WEBVTT - #454 Vic's Meat: Building Australia's Premier Meat Supplier with Anthony Puharich 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:10.920 Welcome to the Mentor. I'm Marke Boris Anthony Bariche. Welcome 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:13.040 to the Mentor. Thank you very much. Mark. Nice to 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:16.360 be here. And how good are we going? Oh? Really good. 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:18.880 We've we're not meet now we're talking about we're talking 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:21.440 about the Roosters. We've got a lot of things in common, 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.599 one of them being the Roosters. Yeah, it's good to 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:26.400 be a long you've been as a border for us. 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:29.080 I think this year I've knocked up forty five years 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:32.519 of supporting the Red, White and the Blue. I remember 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:34.400 my father took me to my first game when I 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:36.440 was like six or seven years old, back at the 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:40.440 old Sydney Sports Ground. Yeah. He used to be called yep, 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:45.280 and you know Russell Fairfax and Boba Riley and Muddy 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.960 Girr and Ken Kerry Bostad and Kevin Hastings that you know, 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:52.880 that sort of era and late seventies, early eighties. Yeah, 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:56.160 late late seventies, early eighties. Yeah, And I wasn't as 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:59.680 fascinated with the rugby as much as I was fascinated 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.080 with the dry ice. So I remember, I remember my 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:05.720 dad used to take me to the games, and back 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:07.319 in those days there was dry ice and all that 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:08.840 sort of stuff, and I'd sit on the grass and 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:11.400 I'd sort of just be fascinated with with a with 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:14.240 a dry ice, and the russ would score and then 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:16.840 I'd sort of look at the game and chair a 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:20.240 bit and whatever. But yeah, very typic a little kids. 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:22.800 They all go around and especially in the six or 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.560 seven years of age, they're all dean holes and while 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.400 their parents are sort of getting either aggravated or extremely 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:31.520 excited about the Russes winning. So just in context, So 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:34.560 you're the CEO and founder of Vixed Meats, a very 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:36.160 well known meat business. 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:38.600 Let's call it meat purveyors. I don't know what the 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:43.760 word is, supply wholesalers, retailers. Yeah, but you have a history. 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:46.880 You're come from a family you told me your dad now, 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.120 but you have a history of generational history of being 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:51.480 in the butcher business. 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:53.880 Yeah, that'd be right. Yeah, I'm I'm proudly I'm a 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.680 fifth generation butcher. So you're actually like a butcher trade 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:02.320 as a butcher. Yeah. Well, I never normally did my apprenticeship, 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:04.920 but I learned under the best butcher in the world. 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:09.640 Who's my father, right, who's proudly been a butcher and 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:12.800 dedicated fifty five years of his life mark to the 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:17.760 craft of butchery. A remarkable man, an incredible role model 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:23.240 for me, a mentor. He's my father, he's my business partner, 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:25.880 and he's still best parents. Yeah. Yeah, my father retired 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.640 a couple of years ago, but you can't help himself. 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:32.239 He's still he's still there, sort of looking over my shoulder. 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.239 My sister and I now run the business. So yeah, 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:38.560 butchery goes back many, many generations in our fans beyond 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:44.600 your dad. Yeah, so his father, my great grandfather, my 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:47.640 father's brothers a butcher's So my father has two older brothers. 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:51.600 He's the youngest of seven. So literally butchery runs through 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:56.200 Alvein's mark. And despite my best efforts, I should say 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.399 my parents' best efforts, because actually my father, funnily enough, 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:02.519 he didn't want me to follow in his footsteps. Like 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:07.200 most migrants, so my background's creation my father, like all 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:09.400 the great sort of immigrants that came to this country 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:12.600 in the sort of sixties and seventies, my father, actually 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:14.480 he didn't want me to follow in his footsteps. He 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:17.400 wanted me to get an education, He wanted me to 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:21.800 become a I don't know, accountant, lawyer. He wanted me 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:24.120 to sort of pursue a white collar sort of career, 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:27.320 a better life, you know. Butcher. Butcher is hard work, 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:31.040 you know, very physical, you're on your feet, cold conditions. 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.440 Wasn't a very respected and appreciated sort of profession. So 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:39.160 my parents, like a lot of migrants, you know, sort 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:41.880 of one of their kids to sort of go to school, 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.400 finish school, university and sort of pursue a more professional 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:49.200 sort of career. So I was the first person. Yeah, 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.680 it was quite amazing. I was the first person, both 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:55.360 on my mother and my father's side, to ever go 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.440 to university. So both on my mother and my father's 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:02.000 side very blue collars sort of backgrounds. And so I 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.880 went to university. I finished with a finance economics degree, 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.040 and I went off and pursued a career in investment banking, 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:09.800 and I went to work for a banker's trust back 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:13.120 in those days, so we're talking sort of early nineties now, 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:18.320 as a junior equities analyst. I'll never forget the first 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:22.000 day that I went to work. I got dressed up 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:26.120 in a suit and a tie, and my mom started 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:28.680 to cry and I was like, oh God, what have 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:30.720 I done something wrong? I have I put my retire wrong, 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.680 I've got something I've dirted my jacket or whatever. But 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:37.520 she was so proud. She'd never seen anybody on her 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:39.279 side of the family ever sort of go to work 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:42.240 in a suit and a tie. And so I pursued 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:46.000 that career, and look, six or seven months into it, 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.080 I loved what I was doing. Six or seven months 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:52.320 into it, something didn't feel right, you know. And I 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:54.520 remember coming home one afternoon because I was still living 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.400 at home at that stage, and I said to my dad, 0:04:57.440 --> 0:04:59.719 I wanted to be a butcher. And at that stage, 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:07.200 my father had been working he was an employee working 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:12.799 for Andrew's Meat and which one Peter Peter. Yeah, Yeah, 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:15.360 he'd been there for twenty five years, working with the 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:19.520 Andrews family. And he was quite shocked. He was quite disappointed, 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:24.359 and he said, no way, you know, look at you. 