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Transcript

Tony Quinn (Part 1) · Rusty's Garage

0:02
A listener production.
0:15
I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust, and this is Rusty's Garage.
0:31
I'm in New Zealand for this episode, about an hour from Queenstown at Highlands Motorsport Park.
0:36
It's one of the newest race facilities in this part of the world, etched perfectly into the stunning South Island scenery.
0:44
This is an enthusiast paradise with everything they need, apartments and properties where owners keep their cars for track days.
0:51
There's a cart track and a brilliant museum.
0:54
It's owned by Tony Quinn, the multi-millionaire business success story behind VIP Pet Foods and the revival of Darylique Infectionery.
1:03
TQ can hold his own in the boardroom, but he's probably best described as a tough, no-nonsense boss who doesn't mind rolling his sleeves up and getting amongst it.
1:12
Walking around here, you're likely to find him in shorts and boots rather than Hugo Boss.
1:17
Never judge a book by its cover, as they say.
1:20
Our chat is part business, part cars and racing.
1:24
I know that many of you have your own businesses and often listen while you're on the road, so I hope you enjoy that side.
1:30
TQ has never forgotten his upbringing in Aberdeen in Scotland, where he developed that trademark hard work ethic.
1:38
His grandfather was a stowaway who went from Ireland and eventually ended up in America working for the automotive manufacturer, Studebaker.
1:46
It really was humble beginnings for the family.
1:49
Yeah, he did.
1:50
Because it's hard to understand, but like in Ireland, they didn't get way...
1:56
I think they got a shilling twice a year to go to the market.
2:01
When the market came to... Like the circus came to town or whatever.
2:05
They would...
2:06
Some of the stories that I could tell you are quite, you know, horrific in modern day terms.
2:11
They used to put straw inside their trousers between their legs and their trousers to keep themselves warm in the winter.
2:18
In fact, I don't even know how you walk about like that.
2:22
But some of the stories were... Look, there's no doubt there was a bit of peppering of Irish stories, but there was a fair degree of truth with the whole thing too.
2:32
His grandfather or father...
2:37
was high up in the education department in Ireland.
2:40
But in those days, a lot of the sons and stuff just got to work on the farm or you went home to work, you know.
2:47
You weren't put for further education or university or anything like that.
2:52
It was go home to the farm and work, you know.
2:56
You know, he was a character and he took us to Ireland for a holiday once when we were children and left us.
3:03
Yeah, and he would come back once... For weeks too, wasn't it?
3:06
Yeah, he left us.
3:07
He went for two weeks.
3:09
And this is the days without mobile phones or even communication, really.
3:14
So he told her parents that he would be away for two weeks and he would be back for school to start, so we'd start school.
3:21
Anyway, we went away.
3:21
We were away for six weeks.
3:23
And we would only see him once a week.
3:26
He would leave us in the village, and the villagers would look after us.
3:29
He'd come back once a week.
3:31
I'll be honest, he was definitely out and about with the IRA or Sinn Féin and stuff.
3:37
There was definitely stuff going on.
3:39
We were totally ignorant to the whole thing, but on reflection, that's what was happening.
3:45
And then, you know, we went back to our parents who didn't even know how to get hold of us.
3:49
We'd been gone.
3:51
School had started for four weeks and they didn't know where we were.
3:54
And no, it's like, that's what happened.
3:58
I don't know.
3:58
I mean, I lived in a wooden caravan.
4:01
till I was 14 years old, like a gypsy caravan.
4:03
I mean, it doesn't seem that long ago, but it was clean and tidy.
4:09
You know, people say to me, how did you do that?
4:11
You know, that must have been terrible.
4:13
It wasn't.
4:14
It was clean and tidy, and it was a roof and it was a house, and we had a 12-inch black-and-white television with BBC One and BBC Two, and...
4:24
It was fine.
4:24
You know, I'm fine.
4:26
My sisters are fine.
4:27
You know, it's all good.
4:28
One thing you and I, I don't, I wish I had your business skill.
4:32
I don't share that with you.
4:33
But one thing we do have in common is Aberdeen in Scotland.
4:37
My grandfather grew up there.
4:40
I've been there.
4:41
That was home turf for you, mate.
4:43
So when you're talking about the caravan and things like that in those early years, that's where you were.
4:47
Yeah, absolutely.
4:48
That's where I went to school and that's where I grew up.
4:52
That's where I met my wife, you know, and started her family.
4:57
I was in business there, was very successful there in business.
5:02
And really how I got my start...
5:05
in business was not... My dad had a pet food company.
5:09
My dad, God bless him, was a terrible businessman, a great guy, great visionary, had great energy, very creative.
5:19
My mum was very conservative.
5:21
She had to pay the wages.
5:22
She didn't have enough money to pay the wages.
5:24
So I learned, I grew up...
5:26
Getting both sides, you know, my mum had to have the money to pay the bills.
5:30
My dad would spend the money before my mum got it.
5:33
So it was like, it was an interesting environment.
5:37
And I think it did me a lot of good.
5:40
Because I understood that in business you had to make money, but you also had to keep going.
5:45
You had to keep new ideas, you know, keep the thing going, moving.
5:51
You know, with lots of momentum and encouragement, and you have to believe in what you're doing, even if everybody around you doesn't think you can do it.
5:59
And can buy that all.
6:00
Yeah, and you have to...
6:01
It's like a good general.
6:02
You have to convince the troops that we're doing the right thing.
6:05
Let's charge at first dawn.
6:07
You know, I think every good general has fed his troops well.
6:13
and giving them confidence and inspiration that we're going to win.
6:18
And so I grew up in that environment.
6:20
It was really good.
6:21
But my start in business wasn't really through my dad at all.
6:30
The family accountant who was in town recognised...
6:36
He liked my style, he liked what I'd been doing.
6:40
I was, with a friend, I was joining cars, smash cars together and selling them and doing all that stuff.
6:46
I was all... And you were doubling your money on that seminar, weren't you?
6:49
Yeah, look, it was the halcyon days, it was the good days.
6:53
None of them fell apart?
6:54
No, no, we did it right.
6:56
I mean, Jordy, my mate, he was a head mechanic with Vauxhall.
7:01
And no, no, we were doing it right.
7:03
And can I tell you a wee story about that?
7:05
So I had this BMW that my mate, who was a wealthy butcher's son, he crashed his new BMW, right?
7:13
But he crashed it at the back.
7:16
Right?
