Big 4 firms have traditionally aimed high. But now that they’re turning their attention to the middle market, just where does that leave mid-tier firms? Something’s in the air. First Big 4 firm Deloitte swooped on the Melbourne office of mid-tier firm BDO. Not long after it scooped up the Sydney business of Horwarths, also a mid-tier firm. And at the end of 2006 the remaining BDO and Horwarths networks in Australia announced a merger. What gives? The big end of […]
journalism
ENJOY THIS … BUT READ THE FINE PRINT IN YOUR TRAVEL INSURANCE POLICY BEFORE YOU GO – DON’T FORGET TO PACK THE POLICY
By Ed Charles COVER STORY It pays to read the fine print of your travel insurance policy carefully, Ed Charles writes THE air tickets are paid for. The boutique hotel and spa resort is booked. And the designer label luggage is packed. But have you bothered to check whether you have the right level of cover for that once-in-a-lifetime holiday? The likelihood is not, as illustrated by the number of complaints going before the Insurance Ombudsman, Sam Parrino. He says […]
Car share schemes show road ahead
The business of sharing cars has taken off in Sydney and Melbourne, writes Ed Charles SOMETIMES you have just got to do it. Car share plan GoGet came into being when founders Bruce Jeffreys and Nic Lowe put their own cars — a ute and a diesel station wagon — into the first incarnation of their company, Newtown Carshare, which rents out cars by the hour. They secured a sponsored Volkswagen Polo from a local dealer and, with a dozen […]
The Australian: Is all wagyu the same? fat chance
THE CURIOUS COOK I’M sitting with strangers at the bar of Melbourne sushi restaurant, Jamon, when chef Charles Greenfield begins a reminiscence about Kobe beef. It’s 1968 and Greenfield is supping beer at a sushi bar in Japan when he first tries the delicate, fatty Japanese steak. That was it,” he says, savouring the memory of that first taste, after which he rolled up his sleeves and became a dishwasher at that very restaurant while keeping his day job in […]
The Bulletin: Oliver’s twist
The Melbourne restaurant supporting Jamie Oliver’s charity foundation is largely owned by a businessman who is banking on profits which may not be there. BY ED CHARLES JAMIE OLIVER’S GONE HOME. The cameras are switched off. The TV show will soon end. Now the local franchise of the celebrity chef’s charitable cause, the Fifteen Foundation Australia, and the commercial restaurant venture, Fifteen Melbourne, have to make it on their own. Fifteen, the restaurant, is the public face of the project. […]
The Australian: New industry takes root
Money might not grow on trees, but it certainly can appear under them, reports Ed Charles October 27, 2006 FIRST we started exporting wine to France. Now Australia could be doing the same with that most exotic of ingredients, the truffle. Prized by top chefs, the truffle is the aromatic fruit of an underground fungus — the most popular being the Tuber melanosporum, or black Perigord truffle. It sells for $1500 to $3000 a kilo, depending on quality, and is […]
INTHEBLACK: In the trenches with animal trainers
‘Come into my office.’ Now there’s an expression to make everyone’s pulse quicken. Even if your boss is a good sort, you are likely to become all defensive. ‘What have I done wrong?’ you ask yourself. In fact the adrenaline in your system has kicked in because you have become conditioned to act that way. It all started in your school days when your principal called you in for that first telling off. The feeling is the ‘fight or flight […]
A high bar for small beers
There are small but determined new businesses brewing in the heady world of beer, writes Ed Charles Entrepreneur, The Australian, August 25, 2006 THERE’S no going back. Cameron Hines, joint founder of the Mountain Goat microbrewery in Melbourne, says: “Once you start enjoying and appreciating your beer, it’s almost impossible to go back and drink crap.” The founders of Australia’s latest crop of microbreweries became beer nuts while travelling abroad. Hines acquired a taste for boutique beers as he travelled […]
Scooping up success
Freshness, production on site and good cheer are part of the successful recipe at a gelato outlet, writes Ed Charles FINDING and motivating the right staff is always a problem for business. Now Trampoline Gelato chain is looking to develop a gang of at least 40 small business entrepreneurs to grow its chain. Trampoline opened its first store on Brunswick Street in Melbourne’s fashionable Fitzroy on April 14, 2004. Trampoline general manager Richard Furphy had been given the task of […]