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.120 You know, You've started on this amazing career all that 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:31.520 sort of stuff. But look or wore him down. And 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:34.440 six months later, so in February of nineteen ninety six, 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:38.120 my father and I started our family business in Oxford 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:42.080 Street in Darlinghurst, just around the corner here, and that's 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:44.919 how vix Meat started, and that's how I entered the 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:48.960 meat industry. And like they say, the apple obviously doesn't 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.000 forll far from the tree, despite this sort of detour 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:56.000 that I took. And I'm very grateful for my education 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.520 and my background, and you know, the sort of six 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:01.440 or seven months that I spent in investment banking. But 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:07.520 you know, when you've got a family tradition, and when 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:10.920 you've got somebody like my father who's dedicated his whole life, 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.360 who's so passionate about butchery and meat and all that 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.320 sort of stuff. Yeah, like they say, the apple obviously 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.520 doesn't fall fart minitary, and I inevitably ended up following 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:24.240 in his footsteps and continuing that sort of family tradition. 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:30.120 It's interesting young people, boys and girls who go off 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:33.880 because the family is largely, especially micro families largely try 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:37.839 to influence them to be what the parents consider to 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.640 be a better lifestyle, better than what the parents have. 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.640 But the kids, it doesn't matter what the parents say, 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:48.520 it's no matter what the parents do, and that I 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:52.000 think influences all of us. So if you go back 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.960 and when you're a little kid, not of the roosters, 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:59.440 but a little kid watching your dad whilst you're at school. 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:02.360 Of the things you remember about your dad as a butcher, 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:04.880 like sort the things you saw. Nobody said, but the 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:05.560 things you saw. 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:09.640 Yeah, you're so right about that. Yeah, there's definitely that. 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:12.840 You know, my parents wanted me to go in a 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.840 certain direction, but it was the things that I observed 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:18.800 them doing that have lived with me to this day. 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:23.760 And some of those things are work ethic. What does 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:27.880 that mean to you? It means everything. You know. I 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:32.080 watched my father get up at one o'clock every morning, 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:34.600 as he has for the last fifty five years, were 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.400 taking me through the lifestyle of a butcher. Yeah, it's 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:40.920 bloody tough. You know, early starts. Where does early start 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:44.680 mean that? I mean my father, I mean and for 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.440 a big part of my career. Also, I've been doing 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.400 what I've been doing for thirty years. Mark, you're up 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:52.320 at sort of one one thirty in the morning. Why 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:54.400 your day starts at two two thirty in the morning, 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.800 because you know that's when the deliveries come in. There's 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:02.480 an expectation from our customers that their meat arrives at eight, 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:06.600 nine o'clock in the morning. Our business is proudly supplied 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:10.080 and delivered to the best chefs, the best restaurants, the 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:13.720 best venues, the most well regarded chefs and restaurants in 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.920 the country. And they've got very high expectations not only 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:21.160 in terms of quality and consistency, but also service. And 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:23.240 they're open for lunch a lot of these places, and 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.200 they need to meet there early in order to be 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:26.960 able to prepare it and get ready for lunch and 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:29.200 dinner and all that sort of stuff. So in order 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.040 to be able to fulfill those orders, in order to 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:34.680 be able to fulfill them at a high standard, you 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:37.280 need to start day really really early. You need to 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:39.840 receive that meet in, you need to prepare it, pack it, 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:43.400 deliver it, all that sort of stuff. So, yeah, your 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:45.880 day starts a sort of two two thirty in the morning. 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:49.920 It's not negotiable because if you don't start your day 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:53.400 at that time in the morning, you just won't be 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:56.000 able to sort of meet those expectations and get those 0:08:56.040 --> 0:09:00.000 deliveries out on time, all of those sort of things. 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.679 That's the life of a butcher, and most butchers, and 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:07.559 even in meat retailing, most butchers start their morning or 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:09.680 start their day at sort of five or six o'clock 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:12.880 in the morning. It's a little bit more civil in retail, okay, 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:14.720 but it's retail being like a shop front. Yeah, like 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.280 a shopfront, like your local neighborhood sort of butcher shop. 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:20.720 So your day starts really all early, whether you're wholesaling 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:25.160 or retailing. So that work ethic, that ability to be 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:29.839 able to you know, be disciplined enough, be motivated enough 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:34.480 to get your us out of bed at that time 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:37.240 of the morning, rain, haler shine, whether it's sort of 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.840 five degrees outside, whether it's you know, fifteen degrees outside, 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:45.840 whether it's raining, whatever it might be. Yeah, there's an 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:51.079 enormous amount of discipline, motivation, drive, determination that you need 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:51.640 to sort of have. 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:54.680 Well, that's a very interesting thing to say that because 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:57.720 you know, you guys, vix Meats are very successful, and 0:09:57.800 --> 0:09:59.240 you know you've got a great, big business and you 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.040 do got lots of big customers, well known customers, and 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:04.800 you know it's not just a nothing wrong with just 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:05.440 a butcher shop. 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:09.000 But it's a big deal, okay, And you're talking about 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:09.520 work ethic. 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:12.440 There are two words to sort of go together get 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:16.600 thrown around a lot, But do you see it actually 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:21.160 as an ethic. In other words, working hard is part 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:23.800 of your fundamentals, as opposed to you need to do 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:25.080 it for your job, for your business. 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:25.360 I get. 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:27.200 I get that bit because you know, in the competitive 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:29.360 world you've got to give service and blah blah bah, 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:30.800 there's the expectations of the customer. 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:31.320 I get all that. 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:33.720 But do you do it because of that or do 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:35.600 you do it because it's just an ethic of yours 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:37.560 that you saw as a kid growing up. In other words, 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:39.800 because they like for me, I mean, I'm the same 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:42.840 sort of not we want butchers, but like I had 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:45.600 the same thing going growing up, as there's an ethic 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:48.040 of hard work that my old man I watched my 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:50.559 my dad do. In fact, we used to clean butcher 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.400 shops on Satday afternoons. We had a datat a cleaning business, 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.480 and as well as these other jobs, but we used 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.199 to clean butcher shops at about two o'clock. 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:00.840 We had two which shops we used. 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:02.680 To clean this to go and get all the saw 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:05.360 dust and clean the wood thing that you cut the 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:08.920 meat up on. Yeah, and put more saw dust down 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:10.520 and all that sort of stuff. I will school type 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.600 of cleaning, but but they're sort of bit of a side. 