7:16
So the front was perfect.
7:18
Rode it off.
7:19
So I bought the BMW from him, right?
7:21
So anyway, it was easy to find the rear of a BMW, right?
7:26
Because most people crash at the front.
7:28
So happy days.
7:29
So we bought this other car and joined it through the A pillars and across the floor and stuff like that.
7:35
Perfect job.
7:35
I ran it for about six months.
7:37
But when I come to sell it,
7:40
You know, no problem, sell the car, it was a good car.
7:43
But this guy said, I can't work it out.
7:46
The guy that, I don't think he bought it.
7:48
But he said, I can't work it out, it's a bit strange.
7:52
He says, the lights, the front lights are from a 1972, whatever it was.
7:59
And the backlights are from a 1971.
8:00
He says, I don't quite work out how it works.
8:05
And that's a true story.
8:07
I don't think he bought it, but the next person didn't know, so we sold it to them.
8:11
So I was making money like that, but the accountant, who was a family accountant, had a customer that made signs called Albert Loftus.
8:22
And I was in Gordon Lefevre, who treated me, took me under his wing, as well as a lot of other younger people in town to foster them.
8:35
And anyway, he said, would you be interested in the sign business?
8:40
And I thought, yeah, I suppose so, you know.
8:44
He was one of those kind of guys, if he asked you a question, that meant, yes, yes, you know, you didn't say no.
8:50
So I said, yeah, yeah, yeah.
8:52
Anyway, I bought this sign business.
8:53
Best thing I ever did, because I'd been living in the pet food world with my dad, mum, and all the staff, and kennels, and all that kind of stuff.
9:04
Well, I bought this sign business, and I reckon I learned...
9:08
everything there is to know about Sains in four or five weeks.
9:11
You know, I think the apprenticeship was five years, but I reckon I could make a Sain, do everything with a Sain, sell a Sain, put it up, everything, within bloody four or five weeks.
9:21
And that business, when I bought it,
9:25
had two guys working on the floor and a lady in the office, and she was leaving, because, you know... Because what happened was Albert Loftus died, had a heart attack, taking off his overalls to go home for lunch.
9:36
And so, anyway, I bought it, and within two years, it was the biggest in Scotland...
9:43
It was massive growth with the oil exploration and production and North Sea Oil.
9:49
It was fantastic.
9:52
But it got to the point, I had 27 sign makers and five people in the office,
9:59
And you try and keep 27 sign makers going with work.
10:03
And this is in the days before emails and all that stuff.
10:06
So you had to do contracts and tenders and stuff.
10:09
And you were never quite sure what was coming in.
10:11
And, you know, the mail, back in the days, you got actual letters and everything through the mail.
10:19
And some days you would, you know, you'd have nothing in the job box, nothing to do.
10:23
And the next morning you would get 10 jobs come in.
10:26
You know, it was, you know,
10:29
It's all the pressures of being in business and stuff like that, but I was making money.
10:34
Something that my dad had never really mastered.
10:40
You know, he was good at spending his money, but he could never actually make it and be consistent, if you like.
10:46
So I had a new Fiat.
10:48
He had an old bloody Rover or some bloody thing.
10:51
What did you have?
10:52
It was a 131?
10:53
131 S. Tell us more about that.
10:54
What was it?
10:55
No, it was just...
10:56
It's silver.
10:56
It was silver?
10:57
But brand new as you can see.
10:58
Brand new, brand new car, yeah.
11:00
And I mean, when I see them now, I think, geez, what an ugly car, but it's very square.
11:06
But no, it was good.
11:09
And you know, obviously, I met Christina and set a family.
11:12
But how I came to Australia is quite, I find it quite interesting.
11:18
Our main electrician that did all the neon work in the business was a union, a staunch union advocate member.
11:30
And I saw him sitting in a lay-by when I was coming back, and, you know, we were busy.
11:35
So when he got back into the shop, I said, mate, Jim was his name.
11:38
Jim, why were you sitting in the lay-boy when you could have been back here helping us out?
11:42
No, no, I'm due such-and-such minutes every hour or something.
11:46
And I tottered them up.
11:47
And I thought, jeez, really?
11:49
And the business was getting big enough that, you know...
11:54
you kind of lose control, not lose control, but you lose that direct deal with the guys and, you know, it becomes less of a family and there's factions within the factory that, you know, start developing.
12:07
And I was a bit sick of it, to be honest.
12:10
And a guy from Chevron came in and he was a good customer and I got on well with him.
12:17
And I says, mate, what are you doing?
12:18
What are you up to?
12:19
Because where are you going next?
12:21
Because I want to be where you guys are going next.
12:26
And he said, oh, all the talk is Perth, Western Australia.
12:30
That's where we're heading next, to do the West Australian oil basin thing.
12:36
And I said, oh, right.
12:37
And I always liked Australia.
12:40
Like, you know how you do school projects and stuff?
12:43
And geography was quite a strong subject of mine.
12:45
And I liked Australia.
12:46
It was a part of the Commonwealth, and you do these projects about the Australian stuff.
12:51
And I thought, fucking Australia, how good would that be?
12:54
So this is true.
12:57
I went home to Christina and said, hey, we're going to Perth.
13:04
Just like that?
13:05
Yes, this is true.
13:06
And she was pregnant at the time.
13:08
And she said, what, Perth and Scotland?
13:10
Because there's a Perth in Scotland.
13:12
I says, no, Perth, West Australia.
13:16
And she says, what, for a holiday?
13:18
I said, no, we're going to go and live there.
13:20
We're going to create a new life in Australia.
13:23
And to be, you know, there's a few things happening.
13:27
I thought I was invincible.
13:29
I thought, how cool is this?
13:31
Business is easy.
13:32
I'm making money.
13:34
Customers are coming in.
13:35
It's easy, right?
13:36
Money in the bank.
13:38
I was making more money than Maggie Thatcher was getting paid.
13:40
And I thought, how could that be possible?
13:43
She's running the country, dealing with all the miners and the problems and everything else.
13:47
And here I am making signs up in Aberdeen, making much more than Maggie Thatcher's making.
13:53
It's stupid things, eh?
13:55
Anyway.
13:55
So you clearly thought, I can take the same thing,
14:00
and transplanted at the opposite end of the earth.
14:02
Is that what you were going to do?
14:04
Yes.
14:04
So this story is going to get bigger and bigger.
14:06
But absolutely, that's what I thought.
14:09
Because back in...
