May 1, 2025 • 3861 mins
In this episode of The Glass Ceiling, Marissa Hankinson speaks with George Belpario, the founder of Fasta Pastaone of South Australia’s most recognisable hospitality success stories.
George shares how he turned one humble pasta restaurant into a multi-location operation across the state. From the early days of hands-on hustle to navigating the challenges of growth in a dynamic industry, this episode explores what it takes to build a business with staying power.
A must-listen for founders, food entrepreneurs, and anyone fascinated by the journey from local beginnings to household name. Produced by Wavebreaker Productions
#TheGlassCeilingPodcast #GeorgeBelpario #FastaPasta #SouthAustralianBusiness #HospitalityLeadership #BusinessGrowth #EntrepreneurJourney #AdelaideBusiness #LocalSuccessStory #WavebreakerProductions #ItalianFood
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to The Glass Ceiling, the podcast
where business leaders share their
stories, struggles, and triumphs. There
is a lot in that. There's a lot of
learning. We sort of had different views
on how the business should be ran. The
next 10 years looks like for South
Australia. Stop! Ohh The easiest.
I'm your host, Marissa Hankinson from
Wavebreaker, and I'm passionate about
amplifying their voices. Join me as we
(00:24):
explore the highs and lows of innovation.
entrepreneurship, and leadership. From
founders to CEOs, our guests will share
their insights, experiences, and advice
on how to succeed and make a lasting
impact. Get ready for inspiring
conversations and valuable lessons. Let's
shatter the glass ceiling one story at a
time.
(00:45):
George, welcome to The Glass Ceiling.
It's an absolute pleasure to have you on
the show. Before we get into our chat, I
just want to tell our listeners a little
bit about you. George Valperio
is the founder of Pasta Pasta, a beloved
Australian brand renowned for his
delicious, authentic Italian cuisine.
With a passion for sharing the flavors
and traditions of his Italian heritage,
(01:08):
George has built a successful business
that has become synonymous with
quality, freshness and community.
Under George's leadership, Pasta Pasta
has expanded to multiple locations,
including hundreds of staff and serving
thousands of customers every week.
Despite the demands of running a growing
business, George remains committed, even
though you said you haven't been to work
(01:29):
for about 10 years, you're still
strategically involved. He's still
involved, but yes. Yeah. You are
committed to the finest ingredients,
supporting locals and families, and
fostering a culture of excellence.
Where do you get this stuff from?So join
us as we have a chat to George. I am
intrigued about this conversation. I
(01:50):
think I'm going to really, really enjoy
it. I hope so. Yeah, we've had a bit of a
chat off camera as well. So, George,
welcome to the class ceiling. Thank you,
Marissa. Yeah. So let's get started.
So I'm allowed to see Rach.
Of course you are. You're proud of your
age. Yeah, Yeah happy to have made it.
I've got friends that would love to say
that they could get to 71, they didn't,
(02:12):
but yeah. Yeah You're looking very well
on it. Thank you, feel good. And so you
came to Australia when you were three
years old. Correct. Yeah, so let's get
back to that because I'm from the
UK originally, very, very different. So
you were what, 1950s you came over?
'58, yep. So your dad, dad and his
younger brother came out earlier. Dad and
(02:34):
his little brother came out. I don't
think they came the same year. Dad came
out in 55. I was six months old.
His brother would have come out, I'm
guessing, about a year or so later. They
were the oldest of six kids. What that
did is it freed up the little bit of land
that was left for the other four as they
grew up, plus dad and and Uncle Pat sent
(02:54):
over a bit of money the first couple of
years which would have expanded those few
acres. All of a sudden you got four
kids living on say 20 acres instead of
six kids living on 10 acres, the whole
equation changes. Yeah. So
what was your dad's, did he have a trade
or?No, No dad grew up on the
land. all his ancestors would have
(03:17):
been sheep and and wheat farmers uh they
didn't even have tobacco back in in our
village at that time they did a couple of
decades later it uh it changed the
landscape but no no they were
farmers and not not a lot of money around
in the 50s anywhere in Europe after the
war so uh we're basically uh
(03:38):
might uh migrated yes
but we're basically
Boat people, I always say, you know
You literally came over on a boat. We
literally came up over on a boat for six
weeks and we are economic
migrants, that's the expression I was
looking for. Economic migrants,
(03:58):
fantastic. So where did
you get your entrepreneurial
From you obviously it's I think these
things are ingrained in you you either
have got it or you haven't got it I don't
think it's something that you can teach
were you that were you that one who
hustled at school or always had a bit of
a side job or always always you know
(04:19):
selling papers at 12 years old working in
the Eastern markets 1314 the produce
markets. And even not just working for a
boss, I'd even you know get a bit of
fruit and veg, fruit maybe not veg, take
it to school and sell apples and pears
out of your bag. Always half asleep at
school because you're getting up at four
o'clock in the morning to go to the
(04:40):
market three mornings a week. I just
thought it was normal. I thought all kids
did that sort of thing.