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.800 But the work ethic and I don't know if people 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:20.200 understand this that well, but the work ethic is not 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:22.679 because of the expectations of the people you're dealing with, 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:24.720 but it's actually an ethic. 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:27.520 That's inside you. Yeah. And where do you get that from? 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:30.520 Like I mean you And if let's say someone didn't 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.920 grasp with that, Let's say their parents are lazy motherfuckers. 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:34.440 And. 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:37.720 Where how do you do How does someone develop that 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:40.520 if they haven't experienced it or seen it as opposed 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:41.040 being told. 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:44.040 I think it's what I might say next might be 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:48.240 slightly controversial because I think everybody's got the ability to 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:51.520 work hard, okay, But then there's a difference between working 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:54.080 hard and exactly what you just said and ethic. You know, 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:57.200 something that's inside you, ye, something that dry I've got 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:00.840 to work hard, yeah, yeah, And I think that comes 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:06.040 from certain generations and if you look at our parents, 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:10.160 if we look at our grandparents, those humble beginnings, the 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:15.320 need to have to fight every day just to survive, Yeah, 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:19.040 just to survive, I think is something that becomes ingrained 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:25.520 in you, okay, And unfortunately that doesn't seem to exist 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:28.559 to the same level and extent nowadays. 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.200 And do you put that and do you put that 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:34.120 down to I'm just it's a little bit off topic, 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:35.920 but do you put that down to because I don't 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:41.719 blame the let's call it the younger generation, because they 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:44.680 haven't had to be that way, because because Australia has 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:49.360 become quite wealthy, and Australians generally speaking, parents in fact 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:52.840 for that matter, have become relatively speaking wealthy, especially relative 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:54.440 to the rest of the world, and as a result 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:56.959 of that, there hasn't been the need to work that hard, 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.880 more so these days, and therefore they've never really experienced 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.200 it them. And I often said to people, like, we've 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:08.319 had ridiculously low unemployment numbers for so long. 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:10.560 It doesn't matter who you are. You can get a 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:13.040 job and you can get good money. You can get 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.320 forty five bucks. In Nouri, we're cleaning cleaner. 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.040 Yeah, I mean we have cleaners were getting fifty bucks 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:22.160 an hour, whereas cleaner used to be lucky to about 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:22.560 to pull. 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:23.200 Twenty bucks an hour. 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.080 And it's great money, Like fifty bucks an hour forty hours, 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:27.480 that's two thousand bucks a week. 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:29.440 And if you want to work that day Sunday, you 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:33.360 can probably push it up to three. Yeah, yeah, totally, 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:37.160 Like that's crazy money hunt fifty grand a year. Yeah, 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:41.920 I mean, I wholeheartedly agree with that. You know, it's 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:46.480 that struggle, that fight, that humility. You know, you love boxing. 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:50.240 I love boxing. You look at the background of most boxes, right, 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:55.560 they come from hard backgrounds, slums, poor backgrounds. Manny Pacauer, 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:58.400 Mike Tyson, all the greatest fighters in the world had 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:02.800 these really tough, humble struggle, all that sort of stuff, 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:06.920 and that is that environment that builds resilience, it builds 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.360 the termination all that sort of stuff. Look, I've got 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:12.560 four of my own kids. They're great kids, Okay, But 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.960 to your point, I've probably not set them up for 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:20.200 success because I have provided you know this, well you 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.080 didn't have yeah yeah, yeah, this comfortable environment, you know 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:25.200 what I mean, where they don't have to struggle, where 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:28.360 they don't have to fight. So you're torn as a parent, right, 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.520 because you want to provide your kids the best starting life, 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:37.200 but by default you're probably harming their ability to reach 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:42.120 their full potential or understand the importance of hard work, sacrifice, 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:45.560 all the sort of things that our parents and our 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:47.960 grandparents and all that sort of stuff had to do so. 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:52.400 For example, did your parents like we're in these suburbs 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:54.880 here at the moment, but like, but by the way, 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:56.120 it happens to be in the North Shore. 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:57.680 And in fact there's a lot of. 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:01.120 Wealthy people out the west as well, a lot. All 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:06.480 everybody ever talks about is it's European summer. Who's going 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:08.440 to Europe for the summer? Like did you ever see 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:11.120 your mom and dad take European holidays every year and 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.960 go to you know, in your case Croatia or you know, 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:16.520 my case Grease, Like just mean everyone I know who's 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:19.000 going to Greece? Like and I and psked me, are 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:20.600 you going agress? I say no, which is working, Like 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:24.400 I've got to work, and I do it because that's 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:26.480 how my dad was. And I'm not trying to I'm 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:28.120 not hero. I don't get me wrong. I'm not trying 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:30.600 to say that about himself. It's just what I know. 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:32.800 You'd be the same. 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:33.160 You can't. 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.440 You can't just get up and piss off and leave 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:38.200 your business loan and say oh, let's go on a 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:40.800 Maybe you do from time time, but it's not a 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:42.080 it's not an expectation. 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:46.960 Yeah, sacrifices have to be made and growing up, I 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.080 you know, I went without the things I wanted, never 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:52.960 went without the things I needed. So my parents provided 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.720 me everything that I needed. Food, roof of my head, 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:59.880 warm bed, yeah, a warm bed, I loving, caring, environmental, 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:03.560 those sort of things. But I wanted the latest sneakers, 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:05.720 you know what I mean, back in the day Jordan's 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:07.680 used to come out all that sort of stuff. I 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:10.600 wanted it. I never got it. My parents couldn't afford it, right, 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:13.200 and I couldn't, you know, going to Europe. And I 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:16.640 did remember going to Europe once or twice up to 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:19.240 the age of eighteen. It's not an expectation, no, no, 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:22.520 it was. It happened my mark every sort of maybe 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:25.200 seven or eight one years, you know what I mean. 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:29.400 Whereas there's an expectation nowadays that we're going out a 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:32.640 European trip. Yeah, yeah, every summer we're going to escape 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:34.440 the winter here and we're going to go to Europe 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:34.920 type thing. 