14:10
This is 1979, 1980.
14:11
Back in those days...
14:16
Everybody in the UK thought that Australia was 20 years behind.
14:21
That was the way it was.
14:23
You'd go out to Australia and there would be corrugated iron fences and houses and older cars and all that kind of stuff.
14:31
And it was just, that was the word.
14:33
That was how it was.
14:35
Remember, no Google, no Wi-Fi, no information like that.
14:42
If you wanted information, go to the library and sit down and read a book.
14:46
I didn't have time for that.
14:48
So I'm saying, no, I'll be five years ahead of everybody else, or 20 years ahead, but at least five.
14:55
I'll be ready for the boys coming with the oil exploration because there's a difference.
14:59
Oil exploration is much more lucrative than oil production.
15:03
Yeah, so I'm interested in the exploration bit.
15:06
So, Christina, the other story is I picked up the phone, phoned, I can't even remember the name of the company in Glasgow that was like the second or the next biggest or just as big sign company in Glasgow.
15:21
and said, hey, I'm going to sell this business.
15:23
Are you interested?
15:25
They jumped in the car, drove up, which takes about two and a half hours, drove up, within half an hour, we'd done the deal, and I sold the business and property and everything.
15:35
And so, again, home to Christina, right?
15:38
The flights, because she was... We flew when she was seven months pregnant on the last day that she could fly.
15:45
In those days, you couldn't fly past seven months pregnant.
15:49
I don't know what it is now, but...
15:51
So we flew on the last day that she could, arrived in Perth at midnight, right, and took a taxi to the hotel.
16:00
But when I got to the airport, because we had two little kids and Christina's pregnant with a third...
16:07
And when I arrived at the airport, there's all these pretty fancy signs.
16:12
And I'm thinking, oh, because it's an international airport, they must import them from America or, do you know what I mean?
16:18
From England, maybe, I don't know.
16:20
But they were pretty good quality, modern signs, you know?
16:24
And I'm thinking, oh, OK, fine.
16:26
So I get to the Flag Motel in Belmont, and Christina puts the kids to bed.
16:32
And in those days, flying with a family, stopping off in Bombay,
16:37
And they open the doors and the stench comes in and it's pissing rain.
16:40
And, you know, it was not rough or anything.
16:44
It was what it was.
16:46
Anyway, she put the kids to bed.
16:48
And I did what every good businessman does when they arrive in a new town or new city or new country.
16:55
You grab the yellow pages.
16:58
And the yellow pages were such a Bible for business.
17:01
You had to be in the yellow pages or you're buggered.
17:04
So grab the yellow pages and the first thing I do is look up.
17:08
Well, it's a funny kind of story, but because I was a Ford Escort guy in Scotland, I had a couple of Ford Escorts and I liked them, I'm flicking through the yellow pages and there's these pages and pages of Escorts, but they were women Escorts.
17:26
Not Mark II's or... No, and it's like, whoa, I've never seen that.
17:30
Like, that didn't happen in Scotland, you know.
17:33
Anyway, I got to signs.
17:36
Oh, my God.
17:38
There was...
17:39
So in Scotland, I had half a page, and I was a king, right?
17:42
King me, I was that.
17:44
King Loftus.
17:46
And there, there would have been 12 pages of half-pages sign companies.
17:53
Yeah.
17:54
There was, in the company that I went to see, was a company called Project Neon.
17:59
And they had in one of their claims, like, you know, built up letters and engraving and all that.
18:05
Computer cut lettering.
18:08
I didn't even know what that was.
18:11
I had no idea what that meant.
18:12
This is not due diligence.
18:14
This is realization.
18:15
This is the moment before you start crying, when the kids are in bed and the wife's in bed.
18:21
I went to see Project Nihon.
18:24
They were five years ahead of what we were.
18:27
Perth, generally speaking, is a pretty progressive town in WA, and they were well ahead of Scotland.
18:36
Anyway, I spent...
18:38
There was four years of my life there.
18:41
I mean, I ended up mowing lawns, which I enjoyed, but there was no real future in.
18:46
But I cried in that first six months being in Perth.
18:50
I cried...
18:53
Quite a lot.
18:54
And I think during that stay in Perth, I think if it was today and we had medical intervention, I am pretty sure that I would have been depressed.
19:05
Like, yeah, I think there was moments of what have I done?
19:10
Did you dig yourself out of that thing?
19:11
Yeah, well, I don't know.
19:12
But I guess I just boxed on.
19:16
And there's a lot of... You see, in Scotland, you trust somebody.
19:21
That's the way you're brought up.
19:22
If somebody says, I'll sell you my guitar for $10, 10 pounds, well...
19:27
You go on Sunday and you give them £10 and they give them the guitar.
19:31
Whereas in Perth at that time, if you said, I'll give you £10 for your guitar, they'd say, oh, yeah, OK. You go back on Sunday with your £10 and they'd say, no, I sold it for £12 or whatever.
19:42
Do you know?
19:43
And I don't want to...
19:45
there was a lot of people floating about Perth that were unaccountable for a lot of things.
19:51
And this was in the days when Alan Bond was around, right?
19:55
And you were reading the paper, and he was doing billions and millions, and he was a signwriter too, see?
20:02
So I'm going, well, bye.
20:03
So to recap, the oil never came.
20:07
The oil guys never came to Perth because there was other places, easier places, better.
20:13
I think they do have lots of oil there, but they just kept the wells and save it for a rainy day.
20:19
So anyway, they never came.
20:20
So I was alone again, you know, so I did a few different things.
20:24
But years later...
20:27
When I was in Australia, I got a phone, I got an email.
20:32
I'm going forward to 30 years now, and I'll come back a bit, but 30 years on, I got an email from Michelle or something saying that Alan Bond would like to have a meeting with you.
20:46
And, you know, like, in my position at that time, you got a lot of correspondence from people that wanted to pick your brains or, I've got a great idea, you know, I want you to invest in it and all that stuff.
20:57
So I basically, I was very cheeky.
20:59
I went back and said, yeah, sure, if it's the Alan Bond that won the America's Cup in 1983, happy days, if not, I'm sorry, I'm too busy.
21:07
Well, yes, it's the Alan Bond that won the America's Cup in 1983.
21:12
Now, this guy had been in prison and all sorts of things and stuff.
21:16
And I said, what does he want to talk about, you know?
21:19
Oh, he's got a business in America that he wants to talk to you about.