I think to to want
to do business, you've got to have a work
ethic and I got that from my parents.
it's a rural thing, I don't think it's an
Italian thing per se, I think all people
from the countryside
(05:01):
yeah have a different sort of approach to
life than people from the city and that's
just the fact, that's not a... Their days
are a lot longer and there's a lot more
responsibility and unfortunately nobody's
going to do it for you so someone's got
to do it. Correct, correct. Mum and Dad
were always hard workers.
(05:21):
I thinkDad was a bit of an
entrepreneur, he wasn't lucky, his timing
was always wrong but he was a good man,
he had a lot of friends, he had a great
attitude to life. I learned a lot from
his sense of humor. Mum was hard-working,
Mum could work seven days a week. She'd
pop a kid out, she had six kids, she'd
pop a kid out and go back to work. In
fact, the oldest girl raised the younger
(05:43):
too almost, she was looking after her
before school, after school. It was a
different world in the 60s and 70s.
Yeah. So I'm I'm going to go back because
is it really about
luck?You know, you said, oh, my dad, you
know, my dad was, you know, wasn't lucky.
Do you think luck plays a huge part
(06:06):
in business?Timing is everything. You've
got to you've got to work hard because if
you don't give a damn and you don't work
and you don't plan and you don't like
people and you don't know what you're
doing. You don't like people like that.
In my game, in hospitality, you've got to
like people. You've got to like the
crowd. You've got to be able to handle
the rush and that involves liking people
(06:28):
and putting up with stress andyou know I
had a i had a way of handling. I'd fill
up the restaurant with bookings and then
when people complained that the table
wasn't ready, I'd buy them a drink of
course which you do. My attitude was a
booking gets you in here. Now we were we
were cocky. A booking doesn't get you a
table but we ran fun places
that you know it worked. My My
(06:49):
style of of management worked. Pasta
Pasta is a classic example, you know
it works. But
timing is everything, you can have a
fantastic idea, you can you can have all
the planning, you know the right people
and then something, say
the COVID
(07:11):
comes along, that's the luck, you know
that's that's the time, your your life
partner leaves you, your business partner
turns out to be not as straight as you
know yeah in business as you, that
happens a lot. I know a lot of people
that work harder than I
smarter than me and didn't quite
get there. So that's where the element of
(07:31):
luck, but you've still got to-- You've
still got to do the hard jobs. Yeah.
You've got to love what you do and do
what you love and it'll happen. So
before you mentioned hospitality,
like you mentioned the markets, were you
always hospitality or did you ever
deviate into a different before you hit
on hospitality?I did a couple
(07:52):
of years at law school, yeah I didn't
like it. My son's a lawyer, my brother's
a lawyer, my daughter-in-law's, I'm
surrounded by them. I didn't like the
fact you're always solving people's
problems. You know I worked it out even
at law school, we used to do Tuesday
evenings, we'd have a legal workshop. We
weren't lawyers, they knew we weren't
lawyers but they'd just get an idea of
(08:13):
their position, they'd still have to go
to legal aid or see a lawyer and I just
realized all these people are coming in
whinging about this, their neighbors,
their life partner, their business
partner, the government. You know Do I
want to spend the rest of my life doing
this?And I realized at a very early age,
no. I was also a waiter at the time,
two or three nights a week. That's that
(08:34):
work ethic. It's not, you can't be a
full-time student. You've always got to
work. And a lot of students end up
in the field that they do part-time or
their union, that some end up with a
degree and still pursue their second
love, which becomes their first love.
With me, it became my first love. I
went to work for the government, I was
(08:56):
working in the Australian Taxation Office
for four and a half years, but I was
again, it was just too
restrictive and a lot of people, it was a
dream job, money was good, uh
you don't work really hard,It was
interesting, it's mentally stimulating,
but I think it just wasn't enough. I
(09:18):
needed, without knowing it at the time, I
was young, I I needed to work for myself.
