the “whims and beckon name of an organization.”
So as a toddler, Cowin spent his time exterior of faculty mowing lawns and delivering newspapers. “I by no means needed to ask for cash as a child,” he stated. “I used to be a gross sales man from very early, like 8 or 10 years outdated.”
By the time school rolled round, Cowin was going from farm to farm promoting “bushes, shrubs and nursing inventory,” he stated. 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 stated.
He graduated with a bachelor’s diploma from the University of Western Ontario in 1964, and went on to get a job promoting life insurance coverage he stated he was superb at.
“I had a status of being somebody that might promote,” he stated.
Striking gold Down Under
By the late Sixties, Cowin had begun to cool down in Canada along with his spouse and his first baby when he in the future obtained a telephone name from a few highschool associates.
His associates had landed a job with the American Kentucky Fried Chicken firm and had been despatched to Australia to do some market analysis about whether or not they need to broaden into the nation.
At that stage of the sport, the restaurant enterprise in Australia was fish and chip retailers, Chinese eating places and fancy white tablecloth eating places.
Jack Cowin
Founder and Chairman, Competitive Foods 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 stated: ‘You must be down right here. You ought to come and see this.’ So with no second’s discover, I’m on a airplane and I fly to Australia,” Cowin stated.
Cowin landed in Australia in February 1969, and spent three weeks there serving to his associates conduct analysis — in the end 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 response to an official firm consultant.
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“At that stage of the sport, the restaurant enterprise in Australia was fish and chip retailers, Chinese eating places and fancy white tablecloth eating places,” he stated. Meanwhile, 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 Chicken franchise [and] if the American firm goes to open a retailer, then I used to be going to have a ten retailer franchise,” he stated.
His ‘greatest break’ in life
Six months later, he obtained a telephone name saying that the American KFC firm agreed to broaden into Australia and Cowin had the chance to personal his first franchise location. But he did not have the funds, so he began elevating cash.
The greatest break I’ve had in my life was … I acquired on my bike and I acquired 30 Canadians to lend me $10,000 every, so acquired $300,000.
Jack Cowin
Founder and Chairman, Competitive Foods Australia
Imagine this “child comes into your workplace and says he desires to borrow $10,000, which might be about $100,000 at the moment or extra … he is acquired 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 greatest break I’ve had in my life was … I acquired on my bike and I acquired 30 Canadians to lend me $10,000 every, so acquired $300,000,” he stated. “Otherwise I’d 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 stated.
“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 at the moment, that enterprise is a $3 billion enterprise and makes $300 million a 12 months.”
Today, Cowin owns 98% of his firm whereas the opposite 2% is held by a few of his authentic traders and shareholders, he stated. “That authentic $10,000 is $40 million at ebook worth [today]. So everyone’s acquired their a refund, and those who stayed in have achieved more and more nicely,” he stated.
When requested what his secret to gross sales is, he stated, “I feel the key is, no matter you do, do it nicely … The folks that lent me the cash actually backed me because the funding. I used to be the funding.”
“And an expression [I have is] when you may’t inform the distinction between work and play, you are in the appropriate 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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