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:38.000 So if you're so, if you're doing the startups, there's 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:39.720 lots of startups around, we know, lots and lots and 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:41.000 lots of them. 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:42.880 I we're talking about the work ethic. 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:46.480 What would you say to a startup about how they've 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:48.120 got to get a hit their head around, how hard 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.840 you got to work to succeed as a startup. 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.400 The main message for me is there are going to 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:57.880 be times where you're going to doubt yourself, where you're 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:01.720 gonna you know, you have to keep your foot on 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.880 that pedal NonStop twenty four to seven, and you need 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.359 to embrace the suck. You need to eat dirt, you 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.600 need to be humble. You just need to just shovel shit, 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:15.040 you know what I mean. There's no secrets, there's no shortcuts, 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:18.119 there's no you know, and everybody talks about it. You know, 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:21.919 you're successful, You're an overnight success. It just took your 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:24.320 twenty years to sort of enjoy that sort of success. 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:28.160 You know. There's just no secrets to it. Mark, It's 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:33.760 just commitment, dedications, sacrifice. You know. I remember the first 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:37.919 decade that my father and I started our business. I 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:40.800 was still in my twenties. You know. My friends were 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:46.200 finishing school, had sort of were unmarried. They were going out, clubbing, partying, 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:49.119 all that sort of stuff. I couldn't. I couldn't do it. 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:51.800 I could afford to do it. I could have done it, 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:54.399 but it meant consequences, you know what I mean, Like 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:55.960 I wouldn't be able to get out of bed, or 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:57.879 I wouldn't be able to perform at my best, all 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.639 that sort of stuff. It's those sacrifice is that you 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.760 have to make that are inevitably going to sort of 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:06.359 lead to the success that you are going to enjoy. 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:09.760 But that success won't happen overnight. That success might happen 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.320 in five years, ten years, fifteen years, twenty years, whatever 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:15.600 it might be. Can you remember time? 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:17.000 I'm going to get to break in a second, but 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:20.000 I really curious do you remember it. I'm sure there's 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:22.040 many more than one, But can you remember any one 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:24.440 time that you thought to yourself and your dad and 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:26.480 your talks, and my god, this is not going to work. 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:29.600 You know, this is too bloody difficult to break into 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:34.119 this particular market. Maybe we made it, We made a 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:35.960 mistake in this whole endeavor. 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:41.480 Yeah, there was a time. And I don't share this 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:44.080 and I don't speak about it openly because I'm a 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:46.320 little bit I was a little bit embarrassed about it, 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.560 especially early on. But when my father and I first 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:55.679 started our family business, we started in a retail butcher 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:58.399 shop in Oxford and Street and darling Hosts. So my 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:01.920 father came from a wholesale background with Andrews. But our 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.960 first business was this retail butcher shop in Oxford Street. 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:08.640 So we started as a retailer and we were failing 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:11.880 miserably as a retailer. What do you mean by that? 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:14.840 So Oxford Street Darlinghurst if you sort of think about 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:17.600 Oxford Street Darlinghurst in the late nineties, so ninety six, 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:22.200 the late nineties, Oxford Street Darlinghurst was like Norton Street 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:24.159 in like art was in each street, so door to 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.879 door restaurants, the Balkan restaurants, all that sort of stuff. 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:30.000 Even sort of Victoria Street Darlinghurst, Morgan's where we are 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:33.679 now whatever, it was just cafe restaurants whatever. It was booming, okay, 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.800 But Oxford Street and Darlinghurst was sort of you know, 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:40.000 and it is the sort of gay capital of Australia. 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:45.080 So single income or double income, no kids, no families 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:47.920 in that sort of area, so money just yeah. Yeah. 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.520 So they were going out and eating in restaurants. They 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:54.360 weren't cooking at home. So we opened or took over 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:56.679 this retail butcher shop and there was no customers there 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:59.040 was no families. There was nobody sort of shopping in 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.520 that sort of area for meat. And sort of a 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:04.960 few months went by and we were thinking, Jesus, have 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:07.359 we made a mistake here? You know, we weren't making 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.760 any money. There was barely a half a dozen customers 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:13.800 that were sort of walking through the door. And it 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:16.800 wasn't until you know, and once again you're back against 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:18.399 the wall. So what do you do? You sort of 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:20.359 you know, you need to think laterally, you need to 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:22.600 think out the side of the square. You need to survive. 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:26.400 My parents had put their life savings into this business. 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:28.560 And I looked at the front door and I saw 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.680 all of these restaurants, and I just started knocking on doors, 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:34.680 you know, I started, you know, approaching these cafes and 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:38.320 restaurants and saying, hey, you know, I'm Anthony from VIX Meat. 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:41.840 We're a local butcher here in Oxford Street and Darlinghurst. 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:45.320 You must use meat. What about using a local butcher? 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:47.879 And that's how our wholesale business started. That was the 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:52.119 turning point, our turning point for our business and ultimately 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:54.840 what set us on the path that we ultimately were 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:59.640 able to create this successful, highly regarded business. Was because 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:02.800 we failed or we were failing at one thing and 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:05.720 had to pivot and start and go on a different path. 