21:24
I said, a licorice business.
21:26
So by this time I had Dad leave.
21:28
And I says, oh, sure, that would be great.
21:30
Well, I can tell you.
21:32
It was scheduled for half an hour.
21:35
Two and a half hours later, we're still chewing the fat.
21:40
I found him an absolute delight, but I was so glad that I knew his history because if I hadn't, I'm sure I would have bought a tin mine in Nicaragua or whatever, Mozambique or something.
21:54
He would have sold me something.
21:56
He was the best salesman I've ever come across.
22:00
And he was 72 or 74 at that time.
22:03
Yeah, he was a character.
22:04
I loved it.
22:05
I loved it.
22:06
And I asked him, I said, how did you get on when you were in prison?
22:08
You know, like, how did that work, you know?
22:11
He said, business as usual.
22:13
No problem.
22:15
And he meant it.
22:17
He was cool.
22:17
And do you remember why he went into prison?
22:21
Amnesia, he couldn't quite remember.
22:23
And I'd arranged with him to go and visit his business in America, but I wasn't to tell his general manager that I'd had a meeting with him and stuff like that.
22:35
And I said, yeah, OK, well, I won't say anything about that.
22:37
Then I won't mention that we've had this meeting.
22:40
And he said, what meeting?
22:43
He was as sharp as.
22:45
But I found him a delight.
23:00
Research has shown that the fastest car on the planet and the one you can drive the hardest is a higher car because you know you don't have to pay for the servicing.
23:11
So I go back to Perth again and mowing lawns.
23:15
And I was depressed.
23:16
I'm sure this wasn't for me.
23:18
You know, Perth, I didn't like it.
23:21
The summer came and it was 40 degrees for three weeks and all that stuff.
23:25
I didn't like it.
23:27
I didn't do badly there, but I didn't do well at all.
23:31
And what I was doing, I was mowing lawns for people, and there was a fair amount of Kiwis there.
23:37
Then I got talking to them and stuff, and I quite liked the Kiwis.
23:40
I thought, these are a good bunch of people, you know.
23:42
They were all over there for the mines and stuff like that.
23:46
And I said to Christina, we've got to go somewhere.
23:49
This is not for me.
23:50
Perth is not for me.
23:53
I didn't travel to the East Coast.
23:56
Strange, but I didn't.
23:58
I just thought Australia was better.
24:00
Like, it's all the same.
24:03
So anyway, I said, we need to go either to New Zealand, South Africa, Canada.
24:09
I need to get out of here.
24:11
Or maybe back to Scotland.
24:13
In going back to Scotland, although you'd have your tail between your legs and stuff like that, at least I knew the whole deal, right?
24:20
So I took a trip back to Scotland just to make sure that what we're going to do.
24:27
I went there three days later.
24:29
I was only there for a week.
24:32
very quickly decided, no, we're not doing that.
24:35
We're not going back there.
24:36
That's just not right.
24:38
Australia and that Southern Hemisphere thing is much better for the children, much better life.
24:43
You know, an ordinary guy can have a house and a boat and go on holiday and travel a bit.
24:50
And it's a good life for a working guy, you know, much better than Scotland.
24:55
So, okay, well, off we go to New Zealand.
24:58
And
24:59
Yeah, I'll tell you the truth.
25:02
I arrived in New Zealand and I didn't really like it.
25:04
I thought, well, first shop we went to was Three Guys, which is now Pack and Save.
25:10
And in those days, with a felt pain, you had to write the price on the packet.
25:17
And take it to the country.
25:19
It was like, honestly, it was like stepping back 10 years or whatever.
25:23
It was, whoa, far out.
25:25
But I loved the country and I think I took eight hours of green video.
25:29
Just because I'd been in Perth for four years and everything's kind of dry-ish.
25:34
Cows, oh, look at these cows, look at these sheep.
25:36
And we're taking videos of stuff.
25:38
Anyway, long story short, the house in Perth sold when we were in New Zealand.
25:43
So it was like, far out, what do we do now?
25:46
So we came to New Zealand both quite reluctantly, Christina and I.
25:52
Years later we agreed with each other, I didn't really like it and she said, I didn't really like it.
25:58
But what happened when we came to New Zealand, it was like a breath of fresh air.
26:02
I talked to a few people and we got back into the swing of things and got back into business and it started a fantastic nine-year journey.
26:16
The first year in Diaghaville, met some lovely people, like really Kiwis, I love Kiwis, good people.
26:23
And some lovely people got going with a lot less money than I had.
26:29
And just boxed on and had some...
26:34
I remember the first Christmas that we had in New Zealand, we'd sold a lot of product, right?
26:41
It was drums of tallow that we'd sold.
26:43
We'd set up this little business called Fat Man, picking up waste fat from chip shops and stuff.
26:48
That's like stuff you wouldn't do now, but that's what we did.
26:52
What did you say when you were younger?
26:53
There's money in shite.
26:54
Well, there still is.
26:57
There's actually money in everything.
26:59
You've just got to find it.
27:00
That's the trick.
27:01
You've got to find it.
27:02
I mean, there's gold out in those hills, but you've got to find it.
27:07
But anyway, the first Christmas we had, I got the cheque for our first look, which was $4,000, right, for our first sale.
27:15
And because in New Zealand, they pay you on the 20th of the month following.
27:19
Right.
27:19
So we gave them the invoice in November.
27:22
They paid on the 20th of December.
27:23
Right.
27:24
Now, I hadn't got Christina anything for Christmas because, you know, he gets like that.
27:29
Complacency sets in pretty quickly.
27:32
Anyway, I got this check in the mail.
27:35
I thought, great.
27:36
So I wrapped up in a little wee parcel.
27:39
And I gave it to Christina on Christmas Day and said, it's something small, but it's worth a lot of money.
27:46
And she thought it's a ring or something.
27:47
Because she's saying, why did you waste money on a ring?
27:50
Like, we don't need a ring.
27:52
And she opened it up and it was the first cheque to Fat Man in New Zealand.
27:56
And we banked it and away we went.
27:59
And, you know, in my nine years of New Zealand, I struck up many, many good friendships with many people because I...
28:09
I was a contributor and I delivered on my promise, which is one of the main things that you have to do in business.
28:17
And anyway, it was a great journey.
28:19
Eventually got back into pet food, forced
28:22
May I say?
28:23
And look, there's a whole other backstory to all this, but I'm not going to get into that unless you want me to.