And the opportunity came up, a gentleman,
Vic Ventura, he's still a mentor today,
still a friend. Vic's 17, 18
years older than I am. I'd worked for him
in his own restaurant. I'd worked with
him in other people's restaurants over
the previous seven, eight years.
(09:41):
Our paths had crossed several times and
he asked me if I was ready to open a
restaurant. Without thinking I said yes.
Well well you didn't have like the chef
background or anything like that. We
talked about your mum being a big
influence for you in the kitchen and
obviously you're one of six children?Yes,
older from six. Yeah so that's like
(10:03):
big family. So go on sorry.
No No not at all. You're right and I
think that'sWhat was probably holding me,
I never thought of opening a restaurant
at that age. I may have eventually, may
have taken me another 10 years. What were
you, mid-20s by this stage?Yeah, Yeah I
would have been 79, I was 25
exactly, right in the mid-20s. And
(10:25):
the reason, that's the
greatest fear of any young person in
hospitality. If you're not a chef, a lot
of chefs don't always succeed because
they don't focus on front of house. A
lot of waitersThat
don't know enough about backer house have
problems. Yeah, you sort of almost need
(10:46):
that partnership of somebody in the back,
somebody at the front, and they're
usually the best partnership. Yeah. And
this is what happened now. Vic wasn't a
chef, but he'd been doing it long enough.
He picked up and he was. best waiter I've
ever seen but he admitted it that he was
burnt out. He said I don't want to talk
to people anymore, I've had it. He
was late 40s but he'd learnt enough
(11:07):
about the kitchen that no one could bluff
him and if somebody walked out you know
on a Friday, Saturday night, which I'd
seen happen in other restaurants and the
owners panic and the service
goes downhill, they could put the apron
on or he was already in there working
anyway, no one ever left us because they
didn't have that leverage. and I
(11:27):
I trusted Vic sufficiently. He was
fine, there was no ego clash between us.
He ran the back, I ran the front. We got
on very, very well for 40 odd years. And
it sounds like you had that, you said you
spoke about people and you loved people,
you really had that the bookings not
guarantee a table. I'll keep you in. I
(11:47):
think there's a couple of restaurants
that I go to in Adelaide here. They never
turn you away, it does not matter. They
could be up to the hill. And you always
feel special. You know you know They've
taken the time, they're giving you a good
service. The best restaurant in the
world is a subjective thing. It's where
you are known and liked. So if you can
(12:08):
walk in, you feel comfortable, the food's
got to be okay, you don't have to have
the best food, you've got to have good,
fresh, you've got to have all theBut
if you're known and liked there and
you're made to feel special, people don't
go out just to eat. People go out
special occasion, they don't feel like
washing the dishes, it's on the way home,
(12:29):
it's before the theatre. There's often a
lot of reasons people go out. So it's
understanding that that keeps you ahead
of the curve. And sometimes saying I've
got, you know, I've done that a few times
and I've got tickets to Her Majesty's and
they go no worries and all of a sudden,
they realize that you know you're on a
bit of a clock and just taking that time
to even just know about about
(12:50):
you. So you did the restaurant
and you just mentioned there about
Vince being able to get the apron on and
you know staff didn't leave you. Do you
think there is something in
thatdoesn't matter where you are within
the business, having that mentality of
rolling your sleeves up and getting stuck
(13:12):
on when you need is a big thing. It's
part of leadership, you lead by example.
The team's got to believe in you and part
of that belief is knowing that you or
your partner or there's people there that
can do the job. So they're not, you're
not relying on them to to have to
do it. A) that puts unnecessary pressure
on them, B) that reduces their belief in
(13:34):
you. SoYou've got to have a
clear vision, you've
got to share that vision, you've got to
surround yourself with smart people,
smarter than you, no problems, but you've
got to know what you're doing. You've got
to believe in the job, you've got to love
the job. I think if you want to succeed,
you've got to find something you're
really passionate about and do it for
(13:54):
other people for a while, then take the
plunge and do it for yourself. And if you
get all that right, get the team around
you right, nine out of ten times
time will look up. You don't know at what
point you've you've got there because the
money comes. If you're doing it for the
money, it's not going to come. Yeah
It's like winning a lottery if you're
doing it for the money, you've got to jag
(14:16):
it. You do it for the right reasons, you
spend a decade partially working for
other people, a few years later you just
wake up one day and it's happened. It's a
bit like your apprenticeship really,
you've got to you know you've got to do
those, you've got to do the hard jobs.