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:10.040 So that was significant for us. The next thing that 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:14.040 really happened that sort of you know, elevated us and 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:16.679 shot us to this sort of next plateau or level 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:20.480 was Level forty one restaurant. I'm sure you'll remember, yeah, 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:23.880 building Alan's. It was meant to be Alan Bond's apartment 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:26.639 now called chiff Tower now Chiffley Tower there, yeah, And 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.480 and it was where you know, the likes of Kerry 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:32.520 Packer used to go and have lunch and all that 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:34.520 sort of stuff, and it was an impossible place to 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:39.679 get into and I'll never forget. So we started to 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:41.320 sort of dig ourselves out of a bit of a 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:44.680 hole that my father and our find ourselves in. We're 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:50.480 dealing with Cafe one nine one, Morgan's, Grand Pacific, Blue Room, Raquel's, 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:52.560 the Boalkan restaurants. So we started to get a bit 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:56.200 momentum with these restaurants. And my father was very very 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.479 passionate about awful. So you know, all the stuff that 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:02.520 most people they like to eat, you know, livers, swear, 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:06.320 good wog food, no peasant food. Yeah, so my parents, 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:10.280 my father's upbringing, he couldn't his family couldn't afford, you know, 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:12.040 all the prime cuts. So it was all of this 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:13.960 sort of offul and all that sort of stuff that 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:18.000 he was raised his livers, you know, sweetbreads, all that 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:24.000 sort of stuff. Yeah, and my father proudly always used 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:27.639 to display this tray of offul in the and for 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:31.240 six months, nobody'd come into the shop and buy it, 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:33.600 you know, so every single day we'd have to throw 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:36.840 it out, and religiously my father would the next day 0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:40.240 set up a new display. And I remember, I remember 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:42.919 I was down the back of the shop doing something, 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:46.080 and I remember the bell ringing on the door. Somebody 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:48.439 walked in and my dad having a conversation with somebody 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:51.879 about awful okay, and sweetbreads and all that sort of stuff. Anyway, 0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:53.679 I didn't make much of it because I thought myself, 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:56.880 you know, he hasn't sold any offl for six months. 0:22:56.880 --> 0:22:59.800 He's not going to sell any today. Anyway, the next day, 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:03.719 so I pick it up. And you know when somebody 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:06.000 sort of says their name in a way that you're 0:23:06.040 --> 0:23:08.879 meant to know who they are. Yeah, So it was, 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:11.639 you know, he introduced himself, Hi, this is Dip mar Soyer. 0:23:11.800 --> 0:23:14.200 And then there was this uncomfortable sort of pause or whatever, 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:16.720 because I didn't know who this guy was. Anyway, Look, 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:20.600 I'm the chef of executive chef of Level forty one restaurant. 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:24.520 I was in your shop yesterday, okay, and I bought 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:28.560 some Ville sweetbreads. And then I was, oh, you're the guy, 0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:29.960 you know, because he was the only guy in the 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:32.119 last six months that walked into the shop and bought 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:35.359 some off or And he goes, look, I've got this restaurant. 0:23:36.240 --> 0:23:41.080 It's in the city, and you know, do you sell 0:23:41.240 --> 0:23:43.800 fresh chicken bones? And I thought it was a really 0:23:43.840 --> 0:23:46.080 weird thing for him to ask, because fresh chicken bones 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:49.320 are pretty basic, pretty simple, you know. I was like, yeah, 0:23:49.320 --> 0:23:50.879 we can get fresh chicken bones. Oh would you be 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:53.560 able to sort of supply sixty kilos of fresh chicken 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:56.560 bones to my restaurant every day? And I was like, yeah, 0:23:56.600 --> 0:23:59.320 that's no problems. Not the biggest sale I was ever 0:23:59.320 --> 0:24:00.720 going to make. I think think it was like a 0:24:00.760 --> 0:24:04.600 fifteen dollar sale or whatever. Anyway, I got off the phone. 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:06.920 Dad asked me, oh, who's that on the phone. I goes, oh, Dad, 0:24:06.920 --> 0:24:08.520 that was that guy that came in yesterday and put 0:24:08.520 --> 0:24:11.520 some Ville sweetrests for you. Oh right, great, I remember him. 0:24:11.720 --> 0:24:13.560 What does he need? He owns a restaurant in the city. 0:24:13.600 --> 0:24:15.760 He wants sixty kill our chicken bones. My dad's eyes 0:24:15.840 --> 0:24:19.080 rolled over because it was like a fifteen dollar sale. Now, 0:24:19.119 --> 0:24:21.359 the big issue that I had was I didn't have 0:24:21.359 --> 0:24:24.280 a delivery van at that stage. I was making deliveries 0:24:24.359 --> 0:24:26.520 up and down Oxford Street with a trolley. That's all 0:24:26.520 --> 0:24:28.600 I needed, you know. So all of our customers were 0:24:28.640 --> 0:24:30.800 in Oxtra Street, so I was I was doing these 0:24:30.800 --> 0:24:33.879 deliveries with a trolley running up and down Oxrad Street. 0:24:34.000 --> 0:24:36.679 So we didn't have a delivery van. So that afternoon 0:24:36.840 --> 0:24:38.760 there's a bit of a pattern here of me twisting 0:24:38.800 --> 0:24:42.520 my dad's arm and convincing him to do silly, stupid things, okay, 0:24:43.400 --> 0:24:46.520 over our thirty year career. That afternoon we found ourselves 0:24:46.520 --> 0:24:51.200 on Paramatter Road in in you know where Paramounter Raid 0:24:51.240 --> 0:24:53.159 in Paramatta where that you know it used to be 0:24:53.160 --> 0:24:54.720 all the sort of car yards and all that sort 0:24:54.720 --> 0:24:57.439 of stuff. And I convinced my dad to buy a 0:24:57.480 --> 0:25:01.760 fifteen thousand dollars delivery van and for a fifteen dollar 0:25:01.880 --> 0:25:03.920 delivery to Level forty one restaurant. 0:25:04.040 --> 0:25:04.240 You know. 0:25:04.840 --> 0:25:09.199 Anyway, the next morning made the delivery, fighting traffic the 0:25:09.240 --> 0:25:11.560 whole you know, there and back. Took me about an 0:25:11.600 --> 0:25:14.560 hour and a half of my time. We made a 0:25:14.600 --> 0:25:17.560 fifteen thousand dollars investment in this van for a fifteen 0:25:17.640 --> 0:25:21.240 dollar sale. Okay, anyway, For the next three or four months, 0:25:21.320 --> 0:25:23.840 that's all we supplied Dip Marsayer and Level forty one 0:25:23.960 --> 0:25:27.199 restaurant sixty kilos of fresh chicken bones. Okay. But I 0:25:27.280 --> 0:25:30.119 stuck at it, and three months later ditmar rang up. 0:25:30.160 --> 0:25:31.800 It must have been a test. I'm thinking it was 0:25:31.840 --> 0:25:35.359 maybe a test to see how committed we were to 0:25:35.440 --> 0:25:38.159 sort of supplying him, being a supplier of his or whatever. 0:25:38.640 --> 0:25:40.760 Three or four months later he rang up. He goes, oh, 0:25:40.840 --> 0:25:43.320 do you do anything other than chicken bones? And I 0:25:43.359 --> 0:25:45.359 was like, oh, man, yeah, yeah, of course we do, 0:25:45.440 --> 0:25:49.120 you know, beeflam or whatever. Within a couple of months, 0:25:49.200 --> 0:25:52.760 he was spending fifteen thousand dollars a week with us, okay, 0:25:53.080 --> 0:25:57.199 which was more than fifty percent of our overall revenue 0:25:57.280 --> 0:26:02.760 every single week. And beyond the mark, you know, the 0:26:02.760 --> 0:26:06.919 credibility that it gave our business dealing with eleven forty. 0:26:07.080 --> 0:26:10.959 I was able then to introduce myself to Michael McMahon 0:26:11.000 --> 0:26:16.000 att Catalina, Neil Perry at Rockpool Tetsuyer Rosel and from 0:26:16.040 --> 0:26:18.560 there the momentum just grew. You know, I was able 0:26:18.600 --> 0:26:21.360 to sort of build this business based on the fact 0:26:21.400 --> 0:26:23.919 that we were servicing, supplying the best chefs and the 0:26:23.920 --> 0:26:25.080 best restaurants in the country. 0:26:25.080 --> 0:26:27.520 And that's this history, and that's an important lesson. So 0:26:28.320 --> 0:26:30.720 you sometimes you've got to just work at work, at work, 0:26:30.720 --> 0:26:33.760 at hangout to get one good proxy, one good reference 0:26:33.800 --> 0:26:36.479 point about the quality of your product and the service, 0:26:37.160 --> 0:26:39.760 and it doesn't matter. Sometimes it might take a year 0:26:39.800 --> 0:26:41.840 to do it, but no, it doesn't matter what the 0:26:41.840 --> 0:26:45.360 business is. But that one proxy, that one reference point, 0:26:45.720 --> 0:26:48.639 assuming you do a good job, then becomes a launching 0:26:48.640 --> 0:26:50.960 pad which you can leverage into like stacks of other 0:26:51.000 --> 0:26:53.960 customers and or clients. And sometimes we try to chase 0:26:54.000 --> 0:26:56.399 too many, especially in the startup world, we try to 0:26:56.480 --> 0:26:59.240 chase too many. We don't concentrate anyone in particular. 0:26:59.440 --> 0:27:01.919 We just got to choose one and go hard for it. 0:27:01.960 --> 0:27:04.639 Assuming you know that you can achieve, you think you're 0:27:04.680 --> 0:27:06.639 can achieve it, you just go hard for it until 0:27:06.680 --> 0:27:08.800 you get there. I quickly want to just be going 0:27:08.840 --> 0:27:10.520 together break. But before I go to the break, anything, 0:27:10.800 --> 0:27:14.120 just one thing for anyone who's listening. As I recall 0:27:14.320 --> 0:27:17.680 sweetbreads is sort of like a fatty bit of meat 0:27:17.680 --> 0:27:19.359 that sort of sits behind the neck or something like that. 0:27:19.440 --> 0:27:22.159 It's a gland. That is a gland that sits in 0:27:22.200 --> 0:27:26.320 the throat. Describe it. Yeah, there's not many people would 0:27:26.280 --> 0:27:29.119 have had it. Yeah, and it's bloody delicious. It's a delicacy. 0:27:29.160 --> 0:27:32.240 It doesn't sound very sexy or very appetizing, but it's 0:27:32.280 --> 0:27:37.040 a delicacy. So it's a gland, okay. And how you 0:27:37.040 --> 0:27:39.520 sort of prepare it your sort of you know, you 0:27:39.600 --> 0:27:41.879 soak it in milk, okay, and that sort of gets 0:27:41.880 --> 0:27:43.800 all rid of all the sort of the blood and 0:27:43.840 --> 0:27:45.639 all that sort of stuff in it, and then you 0:27:45.680 --> 0:27:48.320 fry them, okay, And you fry them and they're sort 0:27:48.320 --> 0:27:54.520 of just this pillowy, sort of soft it's like fatty. 0:27:54.560 --> 0:27:57.640 It's nearly fatty, but it's not fatty. Yeah, yeah, it's Yeah, 0:27:57.680 --> 0:28:01.840 it has that fatty sort of texture about it, but 0:28:01.880 --> 0:28:04.159 it's not fat it's this sort of gland. It's very 0:28:04.200 --> 0:28:06.560 hard to sort of explain. Greeks love it. Yeah, Greek. 0:28:06.560 --> 0:28:07.960 The Greek people love it. I mean a lot of 0:28:08.000 --> 0:28:12.040 Europeans love it. You only get too I guess, get. 0:28:11.840 --> 0:28:14.960 Too per animal. Yeah, and they're tiny, they're barely sort 0:28:14.960 --> 0:28:17.280 of fifty or sixty grams each, you know. Yeah, I've 0:28:17.280 --> 0:28:17.600 had him. 0:28:17.600 --> 0:28:19.000 I've had him in a Greek restaurant that I used 0:28:19.000 --> 0:28:21.600 to go to a place called the Ness Meant for 0:28:21.680 --> 0:28:24.639 many many years, they used to I haven't seen sweet 0:28:24.680 --> 0:28:27.760 breads anywhere for a long long time, but as I recorded, 0:28:28.000 --> 0:28:30.880 they were crumbed ones I had, and they were really delicious. 