28:29
But there's a whole lot of experiences in there that were golden, you know, just golden.
28:36
But anyway, go back into pet food.
28:39
And I couldn't fucking understand how my dad couldn't make money making pet food, because I was away.
28:45
I was off and running in New Zealand.
28:47
And within like four years in New Zealand, I had this, well, it was a very, very good and profitable pet food company.
28:56
up in the north, and I was flying, and we did all sorts of things.
29:01
We also had a chip business that we sold to Mr Chips, and it was just a fantastic journey, to a point where I thought I would go into local politics.
29:12
Because I thought- Tony Quinn?
29:14
Yeah, I know.
29:15
At the Beehive in New Zealand?
29:17
No, well, no.
29:17
Maybe not Beehive.
29:17
Just local stuff.
29:18
Just local stuff because I was annoyed at the time that it took to do stuff that was so obvious.
29:24
Do you know, like, I think in your mid-30s, you get to that point, you know, you think, why can't we just do that?
29:32
You know, why can't we have a hit squad that go about fixing things for people?
29:36
Why do we have to have a big discussion about things?
29:39
Just make it happen, yeah.
29:40
So anyway, but thankfully I didn't enter that.
29:44
And we got the opportunity through Big Fresh in Auckland.
29:49
So we used to sell pet food to Big Fresh in Auckland.
29:52
And a guy called Roger Willoughby was the general buyer.
29:56
And he said, look, we're going to open up in Australia.
30:00
I'd like you to think about exporting your product to Australia.
30:06
I want you to go to Sydney and have a look at our store there that's just opened.
30:11
see what you think.
30:12
So I said, yeah, perfect.
30:14
So we hadn't been on holiday forever.
30:16
So we boarded the kids out with friends and me and Christina went to Sydney.
30:21
And this is in the 90s, I think.
30:23
Late, yeah, 94.
30:26
We went to King's Cross and stayed in King's Cross.
30:30
Because here we are from Wongare in New Zealand going to the Big Smoke.
30:35
We thought, let's go to King's Cross.
30:37
We'll stay there.
30:38
Well, jeez,
30:40
Yeah, we'd never seen any of that stuff where we came from.
30:44
Not even in Scotland.
30:45
So it was a real eye opener.
30:47
And I loved Sydney.
30:48
I loved it.
30:49
I thought, how cool.
30:51
You know, you do the multiplying in your head.
30:52
You think, how many people are here?
30:55
Oh, I can do this and that.
30:56
And we went to the shop, Big Fresh in Leichhardt it was.
31:02
And a pack-and-save in Mongre would have, you know, eight tills with four people deep, you know.
31:09
These guys had 16 tills with 16 people deep.
31:12
It was just bedlam.
31:13
And I thought, my God, I can make money here.
31:17
So I said to Christina, I want to come here.
31:21
I want to do this Australian thing.
31:22
I want to make it here.
31:24
I don't want to send it from New Zealand.
31:25
That's not going to work long term.
31:27
I want to do it.
31:28
And she said, one last time.
31:31
Yeah, because they get settled and the kids at school and everything else.
31:35
And she says, we'll do it one more time, one last time.
31:40
But, I said, yeah, we have to go to the Gold Coast because my parents had ended up on the Gold Coast.
31:47
And at that age in your career with teenage kids and stuff, you need help.
31:53
you need grandparents, right?
31:55
You need all that stuff.
31:56
And she said, as long as we go to the Gold Coast, that's fine.
31:58
And I didn't want to go to the Gold Coast because it's the Gold Coast, you know?
32:02
You go there for holiday, not for business.
32:04
But anyway, it was the best thing that she ever said to me.
32:07
It was the best ultimatum that she ever gave me.
32:11
And the story of VIP is well documented.
32:15
And, you know, basically we started with nothing.
32:18
21 years later, sold it for 410 million
32:23
How many staff did you have at the end?
32:26
850 or 950.
32:28
But that was across the chocolate thing as well, the Dalai thing as well.
32:32
But just on the pet food, it had five factories going 24 hours a day, five days a week.
32:38
And one of the things that I'm not...
32:41
really credited for, and I don't mind, as well as the pet food, kangaroo meat was quite a big ingredient in pet food.
32:51
And when we entered the kangaroo business in the bush, it was a terrible state.
32:55
It was an awful business, full of rogues and rascals and just Irishman it must have been.
33:04
And what me and my general manager, Rex Devantier, did was we cleaned up that whole business.
33:10
And we actually turned it into a human consumption business that used the scraps for pet food.
33:17
And that was a successful business.
33:20
My dad used to say that everything you touch turns to gold.
33:23
You've got the Midas touch.
33:25
And, you know, not that I want to, I'm humbled by that.
33:29
And I don't think that's,
33:30
really accurate because there has been a couple of failures.
33:34
But there's no doubt that the old saying, the harder you work, the more successful you become, has some merit and should be given some thought.
33:45
You know, people ask me, you know, where should I invest or what should I do and stuff?
33:51
I don't know.
33:51
I don't have the answer.
33:53
I don't have a pink...
33:56
fairy wand that I wave about anywhere.
33:59
I just say, and I think Jamie Winkup's grandfather told him, to win, you have to work harder and longer than your opposition.
34:09
And it's as simple as that.
34:11
Yeah.
34:11
I mean, there's a whole heap of other stuff.
34:13
So I don't want to drive this, but, you know, business is business.
34:21
And I find it quite easy, to be perfectly honest.
34:25
You have to surround yourself with good people if you're going to employ people.
34:28
Do not waste your life and your time with people that can't do it and can't keep up.
34:34
You're just killing yourself and you'll fail.
34:37
So get good people around you.
34:39
There are three things that I can pass on to people about business.
34:45
I call them the three pillars, but I'm sure you can call them whatever you like.
34:49
The first thing that is important is your brand, right?
34:53
You are big on that, aren't you?
34:55
I'm big on brand because it's a brand that people want to buy and it's a brand that...
35:01
that other businesses will want to buy, right?
35:05
They won't want to buy if you're just ABC cleaners.
35:08
Do you know what I mean?
35:09
Oh, well, maybe they will, but you've got to put some thought into that and it needs to happen in the beginning because that's what you can't really change, right?
35:17
So your brand is very, very important.
35:20
The next very, very important thing is there's a term in the retail trade called die-fought,
35:26
which is deliver in full on time.
35:31
Now, if a customer orders something and you accept the order, you've got to fulfill it, and it's got to be on time.