So you talk about being in front of house
and obviously your business partner was
back of house, but what got you from
(14:39):
that restaurant to the next level?
You know, sometimes people can just be
content with that. Well, I
think the entrepreneurial spirit in you,
you want to do well. Once I burnt my
bridges with the government, it wasn't
going back there. I wasn't going to go
back to uni. Life was good, business
was going well. UmDipped my tongue
(15:00):
in the water with real estate. Rick and I
bought a building in the city. Back in
the day, we're talking a couple 100
grand. You buy a nice building in thecity,
1981-82.
We were not only, we worked hard, we had
the right attitude. We got lucky early.
Lucky early, the business took off and we
(15:22):
managed to keep the restaurant at one
time. 1979 was one of the busiest
Italian restaurants in Adelaide. What we
did there was interesting. We were the
first Italian restaurant to not. At the
time, every Italian restaurant was a
clone of every other Italian restaurant.
They were all white walls, they all had
Alitalia posters, they all had Accounti
(15:42):
bottles hanging from the bar. Red white
tablecloths. Most of them had a
pizza bar in the corner, kitchen out the
back, toilet next to the kitchen out the
back. Yeah, we opened it
up. Ours wasblue walls, Bruegel prints,
stainless steel kitchen completely open.
We had Western Red Cedar barn in the
(16:04):
middle. It was quite controversial at
that time, I mean. They could have
flopped. We We went with our gut
feeling, let's do it different, let's
have some interesting food, but make the
venue interesting and it worked.
There's that little bit of luck, the
color could have been a little bit wrong.
We picked a location down the end
(16:24):
of Rundle Street,The East End Market
was just in the process of vacating. They
were still there... That could have been
high risk. Very high risk, but it
it worked in our favor. We got some
rents very, very cheap for La Mensa
and then al fresco across the road, we
opened a big Gelabarria uh
(16:45):
and that that part of town exploded. Now
it could have gone the other way, as you
say, it was risky. That's where the
element of luck comes in that you don't
control. We controlled what we could, we
worked hard, we planned, we had the right
team, the right food, uh
but the other things we couldn't control
happened to fall in our lap and it it
(17:07):
exploded. We sold the
Menza, kept the al fresco, put the money
into a building which we opened
Marco Polo which was another full-service
restaurant, 170 seater, but we had this
300 square meter basement. And I
told you a little bit of the story, we
can elaborate on that later. But yeah,
that really set us up. We're already
(17:28):
doing well, life was kind, but then
Pasta Pasta really set me... So where did
Pasta Pasta come from?So you've got your
Marco Polo, you've got your gelateria.
Where did that... we talked about
you had this dormant real estate, but
come on... Sometimes your
greatest asset can come from just a
(17:50):
throwaway idea. Everything we opened, we
had a point of difference. This is very
important in business. If you're going to
do something, if you're going to open a
plumbing business or electrical, don't
just open it and rely on your trade. Come
up with a a point of difference that
makes your customers talk about you.
With us, La Menza had the
different look and the feel and the open
(18:13):
kitchen. Alfresco, we made Gulati in
public view behind a glass wall. We
pulped watermelons, we pulped mangoes, we
baked cakes. all in public view. So the
smell, the visual was
mind-boggling. We seen a hundred people
in this gelato here and people were
coming in you know with that that wow
factor was in the visual not just the
(18:35):
product. The product was good but the the
whole package. It was an experience.
Marco Polo, we had a a couple of ladies
making gnocchi in the cornerWe'd give it
away, we'd take it home, we'd give it to
our friends. We had a lot of gnocchi
specials, but that was visual. Yeah.
Extend that a little bit further. First,
the pastor was in a basement. The front
(18:57):
door was down a side street. It.
Normally it would be very difficult to
fill. I had the luxury of a busy
restaurant, Marco Pollo. So if Marissa
came in with a partner, I could say,
Guys, you finished the milk, can you do
me a favor?I need the table, but
dessert's on me. Come downstairs, I'll
buy you coffee, I'll give you. What's
downstairs?After about four months,
(19:19):
there was no downstairs to take them to
because it was chock-a-block. But in that
first four months, we just filled it with
friends and rallies and and regular
customers. The other thing that made it
work, apart from that, I put three
machines downstairs, one extruder,
which just pushed out spaghetti and
macaroni, the other one made cappelletti,
(19:41):
which are like ravioli, and the other one
made ravioli. So one was meat filled, one
was ricotta filled, so there was this
visual wall of, it's like a little
factory. It smelled fantastic. It It was
more, the smell came from the sauce
cooking. Pasta doesn't actually have a
root, but visually it was amazing. And
every business we've had has sort of had
something like that. We've found a
(20:03):
way to get the public talking about the
place without necessarily being on TV. Or
advertising or whatever. Yeah. So
back to your, I don't remember your
question, Marissa. So I was saying, Pasta
Pasta really came from that basement as a
overflow really to the Marco Polo.
you kept that unique difference of you
(20:24):
wanted something visually stimulating
that could get be a conversation starter
when people weren't in the restaurant.