0:28:30.880 --> 0:28:33.720 But also know that they were probably a little bit 0:28:33.720 --> 0:28:35.360 fatty because that's what I used to away order every 0:28:35.359 --> 0:28:35.800 time I went there. 0:28:35.880 --> 0:28:38.960 Yeah, but they got the same texture as lambranes. Yeah, 0:28:39.320 --> 0:28:43.120 people have tried. Yeah. Soft, but it's a delicate yeah. Yeah, 0:28:43.240 --> 0:28:46.440 but it's a super food also, so beyond being a delicacy. 0:28:46.480 --> 0:28:49.360 And it's a superfood because awful is you know in 0:28:49.440 --> 0:28:52.920 terms of nutrients and how nutrient dense they are and 0:28:52.960 --> 0:28:54.440 all that sort of stuff. I don't want to go 0:28:54.520 --> 0:28:57.320 down this path, No, I want to go. It's been 0:28:57.320 --> 0:29:00.840 demonized for a while or whatever, but it's a super food. 0:29:00.880 --> 0:29:04.280 You know. It's a fundamental building block to sort of 0:29:04.320 --> 0:29:10.760 having a highly nutritious, healthy diet, you know, and offl 0:29:11.000 --> 0:29:13.240 is the next level of that in terms of how 0:29:13.360 --> 0:29:15.719 nutrient dens it is and how good it is. So 0:29:15.960 --> 0:29:19.880 you can have one hundred grams of veal liver, for instance, okay, 0:29:20.120 --> 0:29:22.760 and that's as good as having four hundred grams of 0:29:24.040 --> 0:29:26.600 or three hundred grams of beef or lamb or whatever. 0:29:27.360 --> 0:29:31.480 You need to eat one hundred kilos of kale, okay, 0:29:31.800 --> 0:29:34.600 in order to get the same nutrients that you'll get 0:29:34.600 --> 0:29:36.400 out of eating one hundred grams or one hundred and 0:29:36.440 --> 0:29:38.360 fifty grams of your liver. You know, I want to 0:29:38.360 --> 0:29:40.360 talk more about this. Let's go. The break comes straight back. 0:29:47.520 --> 0:29:48.360 I'm back from the break. 0:29:48.360 --> 0:29:51.000 I'm here with Anthony and we are talking all things 0:29:51.000 --> 0:29:51.760 at vix Meats. 0:29:52.120 --> 0:29:52.480 That would. 0:29:53.200 --> 0:29:56.040 I really appreciate the story and how you and your 0:29:56.120 --> 0:29:57.760 dad said this business up in the mid nineties, and 0:29:58.440 --> 0:30:01.719 actually how you've first worked out out supplying wholesale. At 0:30:01.720 --> 0:30:04.640 wholesale is probably better than supplying a retail and that 0:30:04.760 --> 0:30:06.600 was sort of forced upon it. That was a great pivot, 0:30:06.960 --> 0:30:09.120 and we all have to do pivots every now and then, 0:30:09.680 --> 0:30:12.000 let me just let's just have a little think about 0:30:12.080 --> 0:30:16.080 now the meat industry as a as an industry, so 0:30:17.600 --> 0:30:19.920 there is, like everything in the world these days, is 0:30:19.920 --> 0:30:23.520 a division between meat eaters and non meaders. Once upon 0:30:23.520 --> 0:30:25.080 a time you never heard from a non meat eater. 0:30:25.840 --> 0:30:27.560 Then I'm not going to call them vegans, where just 0:30:28.120 --> 0:30:28.920 a non meat eater. 0:30:30.760 --> 0:30:33.840 But there I presume there's enough meat eaters in the world, 0:30:34.080 --> 0:30:36.400 and it's not something you're concerned about that meat will 0:30:36.440 --> 0:30:40.640 become one of those things that we stop consuming, irrespective 0:30:40.720 --> 0:30:42.880 you know, all the stuff they're talking about, you know, 0:30:43.000 --> 0:30:46.400 animals creating meat, cows creating meat, and all those sorts 0:30:46.400 --> 0:30:50.400 of things. We're sure position on that. So let's leave 0:30:50.480 --> 0:30:53.200 nutrition aside from moment just as an industry. 0:30:53.760 --> 0:30:58.080 I'm deeply respectful of the fact that everybody has a choice, 0:30:58.160 --> 0:31:03.800 you know, and for me, I don't I don't want to. 0:31:04.120 --> 0:31:06.680 I'm not going to deny the fact that the meat 0:31:06.760 --> 0:31:11.440 industry as a whole needs to take some serious responsibility 0:31:11.640 --> 0:31:16.440 in and around its impact on the environment. Okay, and yeah, 0:31:16.720 --> 0:31:21.240 methane production and you know, cows belching and farting and 0:31:21.280 --> 0:31:24.640 all that sort of stuff. The production of meat in 0:31:24.720 --> 0:31:27.360 terms of its energy and water usage, all that sort 0:31:27.360 --> 0:31:30.960 of stuff. I think every industry, not just the meat industry, 0:31:31.160 --> 0:31:34.560 needs to take a good look in terms of what 0:31:34.800 --> 0:31:38.920 ultimate impact that it has on the environment. I know that. 0:31:39.760 --> 0:31:44.000 You know there was this period you know what was it. 0:31:44.000 --> 0:31:47.960 It was it was sort of probably just before COVID, 0:31:48.040 --> 0:31:53.880 you know, where meat was demonized. It was considered not 0:31:54.000 --> 0:31:56.400 good for you in terms of your health and well being. 0:31:57.240 --> 0:31:59.960 It was it was considered one of the biggest control 0:32:00.000 --> 0:32:05.640 tribute to the deterioration of the environment, the impact on 0:32:05.680 --> 0:32:10.080 the environment, it's carbon footprint, so to speak. That then 0:32:10.280 --> 0:32:15.520 led to this huge interest and explosion in plant based 0:32:15.560 --> 0:32:20.320 meat alternatives. You'll saw companies like Beyond and Impossible just 0:32:20.760 --> 0:32:24.880 come out of nowhere, and you know there's stock prices 0:32:24.920 --> 0:32:28.479 sort of skyrocket and all this buzz around sort of 0:32:28.560 --> 0:32:32.440 plant based meat alternatives. Look, the reality is marked, there's 0:32:32.480 --> 0:32:34.719 going to be nine billion people on this planet by 0:32:34.800 --> 0:32:38.640 twenty fifty. There isn't enough meat. There isn't enough food 0:32:39.200 --> 0:32:42.680 that's going to be able to supply all of those people. 0:32:42.720 --> 0:32:44.920 So the fundamental problem is not enough food. Yeah, yeah, 0:32:44.960 --> 0:32:46.080 so we know where it comes from. 0:32:46.320 --> 0:32:50.720 So I'm completely open to coming up with alternatives, but 0:32:50.800 --> 0:32:54.840 as long as there's transparency in and around those alternatives, 0:32:55.640 --> 0:32:58.360 I think it's all good. But yeah, we need to 0:32:58.400 --> 0:33:01.040 find solutions in terms of how we're going to feed 0:33:01.080 --> 0:33:05.160 the world. Okay, with with with with good quality food? 0:33:05.520 --> 0:33:09.360 Now process food? We know, you know, don't question how 0:33:09.440 --> 0:33:12.680 much good food costs, question how much bad food? How 0:33:12.760 --> 0:33:15.360 cheap bad food is? You know, so the answer isn't 0:33:15.440 --> 0:33:19.000 process food either. You know, there's there's a lot of 0:33:19.040 --> 0:33:23.000 science that that that tells you that that you know, 0:33:23.440 --> 0:33:26.720 plants and animals, you know, vegetables, meat, all that sort 0:33:26.760 --> 0:33:32.080 of stuff are the fundamental building blocks to having a healthy, happy, 0:33:32.560 --> 0:33:35.080 long life. And all of us want to be happy, 0:33:35.200 --> 0:33:37.640 healthy and live a long life. I haven't met anybody 0:33:37.680 --> 0:33:39.840 that wants to be happy and healthy but not live 0:33:39.880 --> 0:33:42.880 a long life or or unhappy, live a long life 0:33:42.960 --> 0:33:45.320 and healthy, you know, all of us want those three things. 0:33:45.720 --> 0:33:48.520 And good food and good quality food is a part 0:33:48.560 --> 0:33:51.719 of that sort of equation. So yeah, Look, the mean 0:33:51.800 --> 0:33:55.360 industry I think has a big part to play in 0:33:55.440 --> 0:33:59.880 terms of feeding the world. Okay, it has to tax 0:34:00.040 --> 0:34:02.959 and responsibility in around its carbon footprint. But then at 0:34:03.000 --> 0:34:06.080 the same time, regenerary farming, okay, is a way that 0:34:06.120 --> 0:34:10.000 we can also improve the environment, because there's it's proven 0:34:10.040 --> 0:34:16.040 that you know, good soil and and and farmland secretes 0:34:16.360 --> 0:34:19.560 carbon out of the environment, you know, and and and 0:34:20.080 --> 0:34:22.880 blocks it locks it, yeah, blocks it, and and it 0:34:22.920 --> 0:34:24.520 locks it in the ground. Yeah, and locks it into 0:34:24.560 --> 0:34:27.120 the ground, just like the ocean does, and seaweed and 0:34:27.160 --> 0:34:29.719 all those sort of things. So so I don't think, 0:34:31.000 --> 0:34:33.439 you know, you can't be sort of you can't say 0:34:33.480 --> 0:34:37.239 that one thing's there's no silver bullet. You know, it's 0:34:37.280 --> 0:34:39.359 a combination of a lot of things that I think, 0:34:39.400 --> 0:34:43.640 I think are going to feed the world in a sustainable, healthy, 0:34:44.000 --> 0:34:47.600 long term way and preserve what's happening in the environment. 0:34:47.960 --> 0:34:50.399 And that's a good balanced way of looking at it. 0:34:50.480 --> 0:34:53.600 So I mean, as a businessman, do you you and 0:34:53.640 --> 0:34:56.040 your father or your family members have to sit down 0:34:56.120 --> 0:34:59.240 and sort of say, what's the prognosis for our industry 0:34:59.320 --> 0:35:02.280 as as a commercial prognosis, you know, like that people 0:35:02.800 --> 0:35:05.800 will continue to buy meat, our meat, your meat in particular, 0:35:07.120 --> 0:35:08.879 do you have to start to pivot around these things, 0:35:08.880 --> 0:35:10.880 because you know, you pivoted back in the night is 0:35:10.920 --> 0:35:13.880 by becoming a supply because retail wasn't working because of 0:35:13.960 --> 0:35:19.040 the geography you or your location. I should say, do 0:35:19.080 --> 0:35:21.839 you see a time at which someone like vix Meats 0:35:21.920 --> 0:35:26.920 might start to even look at alternatives to meet and 0:35:27.280 --> 0:35:29.160 being a supply of alternatives to meet? I mean, is 0:35:29.200 --> 0:35:31.040 that something you would never do or do you just 0:35:31.680 --> 0:35:32.480 or you would consider. 0:35:33.280 --> 0:35:35.960 There's a few things that we've you know, we're open to. 0:35:36.280 --> 0:35:38.880 You know, as a business, we have to continue to 0:35:38.920 --> 0:35:41.839 sort of evolve. We need to be mindful of what's 0:35:41.880 --> 0:35:45.839 happening in terms of trends, so we're always looking at 0:35:45.960 --> 0:35:50.240 many things. We want to remain relevant as a business. 0:35:50.520 --> 0:35:54.680 We want to keep going into the future. But but 0:35:55.000 --> 0:35:58.960 if I can just mention something quickly, to his credit, 0:35:59.360 --> 0:36:02.040 I think my father did a remarkable job of future 0:36:02.080 --> 0:36:07.759 proofing our business in the very very early days, in 0:36:07.800 --> 0:36:09.839 the formative days of our business. And what I mean 0:36:09.880 --> 0:36:12.400 by that is my father. He won't take offense to this. 0:36:12.480 --> 0:36:14.640 My father's not an educated man. He never went to school, 0:36:14.880 --> 0:36:17.319 you know. He school wasn't for him and all that 0:36:17.360 --> 0:36:21.120 sort of stuff. But to his credit, somehow he was 0:36:21.160 --> 0:36:24.600 able to sort of future proof our business. And what 0:36:24.640 --> 0:36:26.760 I mean by that was, I remember when I first 0:36:26.840 --> 0:36:29.200 started and the first day that I started working with 0:36:29.200 --> 0:36:33.160 my father, he told me about the philosophy that's fundamentally 0:36:33.239 --> 0:36:38.359 sort of bound our family of butchers over the last 0:36:38.360 --> 0:36:41.920 sort of four or five generations, and that was that 0:36:42.000 --> 0:36:44.960 as butchers, the ultimate respect that we can show on animals, 0:36:45.000 --> 0:36:47.280 so ultimately, as butcher's we're taking the life of the animal. 