PROFILE
Kollaras Building
KOLLARAS: THE EVOLUTION
SINCE THE 1960S THE KOLLARAS BUSINESS HAS HAD MANY FACES; FROM ITS BEGINNINGS AS A HUMBLE FRUIT SHOP IT HAS EVOLVED INTO A SUCCESSFUL FAMILY-OPERATED BRAND BUILDING COMPANY. WE CATCH UP WITH MICHAEL AND JOHN KOLLARAS TO HEAR ABOUT THE COMPANY’S EVOLUTION.
Q TALK ME THROUGH THE EVOLUTION OF THE KOLLARAS BUSINESS SINCE THE 1960S: MICHAEL: This will be a hard one to answer in a few sentences. My father founded the business in 1960 through the acquisition of a fruit shop in Wollongong. From there it evolved into more of a wholesale type operation through the supply of merchant ships and the like at Port Kembla Steelworks, which really took off for him. My brother Tass joined the business in the early 70s and me soon after that, with Tass and me focusing on the import, export and wholesale of produce and frozen food. Through the 70s and 80s that business became significant and our footprint around the world expanded and we created a platform in international markets that is still largely in place in our beverage business today. During the late 80s and early 90s we began investing in other businesses, particularly with property and car dealerships becoming extensions of our group at the time. By the mid-90s liquor became a focus through ownership of bottle shops and supplying many customers in our produce business with alcoholic beverages. In the late 90s the Howard Government reformed competition law to allow for parallel imports of alcohol and this created an opportunity for our retail liquor business to expand into wholesale. Our parallel import business accelerated on the back of cruise ship supply, because many operators were entering Australia but encountering pricing structures which were vastly different from those in other parts of the world. Over time, this formed the basis of the business we have today with a domestic, export and duty free arm in beverages, but today our focus in the domestic market in particular, is on our own brand portfolio on the
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back of our partnership with ALM formed in 2015. We continue to operate the broader group of companies with investments and other trading businesses such as our Tobacco Imports Company being a focus for us.
Q WITH A THIRD GENERATION OF KOLLARAS’ STEPPING INTO MANAGEMENT ROLES, ARE THEY BRINGING WITH THEM ANY NEW IDEAS OR BUSINESS STRATEGIES? MICHAEL: The third generation has been a material part of our evolution, but the change has also come from the next generation of people at all levels in our business. Recognising the power of generational change allows family businesses to continue to be relevant and at the forefront of what they do, and that is very much the basis for how we have transitioned. John Kollaras leads our business in the capacity of Managing Director and is surrounded by an outstanding group of executives and people who are driving our growth. John has been in the business for some time and has balanced a very different approach and environment with an alignment to the second generation, to ensure our business continues to be great at what it does. This has challenged the family to shift our traditional way of operating, and the results speak for themselves. More recently, Georgia Kollaras, my daughter, has stepped into the role of Marketing Manager and is behind many of the outstanding initiatives seen in the trade, particularly on our brands, helping us in our transition from box mover to brand owner. My son Jonathon, the youngest in our family, has also joined the business in our operations team and is now working through his development in a sales role.