Correct. But then where did you
take what what made you go I can
replicate this?We normally didn't
replicate anything and you're right a
Pasta Pasta was opened in '84
we didn't replicate it till '89. In those
(20:45):
five years we opened a restaurant called
Via Vanatu which wasmore casual than
anything we've done. Had a 100-seater
full service and then it had a 60-seater
big set here, but just electric. Yeah
It was in Goodger Street, took off.
Everything we opened worked, energy,
location, the right team, it worked.
(21:08):
Then we did something really exciting,
which is probably the most interesting
business I ever did, I was involved with,
a place called Sector Bellor, corner of
South Terrace and Pulteney Street. It's
no longer there, it's now a a gaming
room. Machines have taken over
everything. We opened the first wood...
This is before Pokies probably. Yes, yes
(21:29):
This opened in '88 and it was the first
wood oven pizza bar in Adelaide. Ohh Now
we got the idea from Italy, we flew over
a guy we'd met that owned his own
pizzettia inMilano
Maricchi in in Italy. So he
got, we got on well, said you want a
little holiday?We gave him good money. I
was a pizza maker but I didn't understand
(21:51):
about making pizza dough with spring
water and letting it, using the 00
flour, letting it rise in the cool
room over 48 hours. This was all new to
me. I was a pizza maker, I'd worked at
Pizza Hut and I'd let it mate, that's
okay, not a problem. So
all of thishappened in those
(22:12):
five years. While we had sat the bell or
one of our regulars used to come in at
least once a week was building
some shops on the corner of Glenburn and
Greenhill. The precinct, they're
still there, the Fuster
Pasta that we opened there that was there
for nearly 20 years is no longer there
for a couple of reasons. We do move them
(22:34):
around as as you know customer
base changes. Umm
He wanted us as an anchor tenant there. I
kept saying to him, look, I'll go to
Italy for a few weeks. I'll come back
with something that'll blow you away. No,
don't want something new. I want a faster
pasta there. We kept saying no, he kept
upping the ante. Sorry to interrupt
(22:55):
because this was before my time in
Adelaide. So we had Mark Apollo, was the
basement called FasterPaster?Yes, the
brand, we had a registered logo, we
had... I just wanted to double check.
Yeah, Yeah everything we did, we we put a
bit of work into a brand. We didn't
register the logo until we took off. Then
all of a sudden we painted it, we had a
trademark as opposed to a brand.
(23:18):
UhBut the deal just got so good and from
memory, without without double
checking, I think we ended up with the 18
months rent free and he did most of the
fit out, but it had to be a fuss to pass
it. So we we buckled in. I'm glad we did.
Yeah. That's a little bit of luck
or good negotiation. You know, you
know not everyone, that's not a position
(23:40):
that everyone's in. We didn't need it. So
we could afford to say thank you, but no
thank you. In the end the deal got so
good we had to say yes. It wasn't the
fact that it worked. We knew it was gonna
work. We just were cocky. We knew it was
gonna work. Um
And it wasn't the speed of a success.
There's one particular gentleman, I'll
never forget. We had a lot of
(24:03):
reps, food reps that we've got to know,
they wanted one. They They wanted a fast
pass. We're not doing, we're not gonna
keep doing this. Until one night, I've
been working there about a month and a
gentleman, elderly gentleman asked
forI put an Esker, yeah, and
a spaghetti bolognaise, gave me a $20
note. I gave him a few dollars change. He
(24:24):
took his cutlery. Now that the cutlery
was the key. That was our system. They
sat anywhere they like. If they moved,
the staff were trained, we didn't have
table numbers. The tables were numbered
but the customers didn't know. Yeah So
they didn't know they were sitting on...
How did that get to know your customer?
They didn't know they'd moved from B4 to
C5. We knew and we had a
(24:44):
system where we were always on top of it.
So we very rarely lost a meal, even when
the place was packed and there were
skews. This gentleman never asked me, how
do you find us?Everyone else sort of did,
the new customers. How do you know where
I'm gonna be sitting?Do you call us out?
