Jack Cowin was born on the 13th of July 1942, in Montreal, Canada. Cowin is a successful Australian-Canadian businessman and entrepreneur who built his empire on pizzas, burgers and fried chicken. Since 1982, he has served as chairman of the board of Competitive Foods Australia.
Personal Life
Married to Sharon Cowin, Jack has four children. Jack is currently living in Sydney, Australia with his wife Sharon and two of the couple’s children.
Though from Canada, Jack has been an Australian citizen since the 1980s. He also has Canadian citizenship and holds permanent residency status in both countries.
When he was just 17 years old, he moved to Canada from his birthplace in Montreal, Quebec. In 1963, he was hired at a Long John Silver restaurant near his home in Burlington, Ontario.
Work-Life (Career)
After working at the restaurant for two years, Cowin became a franchisee in 1965. Using his savings amounting to USD 500 CDN, he obtained four locations in Windsor, Ontario. For 12 months, he worked as the general manager of these restaurants and proved to be successful.
In 1966, Cowin moved down under and settled in Perth. He then worked with Wimpy restaurants for two years before starting up his own burger bar called “Hungry Jack ‘s.” Later he sold it to the Pillsbury Company in 1969. Next, he spent the next fifteen years building the business. Now the business has grown and is known as Competitive Foods Australia Limited. This company owns Hungry Jack’s.
Cowin’s Business expansion
In 1982, Cowin purchased the 97-outlet Burger King franchise in Western Australia from its US parent Burger King Corporation for USD 9 million. This was possible with extra finance from Westpac Banking Corporation. Furthermore, in October 1984, he took control of the East Coast & Midlands Burger King franchise in Victoria.
Next, in July 1989 he acquired a 50 percent interest in the Queensland franchise. In 1991, he also acquired full control of the Victorian and WA franchises. He sold the East Coast & Midlands franchise to Castrol Australia Pty Ltd for USD 3.9 million in 1993. However, he retained ownership of half that state’s outlets trading under the Burger King brand name when it was sold to Hungry Jack’s Pty Limited.
The sale was subject to action by creditors of the then insolvent Castrol Australia Pty Ltd. They demanded Cowin settle his debts or face losing all his assets seized by them to cover their loans with him. Cowin did not want to lose the Burger King outlets he had worked so hard to win. He was prepared to inject USD 1.8 million into Castrol Australia Pty Ltd. Jack Cowin also decided to pay Castrol’s debts which amounted approximately to AUSD 3.2 million. He proposed this in return for the transfer of ownership of 10 Victorian stores to him. With that gesture, his creditors withdrew their petition against him.
Competitive Foods Australia Limited
In 1996, Cowin bought out Hungry Jack’s founder Jack Greenburg’s interest in the company for USD 65 million. This brought full ownership under his private company Competitive Foods Australia Limited. This now controls all major fast food outlets in Western Australia through Competing Foods (Australia) Proprietary Limited. Moreover, it operates over 80 percent of fast food outlets in that state. The list also includes KFC and Red Rooster.
In October 2007, Burger King Corporation gave notice that it wished to end its franchise agreement. This happened while Cowin was the operator of Burger King brand in Australia. In January 2008, at a meeting, a motion was passed to dissolve the Australian company set up. This was when Cowin was operating Australia’s 130-plus franchised Burger King restaurants.
At this stage, it is unclear whether BKC will attempt to exercise its option on the remaining 30-odd franchised stores operating under the Hungry Jack’s brand name in Western Australia, or seek to establish new relationships with both foodservice operators and real estate owners/developers if it decides to add Burger King outlets to its global development pipeline.
Cowin takes over Burger King
In June 2008, Cowin purchased the master franchise rights for Burger King in New Zealand from US-based private equity firm Wellspring Capital Management and local partner Frasers Property Australia. This was for an undisclosed sum. He plans to take advantage of the growth and popularity of the U.S. fast-food chain in that country by expanding its presence there over coming years. He has already succeeded in opening 8 restaurants since taking over negotiations with Wellspring last year.
Other businesses run by Jack Cowin
Cowin is also involved with other businesses such as Lone Star Texas Grill Inc. Lone Star is a casual dining/family restaurant chain operating throughout Canada (and recently opened its first outlet in Perth, Western Australia ).
In 2005 he acquired The Fish Market. It is a full-service seafood restaurant chain in Australia. Ever since it has expanded to become the country’s largest with 53 outlets. He is also chairman of Yum Restaurants (Australia) Pty Ltd, the corporate parent of two other popular quick-service brands—KFC and Pizza Hu. This is while handling over 130 outlets across both Western Australia and Victoria.
Other members of the Cowin family are in the businesses too. These include air charter services (Jet Air), property development (Competitive Property Developments Proprietary Limited), transport (Competitive Container Transport Proprietary limited), trucking (Competitive Road Carriers Proprietary Limited), and refuse collection.
Cowin recently became associated with an upcoming television reality series. The series is based on his personal life. Later on, Cowin decided to open his new restaurant brand called the Red Rooster.
The net worth of Cowin according to BRW magazine is at USD 1.8 billion (in 2016). As of now (2021), Jack Cowin’s net worth stands at USD 3.8 billion.
Read more on: Billionaire Elon Musk Sells More Tesla Shares
Comment Template