0:36:47.520 --> 0:36:50.960 You know, there's no way around that, okay, but the 0:36:51.040 --> 0:36:53.480 ultimate respect that we can show that animal is to 0:36:53.560 --> 0:36:56.600 use every single part of it, okay, not to waste 0:36:56.640 --> 0:36:59.880 any of it. So in terms of being conscious and 0:37:00.400 --> 0:37:04.080 you know, the environment and not and and utilizing everything 0:37:04.120 --> 0:37:07.080 and being sustainable or whatever, my father sort of set 0:37:07.640 --> 0:37:10.880 that that stepping stone in place very early on. So 0:37:10.960 --> 0:37:14.319 as a business, we've been obsessed with making sure that 0:37:14.360 --> 0:37:16.360 we use every single part of the animal, that we 0:37:16.400 --> 0:37:19.400 don't waste it, that we educate our customers in and 0:37:19.400 --> 0:37:22.279 around that there's more to the animal than sort of 0:37:22.280 --> 0:37:24.839 tea bone, scotch field at sirloin and all the sort 0:37:24.880 --> 0:37:28.240 of popular cuts, you know. And we've worked with chefs 0:37:28.239 --> 0:37:30.600 to sort of put all of these what are considered 0:37:30.600 --> 0:37:34.799 to be secondary cuts on menus, to sort of embrace them, 0:37:34.880 --> 0:37:36.839 to celebrate them all that sort of stuff. So that's 0:37:36.920 --> 0:37:39.640 one example of how we continue to sort of drive 0:37:39.680 --> 0:37:43.719 our business forward, remain relevant, and do our bit in 0:37:43.800 --> 0:37:47.240 terms of respecting the craft, the industry, the mean industry 0:37:47.239 --> 0:37:51.520 as a whole protein. You know, look, we're good butchers. 0:37:52.560 --> 0:37:57.600 I don't see ourselves going into into seafood, you know, 0:37:57.920 --> 0:38:01.319 I see that as as a special in itself. I 0:38:01.360 --> 0:38:03.439 think we need to stick to what we're good at. 0:38:04.600 --> 0:38:06.960 We need to sort of be mindful of what's out there, 0:38:07.080 --> 0:38:10.560 We need to investigate. I had conversations with Beyond and 0:38:10.640 --> 0:38:16.280 Impossible Meats, you know, in the late sort of twenty eighteen's, 0:38:16.400 --> 0:38:18.799 you know, seventeens or whatever, and now all that sort 0:38:18.800 --> 0:38:21.400 of happened, and I just wasn't convinced that that was 0:38:21.440 --> 0:38:24.640 the right solution for our business. You know, when you 0:38:24.680 --> 0:38:26.719 looked at a packet of their product and you looked 0:38:26.719 --> 0:38:29.799 at all the ingredients, you couldn't recognize. You needed a 0:38:29.840 --> 0:38:32.400 science degree to be able to recognize. You didn't recognize 0:38:32.480 --> 0:38:35.359 ninety percent of those ingredients. Whereas you look at meat, 0:38:35.440 --> 0:38:38.879 traditional meat, and for me, real is real traditional meat. 0:38:39.200 --> 0:38:41.480 You know, what are the ingredients? It's meat, you know, 0:38:41.520 --> 0:38:45.319 it's grass, it's the sun, it's water. You know, it's 0:38:45.360 --> 0:38:49.280 all natural ingredients that go into producing and raising that product, 0:38:50.160 --> 0:38:52.680 and that's got to be good for you. So we're 0:38:52.719 --> 0:38:58.359 always looking at things trying to evolve, stay ahead. We're 0:38:58.360 --> 0:39:00.560 considered a bit of a market leader in terms of 0:39:00.560 --> 0:39:02.640 what we do within our space. The rest of the 0:39:02.680 --> 0:39:04.719 world sort of looks at our business in terms of, 0:39:05.080 --> 0:39:07.080 you know, what we're doing to sort of continue to 0:39:07.080 --> 0:39:10.399 sort of evolve, grow, diversify all of those sort of things. 0:39:10.560 --> 0:39:13.359 With a lesson before other business owners who are listening 0:39:13.400 --> 0:39:16.719 to this podcast is the lesson that you've got out 0:39:16.760 --> 0:39:22.200 of this is sure, always be open to changes. But 0:39:22.239 --> 0:39:24.640 at the same time, if we're doing something well, stick 0:39:24.640 --> 0:39:25.680 to our lane. 0:39:25.480 --> 0:39:30.200 Totally and that that's in a nutshell how we sort 0:39:30.200 --> 0:39:32.120 of look at our business. You know, we know what 0:39:32.160 --> 0:39:36.080 we're good at. We stick to that. However, we are 0:39:36.120 --> 0:39:40.160 respectful that, you know, there's options out there, There's different 0:39:40.160 --> 0:39:42.399 things happening, So we've got one eye on what's sort 0:39:42.400 --> 0:39:44.879 of happening out there also, and there might be bits 0:39:44.920 --> 0:39:48.360 of it that we sort of embrace pull into our business. 0:39:49.719 --> 0:39:52.200 But I think it's about sticking to what you're good at. 0:39:52.360 --> 0:39:56.640 So got stuck in a whole lot of different things 0:39:56.640 --> 0:39:59.719 areas just in terms of vix mes. Now, so just 0:39:59.760 --> 0:40:03.400 give a bit of a thumbnail sketch of how do 0:40:03.520 --> 0:40:06.320 you are what you do? So I have seen your 0:40:07.000 --> 0:40:09.840 one of your outlets at the fish markets, which is 0:40:09.880 --> 0:40:14.160 you're selling meat that I know. You've got Churchills in 0:40:14.280 --> 0:40:19.399 Wollaro which is very famous shelf front, very very cool 0:40:19.440 --> 0:40:23.080 to go in there. There is a story about Anthony Bourdain. 0:40:23.200 --> 0:40:24.680 He said something about it. Maybe you could tell us 0:40:24.680 --> 0:40:27.919 about that. Well, it gives a thumbnail sketch of what 0:40:28.000 --> 0:40:29.240 you do now like your. 0:40:29.080 --> 0:40:34.040 Group, Yeah, sure, at its heart, our core business, our 0:40:34.080 --> 0:40:37.560 main business, our bread and butter. What we've been able 0:40:37.600 --> 0:40:43.799 to sort of carve out this phenomenal successful reputation out 0:40:43.800 --> 0:40:47.279 of is wholesaling meat, supplying the best chefs and the 0:40:47.320 --> 0:40:51.279 best restaurants and the best venues in the country. That's 0:40:51.280 --> 0:40:54.040 how we built our business. That's how we built our 0:40:54.080 --> 0:40:59.640 reputation pre COVID. And this is a bit of an 0:40:59.680 --> 0:41:02.719 interest in fact, because there's been you know, we've had 0:41:02.760 --> 0:41:05.759 to pivot again as a business post COVID, but pre 0:41:05.920 --> 0:41:08.880 COVID ninety five percent of our you know, we had 0:41:08.880 --> 0:41:11.360 one hundred and twenty million dollar business, employing one hundred 0:41:11.360 --> 0:41:16.640 and twenty staff, supplying six hundred restaurants across the seaboard 0:41:16.719 --> 0:41:21.720 of Australia, so a significant sized business. Ninety five percent 0:41:21.760 --> 0:41:25.720 of our revenue and eighty percent of our profit came 0:41:25.800 --> 0:41:28.880 from that. That that whole saling side of our business. 0:41:29.080 --> 0:41:34.759 Restaurants to restaurants, airlines, Quantas, Crown, the Star, all the 0:41:34.840 --> 0:41:39.360 major five star hotels, the Park, Hied, the Hilton, you know, 0:41:39.600 --> 0:41:43.320 you name it, all the best chefs and restaurants in 0:41:43.400 --> 0:41:47.320 the country. That that that's that that's our core business 0:41:47.360 --> 0:41:52.520 and remains our core business. We then opened up Victor 0:41:52.600 --> 0:41:56.000 Churchill in two thousand and nine in Oxfordshire, in sorry 0:41:56.000 --> 0:42:02.360 in Queen Street in Mallara. Are very ambitious, a very ambitious, 0:42:02.520 --> 0:42:08.200 high end bespoke retail meat experience. I might add that 0:42:08.239 --> 0:42:12.560 we opened it during the GFC or you know, when 0:42:12.600 --> 0:42:15.359 the world was in meltdown and the banking industries in mental, 0:42:15.520 --> 0:42:19.239 so a very difficult sort of period and time, and 0:42:19.280 --> 0:42:21.919 we were aping up the most expensive butcher shop that's 0:42:21.920 --> 0:42:24.799 ever been built in the world, and that's gone on 0:42:24.840 --> 0:42:30.280 to phenomenal success. Yes, Anthony Bourdain Oprah Winfrey, who Jackman, 0:42:30.320 --> 0:42:33.040 you name it. It's been a bit of a destination 0:42:33.239 --> 0:42:35.520 for people to sort of come and visit and come 0:42:35.560 --> 0:42:40.160 and have a look at. Anthony Bordein famously referred to 0:42:40.239 --> 0:42:42.640 it as the best and the most beautiful butcher shop 0:42:42.640 --> 0:42:48.040 in the world. Very humbling. We then to throw a 0:42:48.080 --> 0:42:51.400 cat amongst the pigeons or a tea ban amongst the salmon. 0:42:52.760 --> 0:42:56.239 Ten years ago we opened up a VIX branded a 0:42:56.280 --> 0:42:58.640 Vix Meat branded retail store at the Sydney Fish Market, 0:42:58.719 --> 0:43:02.840 so the biggest fish markets in the Southern Hemisphere in 0:43:03.800 --> 0:43:08.279 redness for the major redevelopment of that. But despite those 0:43:08.320 --> 0:43:12.080 two quite successful stores pre COVID, they still made up 0:43:12.120 --> 0:43:16.839 a small percentage of our overall business. Then COVID hit 0:43:18.440 --> 0:43:23.760 and percent my revenue came from wholesaling, to restaurants, to cafes, 0:43:23.800 --> 0:43:27.279 to hotels and airlines. When COVID hit and all of 0:43:27.320 --> 0:43:31.360 those places were forced to close, I literally Mark watched 0:43:31.360 --> 0:43:33.880 my business okay, and one hundred and twenty million dollars 0:43:33.920 --> 0:43:38.560 of revenue. I saw it fall off a cliff, you know, overnight. 0:43:41.400 --> 0:43:43.360 But like I alluded to earlier, there's a lot of 0:43:43.360 --> 0:43:47.359 fight in our business. And in our family, we never 0:43:47.440 --> 0:43:53.319 go down without a fight, without throwing punches, whether we're 0:43:53.320 --> 0:43:59.359 winning or losing. And our pivot our way of digging ourselves. 0:43:59.440 --> 0:44:01.959 We had five or six million dollars worth of meat 0:44:02.040 --> 0:44:06.680 sitting in our warehouse, in our core room. We had 0:44:06.719 --> 0:44:10.719 another six or seven million dollars of debtors so you know, 0:44:10.760 --> 0:44:14.320 twelve new money, yeah, twelve thirty million dollars worth of 0:44:14.400 --> 0:44:17.040 working capital that was just tied up in our business, 0:44:17.080 --> 0:44:20.600 that was just sitting there, not moving, not going anywhere. 0:44:21.000 --> 0:44:25.799 And our pivot was like most businesses, into online. We'd 0:44:25.840 --> 0:44:29.440 never had any experience with online business at that point, 0:44:30.680 --> 0:44:32.880 didn't know how to do it, didn't know where to start. 0:44:33.239 --> 0:44:35.840 But once again, when you got don't know many choices, 0:44:36.200 --> 0:44:41.560 it's amazing how resourceful you can be. And on the 0:44:41.560 --> 0:44:44.720 first of April, on April Fool's Day of twenty twenty, 0:44:45.360 --> 0:44:49.279 we launched vix Meat Direct, which was a online home 0:44:49.360 --> 0:44:54.399 delivery business to people's homes, delivering the finest quality meat 0:44:55.040 --> 0:44:57.560 in Australia, the sort of meat that was destined to 0:44:57.600 --> 0:45:01.400 the best chefs and the best restaurants. We were delivering 0:45:01.440 --> 0:45:05.759 it to people's doorsteps. Obviously, people were at home. They 0:45:05.760 --> 0:45:07.799 were locked up, they couldn't. 0:45:07.520 --> 0:45:09.160 Go out, and they prepared to spend a bit more 0:45:09.200 --> 0:45:11.560 that yeah, exactly to spoil themselves. 0:45:11.640 --> 0:45:14.000 Yeah. Yeah, and I was spoiling themselves out, and why 0:45:14.040 --> 0:45:15.719 wouldn't they you know, it was a horrible time that 0:45:15.760 --> 0:45:21.360 we were all going through and and he went game busters. 