This gentleman went to the bar, got a
carafe of wine and a soft drink, went and
sat down and started chatting with his
missus. It dawned on me that we'd
(25:05):
created a system. This was before bistros
and it was a pub system that we sort of
perfected. And I thought, we've got a
little bit more than a business, we've
got a system, we've got something. So the
legal training kicked in. I started, how
can we duplicate this quickly
without going to the bank and borrowing
millions, cut people in, the right people
(25:26):
give them half at the right price and all
of this. And then I learned to franchise
and then... So what year was your first
franchise?'89 was
technically a franchise, not in the sense
of percentage of turnover but it was a a
business partnership. We owned half,
I learned a lot from that and we had two
(25:47):
partners that had a quarter each of the
business. And we did that because we were
still in the mood. I wasn't aware at that
stage that we're going to have more of
these. We were still opening things. I
was in my early 30s by then. The
wheelchair oyster. Yeah, Yeah you're
bulletproof. So we did that to
free up time and capital to
(26:09):
move on to the next venture, which for
the next couple of decades happened to be
Fuster Pusta. We
I say it was a type of franchise because
we've explained very clearly, they were a
partner in this business but we own the
name yeah and the two had to be the same
food-wise, we had to buy from the same
suppliers. You were dedicated in that
system. Yeah. We were learning about what
(26:31):
franchising really should be about, which
is standard. It probably wasn't even
the words. It wasn't, you're right. I
didn't understand what a franchise was,
we learned that later. it was an American
word that we were just partners but we're
keeping the name, if we do any more of
these blah and they were okay with that.
They They understood, it was it was
(26:52):
transparent, there was no aid, and we're
still friends today. So then you went and
had 12 in South Australia?
We had 12, we had 11 in South
Australia before we
Sorry, we had eight, we quickly moved to
11. Before we went into state, we were
approached by a syndicate of
(27:13):
guys that very, very successful. They had
done um KFC
in Australia, Pizza Hut in Australia,
Sizzlers in Australia, and they were
currently doing Lone Star. They
approached us to buy us out. We had eight
restaurants already in Adelaide. We said
we're not interested in selling. We're
only beginning to grow. Yeah, this is
your journey. And then they explained how
(27:35):
franchising works. Would you sell us the
rights to do the rest of the country and
you guys do?So that's basically what
happened. OK. yeah So you still had the
controlling interest though, which was
good. So Faster Pasta, so you're still
involved in the business. Yes. At more of
a strategic level. So what's happened to
Faster Pasta now?So it's celebrating
(27:56):
what, where are we now?
41 years this year,
we did our 40th year last year in
'24. We've had a couple of steps
backwards, we've consolidated and that's
necessary every now and then. you
sort of get rid of the ones that are
losing money. Yeah Sometimes you prop
them up for growth reasons. We currently
(28:17):
only have two interstate but we still
have 23 restaurants because
Adelaide's the strongest market. So
we have 21 here going very, very
well. We still, when I left, I've set up
five different divisions. We had
a retail division of restaurants that we
owned and then we hadat the time, 30
(28:39):
restaurants that we had franchise. So
nine we owned, actually company owned
restaurants, 30 were franchise.
Even the ones we owned had a franchise
agreement back to the head office. We
had a manufacturing division where we
made all the sauces and shipped them
around Australia, guest blush, bag in
box. It's not like
(29:02):
zapped and and served to you. They were
the base sauce, the napiri or the
bolognese or the bechamel. They still had
to be cooked in a pan and ingredients
added and freshened. We
had, we made all the pasta, par cooked,
portion controlled, bag in box, again gas
flushed, shipped around, nothing
frozen, it was all good shelf life.
(29:25):
Pasta is, I mean you buy pasta, it wasn't
made yesterday. Um
We had
uh a building division which which is
your real estate?Yeah no that was enough,
the real estate that we own was a fifth
division, the building division was to
change the stores open them, yeah
(29:46):
yeah so we had five
profit centers that reported to me, they
all had a general manager and that still
exists today, that's sort of the
foundation that you know that set the
company up long term.
Looking back because you know, you say
there's there's look involved in there
working with the right people. If you
(30:08):
look back and I know you're obviously
still involved in the business but would
there be anything that you've done
different?Hindsight's a very easy tool to
use. Would have bought a lot more real
estate and sold none. You know yeah We
sold real estate to buy a little bit
more. Would have bought a lot more
knowing what I know today that you know
interest ratesgo up and down but
(30:30):
generally banks will fund you into the
next venture if you've got a good
history. And assets, assets
are assets. We definitely do that. I mean
the biggest, our biggest division now is
real estate. My own real estate is what's
enabled me to retire early.