35:37
Otherwise, they can't run their business properly.
35:40
So the biggest...
35:42
The way I find it easy to compete in Australia.
35:44
So in New Zealand when I was in business, dive thought wasn't really talked about because everybody did it.
35:50
Kiwis are pretty competitive people and pretty good at do it, yeah.
35:55
So when I went to Aussie, the biggest thing I found was that Australian businesses of any size
36:02
Spent half their time thinking up an excuse why they didn't manage to deliver whatever they promised.
36:08
And for me, it was easy because if I said I was going to do something, I did it.
36:13
And then your customers go, they rely on you.
36:16
They don't ask what price or whatever, so long as it's value.
36:19
And that's, so that's the second pillar.
36:22
So brand, die for it or deliver what you promise.
36:25
Right.
36:26
Thirdly, and this is just as important because a lot of people get this wrong too, you've got to make margin.
36:32
You've got to understand your cost.
36:34
You've got to understand your overhead.
36:36
You've got to understand the whole thing.
36:39
And you've got to be not embarrassed at making a profit.
36:43
You say in the book, zero to 60, which I love, by the way, you have a thing about two plus two equals seven, don't you?
36:51
Just explain that.
36:54
So I love it.
36:55
And it was something that I just... Because quite often, some of my best thoughts and stuff, decisions, came when I was wearing gumboots.
37:05
Honestly.
37:06
You know, like when you take your gumboots off and put your shoes on and shirt and tie, you start talking too much, not thinking and reacting quickly.
37:14
So the 2 plus 2 equals 7 comes from...
37:19
So we all go to school and we all get taught by people, and this is not a stab at teachers, but we all get taught by teachers who have never actually left school, mainly.
37:34
Right.
37:34
So they've never really been in the big wide world.
37:36
They've looked after they get bloody 12 weeks holidays a year.
37:40
And I can imagine people going, that's bullshit, blah, blah, blah.
37:43
But some of my best friends are teachers and we discuss it or principal.
37:47
We discuss it a bit.
37:49
Right.
37:49
Because the poor other guys are out there working.
37:51
They're only getting two or three or four weeks a year off.
37:54
Teachers have a pretty good gig in my opinion.
37:57
Anyway.
37:58
So 2 plus 2 equals 4.
38:00
We all know that.
38:00
That's what they teach us.
38:01
And it's true.
38:02
Nothing wrong.
38:03
Arithmetically, it's absolutely accurate.
38:06
Perfect.
38:07
But in real life...
38:10
I say that if you take all of your costs and overheads and stuff in your business, and it's two plus two equals four, and this is where the third thing comes in the margin, a lot of people will sell their services or provide free services or whatever, and they'll sell it for four.
38:30
2 plus 2 yeah so you go bankrupt and the worst thing about going bankrupt is that you'll take other people with you and that's not right that's not good so 2 plus 2 equals 5 right
38:43
That just means that you're gonna go bankrupt slowly.
38:46
Because in business there are things that you don't take account of, tax, workers' compensation, insurance claims, whatever it is, there are things that you do not foresee, nobody sees coming, so you need to have a fair old buffer there.
39:02
And you know, you take the bushfires in Australia, you take all these things that come, and just, fuck, who saw that coming?
39:08
So, two plus two equals five, you're just gonna go bankrupt slower.
39:12
Now, two plus two equals six.
39:15
That's fine.
39:16
You're going to have a nice detached house.
39:19
The kids are going to go to a private school.
39:22
You're going to go on holiday to Fiji once a year or Hawaii in a special year.
39:27
You're going to probably drive a Volvo or a Mercedes or something, you know.
39:34
And your mother will be very proud of you.
39:38
Right?
39:39
You'll be good.
39:39
And there's nothing wrong with that.
39:42
But the real trick in business, two plus two equals eight.
39:48
Right?
39:49
Give your customer a discount because everybody wants a deal.
39:53
Sell it for seven.
39:54
Make them feel good.
39:55
Make them feel good.
39:56
They're happy and you're making profit.
39:59
And that's what 2 plus 2 equals 7 really means.
40:03
It's obviously not correct, but it's the philosophy of, you know, when you're in business, you need to double whatever it costs you.
40:11
And then if you've got a bit of slack, you can build your business.
40:15
Before we move to cars, because that's been the parallel for you between business and cars and motorsports right throughout your life for that matter, I want to just deal with the Daryl Lee chapter for a second, if I can.
40:27
Is it true, I can recall Julia Gillard getting on national television and, you know, we need to save this great Aussie company and they had such great history in their confectionery business in Australia.
40:39
Maybe the model was old, as you discovered.
40:42
But...
40:43
That was a factor.
40:43
I think you, did one of your sons get on the phone and say, Dad, I think we can do something here.
40:47
And was it true that your mum said, where am I going to get my peanut brittle?
40:50
Or is that, is that a, is that a fictitious story?
40:53
No, she didn't say peanut brittle.
40:55
Was it?
40:56
But what happened was, you're quite right, Clark, actually, who was in limbo, had done his job in the pet food land.
41:03
He was a dry food guy, done a good job in Dubbo, kind of looking for something else to do.
41:08
Clark had said, you know, this Darryl Lee thing might be worth looking at.
41:12
And Rex, my GM, said to me...
41:15
we should have a look at Darlie.
41:16
I said, no way.
41:18
Like, you know, we're not gonna fix a broken business that other people have tried fixing.
41:23
And you know, it's too hard.
41:24
I don't wanna do that.
41:25
We've got better things to do.
41:27
And you're right that Julia Gillard went on TV.
41:30
And after that, my mom phoned me up and said, oh, Tony, you know, like Darlie's gone into bankrupt or whatever she said.
41:39
I said, yeah, I know.
41:40
And she said, you should buy that.
41:43
I said, Mum, it's buggered.
41:46
It's a big job.
41:47
And she says, oh, you would easy manage that.
41:50
That would be right up your street.
41:51
You'd enjoy that and stuff.
41:53
And I don't know whether Clark had phoned her up and teed her up or something.
41:57
Anyway, the truth is, I'm thinking, no, I'm not doing that.
42:00
So I went in the next day and I said to Rex, mate, let's have a look at Darla Lee.
42:05
And we went down and had a look at it.
42:07
It was an absolute shambles.
42:10
It was, to be honest, a disgrace.
42:12
that a family had let it go.
42:14
Like that business had supplied the Lee family with, if it wasn't 17, it was 27 properties in Sydney.