0:45:22.239 --> 0:45:26.399 We've done to date, so sort of what is it now? 0:45:26.520 --> 0:45:28.840 Sort of four years on, we've done fifty five million 0:45:28.880 --> 0:45:31.400 dollars worth of sales just through that one and that 0:45:31.480 --> 0:45:34.960 business still going business delivery business. And this is a 0:45:35.000 --> 0:45:37.560 real something, a really proud moment for me in the 0:45:37.600 --> 0:45:43.040 business that sales channel while it was a survival strategy, strategy, 0:45:43.080 --> 0:45:46.120 while it was something to keep our staff employed and 0:45:46.200 --> 0:45:50.040 in jobs in an effort to sort of get some 0:45:50.280 --> 0:45:53.560 cash going through the business, converting this stock into cash, 0:45:54.080 --> 0:45:58.400 keeping our staff in jobs and just paying the bills. 0:45:59.320 --> 0:46:04.920 That that's else. Channel remains part of our business to 0:46:04.960 --> 0:46:08.080 this day. So what it's done, it's given given a 0:46:08.120 --> 0:46:10.960 new business. Yeah, and it's given us. It's you know 0:46:11.040 --> 0:46:15.319 the analogy that I use, you know, pre covid. You know, 0:46:15.400 --> 0:46:18.040 we were a stool with one leg. Okay, The bulk 0:46:18.080 --> 0:46:21.640 of our business was was was wholesaling, okay, so there 0:46:21.680 --> 0:46:23.759 was a bit of stability, but we were still with 0:46:23.800 --> 0:46:28.319 one leg. Okay. Subsequently, we've we've opened up bricks and 0:46:28.320 --> 0:46:31.800 water retail stores, so we've got another leg to our stool. Okay, 0:46:31.880 --> 0:46:36.400 so a little bit more stable. Okay. Now with this 0:46:36.480 --> 0:46:39.640 online business, we've got our third leg to our stool. 0:46:39.719 --> 0:46:42.920 You know. So there's there's there's diversity to our business. 0:46:43.000 --> 0:46:46.520 There stability to our business, there's strength to our business. 0:46:48.160 --> 0:46:54.280 And and it's amazing what adversity. It's amazing what hard 0:46:54.400 --> 0:46:58.960 times are able to sort of you know, as that 0:46:59.080 --> 0:47:02.680 saying goes, pressure creates diamonds, right, you know. And a 0:47:02.719 --> 0:47:06.320 lot of people, you know, panic, a lot of people 0:47:06.440 --> 0:47:09.400 give up, a lot of people lose hope. It's easy 0:47:09.440 --> 0:47:11.040 to give up, right you know what I mean? Well, 0:47:11.080 --> 0:47:12.759 why didn't you give up? Though? Won't you tell me? 0:47:12.800 --> 0:47:15.839 What is it that makes you not give up? 0:47:16.360 --> 0:47:20.720 I just that's one thing that I can't explain. There's 0:47:20.800 --> 0:47:26.040 this desire within me. It might be pride, okay, which 0:47:26.360 --> 0:47:32.000 sometimes can be borderline arrogance. Okay, it's a bit of 0:47:32.000 --> 0:47:35.920 a fine line between pride and arrogance. I do my 0:47:36.000 --> 0:47:39.240 best to stay on the pride side of that line, 0:47:39.280 --> 0:47:45.080 you know. But I think it's pride, it's that determination, 0:47:45.440 --> 0:47:48.040 it's that passion, it's that love, it's that never give 0:47:49.600 --> 0:47:54.200 give up attitude. I suppose I'm deeply respectful of, you know, 0:47:54.680 --> 0:47:58.360 my family history and the toil and the struggle. You know, 0:47:58.440 --> 0:48:01.239 my father came to this country like most migrants. This 0:48:01.400 --> 0:48:04.040 story isn't unique to me, Mark, you know, will resonate 0:48:04.080 --> 0:48:06.920 with a lot of migrants. My father came to this 0:48:06.960 --> 0:48:09.400 country in the late sixties at the age of seventeen. 0:48:09.520 --> 0:48:11.720 You know. He was on a boat for three months. 0:48:11.719 --> 0:48:13.800 You know, I didn't know the language, you know, I 0:48:13.880 --> 0:48:16.919 didn't know anyone here. Literally the shirt on his back 0:48:16.920 --> 0:48:21.520 and one suitcase, you know, no education, and he just 0:48:21.560 --> 0:48:25.920 put his head down and he worked and he built something, 0:48:26.000 --> 0:48:30.040 you know. And I think it's that that that keeps 0:48:30.040 --> 0:48:32.239 me sort of motivated and going, you know, because it's 0:48:32.280 --> 0:48:34.759 easy to say everyone has their moments. I have my 0:48:34.840 --> 0:48:36.960 bad days, and it's easy to sort of give up. 0:48:37.200 --> 0:48:39.759 It's easier not to put the work in. It's easy 0:48:39.840 --> 0:48:41.759 to sort of pack up your bags and go home 0:48:41.800 --> 0:48:43.879 an hour earlier, all that sort of stuff. But it's 0:48:43.920 --> 0:48:49.000 just yeah, just I suppose yeah, pride and and and 0:48:49.120 --> 0:48:52.840 just not giving in and just always fighting. And final 0:48:52.920 --> 0:48:55.799 question for him, mate, where do from here? What's next? 0:48:55.840 --> 0:48:57.239 Anything next? You're going to go and launch in the 0:48:57.360 --> 0:49:00.680 US or euribles? I did that that we didn't have 0:49:00.719 --> 0:49:02.640 a chance to sort of talk about that in depth. 0:49:02.680 --> 0:49:07.880 But as many successes as I've had in my career, 0:49:07.880 --> 0:49:10.359 in my life, I've had my fair share of failures too. 0:49:10.400 --> 0:49:13.400 And in two thousand and five, twenty years ago, I 0:49:13.480 --> 0:49:16.160 launched a vix meat business in Shanghai. You know, most 0:49:16.200 --> 0:49:18.400 people didn't know where China was on a map, you know, 0:49:18.960 --> 0:49:23.080 I know it's become this global powerhouse and a big 0:49:23.440 --> 0:49:27.440 trade partner for Australia now and really important to Australia 0:49:27.480 --> 0:49:29.160 and our economy and all that sort of stuff in 0:49:29.200 --> 0:49:32.080 the world economy. But in two thousand and five, I 0:49:32.120 --> 0:49:34.520 opened up a start of the art two thousand square 0:49:34.560 --> 0:49:39.239 meet a facility in Shanghai to sort of import, you know, 0:49:39.480 --> 0:49:44.560 this high quality chilled Australian meat and supply as many 0:49:45.120 --> 0:49:50.200 of the Chinese emerging, growing affluent Chinese as possible. And 0:49:50.239 --> 0:49:53.120 then that wasn't enough for me. In February two thousand 0:49:53.120 --> 0:49:55.680 and six, I opened up a facility in Singapore. I 0:49:55.719 --> 0:49:58.120 really wanted to sort of play in that sort of 0:49:58.120 --> 0:50:01.440 South East Asia Asian sort of marketplace, you know. And 0:50:02.000 --> 0:50:05.759 by two thousand and eight I closed. I'll closed, you know, 0:50:05.920 --> 0:50:08.839 and I felt fat, fell flat on my face. It 0:50:08.880 --> 0:50:11.560 was my first ever big failure, you know. So I've 0:50:11.600 --> 0:50:16.319 done that whole overseas thing. Where to now. Look, you know, 0:50:16.920 --> 0:50:20.839 I'm fifty one years of age. I'm getting on a bit. 0:50:20.880 --> 0:50:23.440 I'm still young. I still feel good. I still have 0:50:23.640 --> 0:50:27.719 a lot to give and contribute. I still have a 0:50:27.719 --> 0:50:30.719 lot of fight and a lot of energy. But I'm 0:50:30.719 --> 0:50:33.239 not thirty years old. I'm not twenty years old. I'm 0:50:33.239 --> 0:50:37.000 not forty years old anymore. I'm a lot more strategic nowadays. 0:50:37.000 --> 0:50:38.960 I still want to grow. I still want to give 0:50:39.120 --> 0:50:42.480 opportunities to people within our business to grow and develop 0:50:43.160 --> 0:50:46.719 and experience things that I've been fortunate enough to experience. 0:50:48.400 --> 0:50:53.799 We're continuing to sort of build out our bricks and 0:50:53.800 --> 0:50:58.080 water retail sort of footprints. So we opened up recently 0:50:58.560 --> 0:51:02.000 a vix Stora or Chase. We're opening up in August 0:51:02.120 --> 0:51:07.800 at Bonni Junction. We've got our first vis retail store 0:51:07.840 --> 0:51:11.400 planned for Melbourne. That'll open at Chasten at the beginning 0:51:11.440 --> 0:51:14.000 of twenty twenty five, on the back of opening up 0:51:14.040 --> 0:51:19.680 Victor Churchill in Melbourne two years ago. So yeah, I 0:51:19.719 --> 0:51:25.319 still love what I do. I still see opportunities and 0:51:25.360 --> 0:51:27.839 I want to keep going. I want to keep this 0:51:28.040 --> 0:51:32.080 legacy going. My daughter works in the business, my oldest 0:51:32.080 --> 0:51:35.680 son works in the business, so hopefully I can provide 0:51:35.680 --> 0:51:39.080 them a bit of a platform and an opportunity to 0:51:39.120 --> 0:51:42.200 feel the same sense of pride that I've felt over 0:51:42.239 --> 0:51:46.160 the last thirty years owning and operating my family business 0:51:46.239 --> 0:51:53.319 and growing that servicing customers with humility, humbleness, and never 0:51:53.440 --> 0:51:59.080 wavering from from this commitment that my father made, that 0:51:59.200 --> 0:52:04.240 I inherited to quality, where the whole family is obsessed 0:52:04.280 --> 0:52:08.680 with quality, you know. And hopefully my kids are able 0:52:08.719 --> 0:52:11.880 to sort of inherit that that passion and that pride 0:52:11.880 --> 0:52:14.600 for what we do and continue on and I'm able 0:52:14.640 --> 0:52:17.239 to sort of guide them, mentor them just like my 0:52:17.280 --> 0:52:18.600 father did with me. You know. 0:52:19.920 --> 0:52:22.040 Well, I think I think that's amazing and it's amazing 0:52:22.080 --> 0:52:24.520 story that you've done so well. It's not that really 0:52:24.560 --> 0:52:26.120 that long a period that you've been doing. If it 0:52:26.160 --> 0:52:30.120 was only like twenty five thirty years or something, and 0:52:30.239 --> 0:52:34.440 you are a significant footprint on the Australian let's call 0:52:34.480 --> 0:52:38.800 it wholesome meat industry, the wholesome meat industry. 0:52:39.200 --> 0:52:46.280 So, Anthony pull you did well when you're first courage 0:52:46.640 --> 0:52:49.080 pahrich Horidge. So we'll later that. 0:52:49.360 --> 0:52:53.440 So Anthony Pharridge and founder along with your dad of 0:52:53.680 --> 0:52:57.560 Vixed Meats, thanks very much for coming in today. Just 0:52:57.640 --> 0:52:59.680 one last thing, you know, the thing I just got 0:52:59.719 --> 0:53:03.120 out of this whole conversation. Sure, you try different things, 0:53:03.800 --> 0:53:06.200 and sometimes you file you're prepared to fail in your case, 0:53:06.680 --> 0:53:09.160 and all businesses are the same. But at the end 0:53:09.200 --> 0:53:11.800 of the day, if you know what you're doing is 0:53:12.320 --> 0:53:14.960 going well and it is a correct and a good 0:53:15.000 --> 0:53:19.880 outcome for both customers and yourself and largely just generally, 0:53:20.719 --> 0:53:23.560 then stick to your lane and be prepared, be happy 0:53:23.680 --> 0:53:25.040 enough to build on that. 0:53:25.360 --> 0:53:25.560 Yeah. 0:53:25.840 --> 0:53:29.640 Just keep building, Just keep building, keep building. You don't 0:53:29.680 --> 0:53:31.640 have to take over the world. 0:53:31.840 --> 0:53:35.240 Yeah. And there is a temptation there when you enjoy success, 0:53:35.280 --> 0:53:37.080 and I'm sure you've seen this in your own career. 0:53:37.080 --> 0:53:40.160 When you enjoy your success, you think you can apply 0:53:40.239 --> 0:53:43.120 that success to other industry ruggles. They say, yeah, all 0:53:43.160 --> 0:53:46.280 that sort of stuff. You know, and success is a drug, 0:53:46.320 --> 0:53:48.600 you know, and when you're doing well, you know, you 0:53:48.680 --> 0:53:53.319 feed off that and sometimes it can lead you astray. Yeah, 0:53:52.800 --> 0:53:56.640 and remembering how you started, remembering what you're good at, 0:53:56.760 --> 0:54:00.640 sticking to that, being happy and comfortable and content with 0:54:00.760 --> 0:54:04.880 that is a bit of a skill and a learned skill. Yeah. Yeah, 0:54:04.920 --> 0:54:06.919 thanks for mauch chnthen my pleasure. Thank you, Mark,