We lived reasonably frugally in the 90s.
(30:51):
We didn't live, we we didn'tlive
freely but we didn't live extravagantly,
we didn't have flash cars and and flash
homes so we put a lot of our profits into
real estate. I would have put a lot more,
I would have kept a lot. It's interesting
you say that because um
I sometimes think some of the most
successful business people that you
(31:13):
know are very,
very humble. They're not the big
flashyyou know And I think that's
because they know, not necessarily just
work ethic being the hard yards, but
you've also got to plow money back in to
the businesses, you've got to invest, and
that's got to compound, and it will
(31:34):
compound over time rather than
extracting things and you know having the
big flash car and having the perception.
You know Even talking about your ATO days
before off camera, you turn around and
went, if you're only living onX amount,
but you're driving a big Porsche, you're
going to get a knock on the door because
something's not quite adding up.
(31:55):
It's interesting, but in this day and
age, a lot of it is about
that perception and the external
perception you're giving on what success
is. Not necessarily.
Most Most of my peers that I really,
really admire and respect that have done
well in life, and even those that
haven't, the best people, as you say, are
(32:16):
humble. They don't take themselves too
seriously. They get it that there is a
big element of luck in in their success.
There's a lot of hard work, of course,
but there is an element of luck. There's
also, they've
learned to give back. Yeah, and you've
got to do that. If you want in a really
balanced, interesting life, you you
(32:37):
enjoy your success, but you've got to
learn to give back, whether it's money,
whether it's time, whether it's mentoring
young people, whatever it is, you've got
to give back if you want that balance.
Yeah, 'cause you've been involved with
the Variety Club for. It's not a club
anymore, it's the Variety SA. The club
sort of connotates the wrong, it was
called the Variety Club for many years.
Variety SA... It's a big abuse now. Yeah,
(33:00):
Yeah one of the best charities in the
world, they they
single digits actually to run it. So
they run the whole organization with
eight, nine percent of their turnover and
there'd be charities that would kill for
those sort of charities that pay
and I I get why, but they pay 60% of
their their return over on salaries and
(33:22):
rent. Yeah, it's all about doing good
and they put it in the right place. We
have a lot of volunteers. I was chair of
the BASH for three years and involved a
lot of time and my own money, but you
actually organize the BASH, you go out
there and do surveys all on your own
time. You know Not only do you not get
paid, it costs you money to do the job
because you're paying for your own
accommodation, your own petrol,
(33:43):
your own... But we
raised 6 million bucks in three years,
right through COVID. And it's a good
feeling. It's just a great feeling
helping people that, you know, can't
always help themselves. that's definitely
about giving back to the community. Yeah,
Italian radio is the same as one of my
mum's greatest joys is to have that radio
(34:03):
on and you know in the backyard and and
dad not so much but mum always had the
radio on, loved the music, loved the
news, loved the language. I spent 10
years with Italian radio, Radio
Daliana 531 and it
was just a great joy to to help in any
way you can. So you talked about
mentoring young people and we've got a
(34:25):
lot ofthat they're all in different
stages in business. Sometimes they're
actually employed and got that little bit
of a spark. What advice would you give
to our listeners?Make sure that
you know that you love what you do. You
do what you love, but you got to love
what you do. Don't do something because
it worked for a friend of yours. Do
(34:46):
something because you enjoy doing it.
Whatever it is, it could be making dolls
and dresses. If you enjoy doing it, do it
for somebody else for a while and learn.
Learn from them, then if you get an
opportunity to do it for yourself, jump
in. When you get a fantastic opportunity,
offer it, take it. Say yes, worry about
it, Blake. George, it's been an absolute
(35:07):
pleasure having you on The Glass Ceiling.
And yeah, we were talking about before,
and I love such an asker. So yeah, we had
a great decision. One of my favorites
too, Marissa. Yeah, fantastic, thank you
so much. Thanks for tuning in to this
episode of The Glass Ceiling. If you've
liked what you heard, please subscribe,
as we'd love to have you as part of our
community. We're grateful to our guests
(35:28):
for sharing their inspiring stories and
insights with us. This podcast was
brought to you by WaveBreaker. Join us
next time as we shatter the glass ceiling
one story at a time.