42:24
The business needed 11 million bucks to write it, to fix it.
42:28
The family didn't want to put any money into it because they didn't want to risk it because they'd been used to money coming out of the business, not going into the business.
42:38
And the management team that they had were pretty buggered, really.
42:43
And yet the product was good.
42:46
The product was good, but it wasn't good enough.
42:48
Okay.
42:48
Yeah.
42:49
I mean, what they were doing, they were selling the product that they made fundamentally through their own stores.
42:54
Yeah.
42:55
And when you sell stuff through your own stores, you really don't have to compete.
42:58
Mm-hmm.
42:59
Because you can put it where you like and you can price it however you like.
43:02
Mm-hmm.
43:02
And you don't really have to compete with anybody on the shelf beside you.
43:05
Mm-hmm.
43:06
Right?
43:06
So the pander that goes into the shop, they have to buy something from the shop, basically.
43:10
So it's a bit of a free license to do what you like.
43:13
And that's why outlet shops have sprouted and pop factory shops, because you get rid of the shit that you can't sell, you can't compete with.
43:21
Not the shit, but you get rid of the product that you can't compete with.
43:24
So the first thing we did, we said we're not taking on any of the retail shops.
43:30
They're gone.
43:32
There was only one out of 65 making a profit.
43:37
And when I say profit, it was making $100,000 a year.
43:40
Like, that's not profit.
43:42
So we shut all of those.
43:46
The product count went from 700 and whatever to 85%.
43:52
The staff went from 700 or 500 and something to 85.
43:57
85 being the magic number.
43:59
There is no magic number, but that was the numbers.
44:01
And we set about writing the business.
44:05
And I can tell you that within three months, the business was losing $11 million a year.
44:13
And within three months, it was making money.
44:17
Back in the black?
44:18
Yeah, back in the black.
44:19
That's amazing.
44:20
Yeah.
44:22
I didn't think so, and I still don't think so.
44:25
It was just good strategy and positive direction, and this is what we're doing.
44:31
This is what will fix it.
44:32
And I guess what helped me was that I didn't have any love of chocolate rock or whatever it was.
44:42
I didn't care.
44:42
Mm-hmm.
44:43
The product had to be good enough to compete and it had to have a good enough margin in order for us to make it.
44:51
Because a lot of the products they were making, there was negative margin.
44:54
So the next thing I did was I went to the retailers.
44:56
Well, at the beginning of that, when I shut the retail shops, I personally, along with my sales guys, went to the retailers and said, we're going to shut all these shops.
45:10
Do you want to stock Darryl Lee on your shelf?
45:13
Knowing full well that they would like a piece of that Darryl Lee business, like sales.
45:19
And each and every one of them said, yes, that's what we would like to do.
45:23
And we got a good, but you know the thing that really did it?
45:28
was because they knew I was connected or owned VIP Pet Foods, and VIP Pet Foods had a die-fought rate of 98%, which is like most people struggle to get to 92, 95.
45:43
You know, we had an average score of 98%, and the supermarket said, yes, we will give you space because we know that you won't run us out of stock.
45:55
I see.
45:55
Yeah.
45:56
So, and then, I don't know, five years later or four years, whatever.
46:00
I'm not good with that time stuff because one, you know, I don't split my weeks with weekends.
46:06
It's just one rolls into the next.
46:09
And sold it for 200 million and I still have a share in it and stuff like that.
46:16
But you know another interesting story?
46:18
I know you want to talk about Dali.
46:19
Dali's a great story.
46:20
I still have 10% and I still go and see what the guys are doing every so often.
46:24
Now, as an ex-owner, you think, oh, I don't really think you should be doing that.
46:28
But do you know what?
46:29
They're doing a good job.
46:31
And if you stand back and look, it's fine.
46:34
Perhaps it's not what I would have done, but the job that they're doing is perfect.
46:39
So as an investor, I'm happy.
46:42
But just when I sold VIP, I sold it for $410 million.
46:47
It cost me startup costs and stuff.
46:50
It was good.
46:51
Paid an awful lot of tax.
46:53
You know, it was crazy.
46:54
The government wins in all of these deals, right?
46:57
They're the ones that really win.
46:59
Anyway, so I sold it for $410, but I kept 10% of it, right?
47:03
Just because my theory there is, if you've got a good business, a bona fide good business, and somebody wants to buy it,
47:11
If you can, keep 10%.
47:13
If they're a good operator, keep 10% because it's a business that you know and you know the ins and outs and the ups and downs.
47:21
And if it's a good business, they'll do the work for you and grow the value, right?
47:27
So 10% I kept of VIP Pet Foods and they had all sorts of grand schemes and off it went.
47:34
Two years later...
47:36
Chris Hardley phoned me up and said, hey, TQ, I think we could sell this thing.
47:41
He says, it's not ready to be sold, but I think we can sell it.
47:45
And I said, really?
47:46
I said, oh, good on you.
47:48
You don't think you should keep it and get another year under the belt because it's got some good things happening?
47:53
No, no.
47:53
It's the Chinese stroke American conglomerate syndicate.
47:59
I said, OK, fine.
47:59
He says, the only thing is,
48:02
you're going to have to help me sell it because the Chinese want to talk to the original owner.
48:08
And, you know, it's the Chinese way, I think.
48:12
Anyway, I said, yeah, no problem, eh?
48:14
No issue whatsoever.
48:16
Well, whatever's good for the cause, I'm in.
48:19
I said, how much are you going, how much, you know, what's the deal?
48:22
Because what they had done is they'd paid 400 million for it.
48:25
They'd spent 100 million on acquisitions.
48:28
The turnover had gone up 100 million, but the profit remained the same, which is what big companies do.
48:36
You know, that's how they work.
48:38
Anyway, he said, I reckon we can get 1.2 billion.
48:42
I says, no.
48:44
I says, mate, no way.
48:48
I says, that's a waste of time.
48:49
No, he says, I think we can do it.
48:52
I said, you're joking.
48:53
Anyway...
48:54
but another few weeks went by.
48:56
It was October.
48:58
And so the deal was I had to go down and spend an afternoon with this Chinese group, you know, the round table sort of thing.
49:07
Well, I'm here to tell you that it was probably one of the worst afternoons ever.
49:13
I enjoyed it for the first hour.
49:16
But the second hour, when they went over the same things again, I was losing focus.
49:22
The third hour, when they went over the same things again...
