Boom time for the BRW Young Rich

Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar have topped the 2014 BRW Young Rich list with combined wealth of $2.1 billion, a record high in the list’s 12-year history.

Overall, wealth on the list has also boomed, thanks a strong technology sector, a string of successful sharemarket floats and a rising property market.

The 100 members of the Young Rich have put on a combined $3.1 billion wealth in the past 12 months to reach an overall record of $8.3 billion.

Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar’s ­fortune has risen from $550 million on the 2013 list, with software company Atlassian is now valued at more than $3 billion after significant equity injections from United States investors T. Rowe Price and Dragoneer ­Investment Capital earlier this year.

Overall wealth on the list reaches a record $8.3 billion, led by strong debuts from several technology, education and property entrepreneurs.

Third and fourth on the Young Rich are debutants Dave Greiner and Ben Richardson, at $500 million. The pair run Sydney email marketing firm ­Campaign Monitor, which received a big investment from Insight Venture Partners earlier this year.

Fifth is technology investor Simon Clausen, whose wealth reaches $487 million compared to $350 million a year ago, primarily from the increasing value of his Freelancer shares.

Carman’s Carolyn Creswell is richest woman

There are 23 new names on the list, which measures the wealth of the 100 richest Australians aged 40 and under who have not inherited their wealth.

The richest woman is Carolyn Creswell, owner of the Carman’s muesli brand, with $83 million at position 25.

She is one of only six women on the list, but says:  “I don’t want to be condescended to by having my gender be the focus. Just judge me for what I’ve done”.

One thing Creswell has finally done, 21 years after buying Carman’s Fine Foods for $1000 and moving it into her Melbourne kitchen, is beat the multinationals. The retail sales of Carman’s products topped the muesli category across Coles and Woolworths, according to their moving annual totals as at September 28, which Creswell credits to staying nimble and awake to trends.

“We introduced Blueberry Seed Nut Bars this year and they weren’t ­performing. We replaced ‘Seed’ with ‘Superfood’ and doubled the sales,” she says. “That’s something you can do very quickly when you own 100 per cent of the company.”

As much of a “product obsessive” today as when she mixed mueslis in her own kitchen, Creswell has just overseen the “reformulation” of her entire muesli range, in response to consumer ­feedback that it took too long to chew.

“We reduced the thickness of the oats to make it lighter and easier to eat,” she says. “You’ve got to stay focused on that last 20 metres: the things a shopper will consider before they decide to buy. It’s worth investing in.”

Mentoring

This will be Creswell’s last year on the Young Rich list, as she will turn 41 before the 2015 edition.

However, the Rich 200 list itself may be in reach if plans to “supercharge” ­distribution overseas come to fruition.

Creswell would like to see 30 per cent of Carman’s revenue sourced offshore within two years and her company has recently struck bigger distribution deals with Sainsbury’s in the UK, Tesco in south-east Asia and the “Vantage” chain in China.

The big leap in Carman’s revenue growth over the year may also have something to do with Creswell’s higher media profile since becoming a judge on Channel 10’s Recipe To Riches. Her celebrity will only increase from this weekend when the first-ever Carman’s television commercials air, starring Creswell and – unusually for the medium – her real-life children.

“I’ll probably get some flak for that, but it’s just who I am,” she says.

“They got a day off school for the filming so they thought it was way cool.”

Yet Creswell knows branding and marketing will only take you so far.

“When I’m mentoring young entrepreneurs in the FMCG space, I tell them that getting listed [stocked on the supermarket shelf] is the easy part. Getting customers to put your product in their trolley week in and week out is the challenge.”

Technology

Perhaps the most intriguing­­ ­debutant is 18-year-old London-based Nick D’Aloisio, who was born in ­Melbourne and still holds an Australian passport. D’Aloisio, in 90th position, is the youngest person to ever appear on the list and derived his $23 million fortune from the sale of his Summly news reading and summarising app to Yahoo! for a reported $US30 million ($34 million) last year.

The technology sector dominates the list, contributing 30 names. Next comes sport with 13 and then services with 11.

The average wealth per person on the BRW Young Rich rises to $83 million, up from $52 million last year. Sharemarket floats are also a strong trend on the list, with at least ­15 members having undertaken an ­initial public offering on the ASX in the past 12 months or with plans to do so by the end of this year or in early 2015.

Those range from next month’s IPO of education and training firm Australian Careers Network, whose co-founders Ivan Brown and Atkinson Prakash Charan debut in 12th and 13th positions with combined wealth of $177 milllion, to Ruwan Weerasooriya, who floated the digital loyalty scheme company Rewardle on the ASX in early October.

Weerasooriya debuts on the Young Rich in 95th position with wealth of $22 million. “It shows the ASX can be a source of funding for an early stage business,” he said.

Property provides nine names for the list, including Jonathan Hallinan, who ranks 17th with $113 million to his name. He owns luxury apartment developer BPM Construction and Development and he was not ­convinced there would be any sort of property downturn.

“I’ve been in the business since 1996 and I’ve been told this is a bubble since 1996,” Hallinan said.

NOW READ: 2014 BRW Young Rich list

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