49:26
And then the next half hour, when they tried to go over the same things again, I sort of cut it short.
49:32
I was getting short at this stage and saying, hey, you know, I've got to go, blah, blah, blah.
49:36
Anyway, so I left the room, I left the meeting, and I phoned Chris the next day.
49:42
I said, Matt, that was terrible.
49:43
That was an awful afternoon I spent.
49:46
He says, I know.
49:47
He says, I spent five and a half hours the day before.
49:50
I said, you didn't want to tell me?
49:53
He says, no, I couldn't tell you.
49:55
Anyway, here's the story.
49:57
We sold it for a billion dollars.
49:59
Amazing.
50:00
Yeah.
50:01
Second roll of the dollar.
50:02
So that 40 million investment became 100 within two years, you know?
50:07
And that was the easiest money I ever made.
50:11
Do you know, because I didn't have much to do with it when it was under their stewardship and stuff, so...
50:17
I don't know.
50:18
There's an old saying, the first million's the hardest one to make and the rest come easier.
50:22
And I guess that's true.
50:24
So during that time, I had used motorsport to promote my brands, right?
50:32
And it worked for you, didn't it?
50:34
It worked marvellously for me because I stayed in there.
50:42
I stayed hung around and I was lucky.
50:45
to being involved in Shane's return to V8s.
50:48
That was a lucky move.
50:50
Yeah, Shane.
50:51
And then for Will Davidson, John O'Ebb to win Bathurst with Shane right behind them.
50:56
And I wasn't on the phone to Shane at the time.
50:58
He said, stay behind.
51:00
But for them to win Bathurst, I thought was a great exit for the V8 thing for me.
51:04
Mm-hmm.
51:05
Yeah, so look, motorsport in business for me, whilst, you know, people would say that it's for personal enjoyment.
51:14
It's actually not.
51:15
I've used it for the businesses that I've got.
51:19
And I've done very, very well out of the businesses that I've had.
51:23
Is there any truth to the story that one of the marketing bosses of a big Australian grocery company wanted you to do a traditional TV advertisement?
51:36
You wanted to stick with motorsport.
51:38
You figured out what state this bloke lived in and you bought a limited campaign in that state to sort of appease him but kept going with motorsport.
51:45
Is that what you did?
51:46
Well, there was lots of things.
51:47
And yes, that's true.
51:49
And I used to find out where the buyers would live and I would put a billboard up on them.
51:55
Yeah, on their way home or to work.
51:58
Because they apply a lot of pressure to spend your money to build their business.
52:03
That's how it works.
52:04
And yeah, it's a joint thing.
52:05
But it's a kind of win in small letters for you and a massive win big letters for them.
52:12
That's how their model works.
52:15
But yes, no, it wouldn't be, I didn't do it once.
52:18
I probably did it three or four times where I would find out where the buyer lived and then work out that he would see that billboard on his way to work or his wife or somebody would, yeah, he would see it and then tell him that we had a national campaign going on.
52:32
Yeah, and the same with television and stuff like that.
52:36
Although television never really worked.
52:39
So I remember spending $117,000, which was a lot of money in those days, with television in Victoria, you know, Target Victoria.
52:50
because that's where the buyer of coals was that was saying you need to spend money on television.
52:55
So I spent £170,000 in Victoria.
52:57
And do you know what?
52:58
I never saw the advert.
52:59
I don't live in Victoria.
53:01
Nobody ever said to me, oh, I saw your ad on TV, right?
53:05
So, and almost similar or concurrently, a bit...
53:11
well, not concurrent, but a bit after that, a month after that, Fitzy, Peter Fitzgerald, who used to run a Porsche against Jim and stuff, Porsche Cup, he was always stuck for funds, you know?
53:21
He was the proverbial, you know, he was an accountant, and I could never work out how he was even in motorsport.
53:28
Anyway, I decided to sponsor Fitzy.
53:31
Two things happened, I can tell you.
53:34
I sponsored Fitzy and he, for Bathurst and Indy, it was 10 grand or something for his bonnet or the front of his car.
53:44
And at Bathurst and Indy, the cameras are quite often up, or were quite often up high.
53:49
So in Fitzy 1, Bathurst...
53:52
And he won Indy.
53:53
And after Bathurst, I would have had, on the Monday, I would have had 10, 12 phone calls from people.
54:02
Or you didn't phone me up to tell me, but if I'd been on the phone buying beef or something, they'd say, oh, I saw your car winning Bathurst the other day and stuff.
54:10
And I thought to myself, wow, this is much better for branding than just having a TVC, a normal TVC.
54:18
So that's, and the other golden bit.
54:21
was at Canberra Street Race.
54:23
You remember then?
54:24
Yes, I did.
54:25
Supercars.
54:26
Yes, Cameron McLean, right?
54:28
He was our private here, and we sponsored his bonnet, and I think it was $7,000.
54:33
Jamie Blakey was his manager or whatever.
54:36
And I was reluctant.
54:38
I said, ah, nah, nah.
54:40
Anyway, I finally did it.
54:42
And as luck would have it, I'm pretty sure they did the top 15 shootout.
54:47
Mm-hmm.
54:49
And Cameron was 15th, right?
54:50
So he just snuck in.
54:51
He was the first car on the track, and God bless him, Barry Sheen was commentating, right?
54:57
And Barry, they were talking up this camera guy.
54:59
He's a private here, and he's in the 15.
55:02
And well, the first turn at Canberra was a hard right, I think.
55:06
Well, Cameron didn't make it, smacked into the wall on the left-hand side, bent the front wheel, but carried on.
55:14
But he carried on at snail's pace.
55:17
And of course, being television and stuff, they had to talk about Cameron and his new sponsor on the front, VIP Pet Foods.
55:27
It was golden.
55:29
It was, you know, so Jim Richards will always tell you, you can have as much talent as you like, but you need a fair bit of luck as well.
55:36
And businesses like that too.
55:37
You know, you can have a good idea, great product, great everything, but you need a bit of luck too.
55:43
I mean, that doesn't harm to have a bit of luck, good luck.
55:51
That's the end of part one of my chat with Tony Quinn.
55:54
Make sure you check out part two where he gets deeper into the passion for cars and racing.
55:59
From Target Tasmania to some seriously cool and very rare wheels in the collection.
56:07
Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
56:11
Series producer and editor is Alex Mitchell.
56:14
Audio production by Darcy Thompson.
56:22
Listener.