Welcome to The Glass Ceiling, the podcast
where business leaders share their
stories, struggles, and triumphs. There
is a lot in that. There's a lot of
learning. We sort of had different views
on how the business should be ran. The
next 10 years looks like for South
Australia. Stop! Ohh The easiest.
I'm your host, Marissa Hankinson from
Wavebreaker, and I'm passionate about
amplifying their voices. Join me as we
(00:24):
explore the highs and lows of innovation.
entrepreneurship, and leadership. From
founders to CEOs, our guests will share
their insights, experiences, and advice
on how to succeed and make a lasting
impact. Get ready for inspiring
conversations and valuable lessons. Let's
shatter the glass ceiling one story at a
time.
(00:45):
George, welcome to The Glass Ceiling.
It's an absolute pleasure to have you on
the show. Before we get into our chat, I
just want to tell our listeners a little
bit about you. George Valperio
is the founder of Pasta Pasta, a beloved
Australian brand renowned for his
delicious, authentic Italian cuisine.
With a passion for sharing the flavors
and traditions of his Italian heritage,
(01:08):
George has built a successful business
that has become synonymous with
quality, freshness and community.
Under George's leadership, Pasta Pasta
has expanded to multiple locations,
including hundreds of staff and serving
thousands of customers every week.
Despite the demands of running a growing
business, George remains committed, even
though you said you haven't been to work
(01:29):
for about 10 years, you're still
strategically involved. He's still
involved, but yes. Yeah. You are
committed to the finest ingredients,
supporting locals and families, and
fostering a culture of excellence.
Where do you get this stuff from?So join
us as we have a chat to George. I am
intrigued about this conversation. I
(01:50):
think I'm going to really, really enjoy
it. I hope so. Yeah, we've had a bit of a
chat off camera as well. So, George,
welcome to the class ceiling. Thank you,
Marissa. Yeah. So let's get started.
So I'm allowed to see Rach.
Of course you are. You're proud of your
age. Yeah, Yeah happy to have made it.
I've got friends that would love to say
that they could get to 71, they didn't,
(02:12):
but yeah. Yeah You're looking very well
on it. Thank you, feel good. And so you
came to Australia when you were three
years old. Correct. Yeah, so let's get
back to that because I'm from the
UK originally, very, very different. So
you were what, 1950s you came over?
'58, yep. So your dad, dad and his
younger brother came out earlier. Dad and
(02:34):
his little brother came out. I don't
think they came the same year. Dad came
out in 55. I was six months old.
His brother would have come out, I'm
guessing, about a year or so later. They
were the oldest of six kids. What that
did is it freed up the little bit of land
that was left for the other four as they
grew up, plus dad and and Uncle Pat sent
(02:54):
over a bit of money the first couple of
years which would have expanded those few
acres. All of a sudden you got four
kids living on say 20 acres instead of
six kids living on 10 acres, the whole
equation changes. Yeah. So
what was your dad's, did he have a trade
or?No, No dad grew up on the
land. all his ancestors would have
(03:17):
been sheep and and wheat farmers uh they
didn't even have tobacco back in in our
village at that time they did a couple of
decades later it uh it changed the
landscape but no no they were
farmers and not not a lot of money around
in the 50s anywhere in Europe after the
war so uh we're basically uh
(03:38):
might uh migrated yes
but we're basically
Boat people, I always say, you know
You literally came over on a boat. We
literally came up over on a boat for six
weeks and we are economic
migrants, that's the expression I was
looking for. Economic migrants,
(03:58):
fantastic. So where did
you get your entrepreneurial
From you obviously it's I think these
things are ingrained in you you either
have got it or you haven't got it I don't
think it's something that you can teach
were you that were you that one who
hustled at school or always had a bit of
a side job or always always you know
(04:19):
selling papers at 12 years old working in
the Eastern markets 1314 the produce
markets. And even not just working for a
boss, I'd even you know get a bit of
fruit and veg, fruit maybe not veg, take
it to school and sell apples and pears
out of your bag. Always half asleep at
school because you're getting up at four
o'clock in the morning to go to the
(04:40):
market three mornings a week. I just
thought it was normal. I thought all kids
did that sort of thing.
I think to to want
to do business, you've got to have a work
ethic and I got that from my parents.
it's a rural thing, I don't think it's an
Italian thing per se, I think all people
from the countryside
(05:01):
yeah have a different sort of approach to
life than people from the city and that's
just the fact, that's not a... Their days
are a lot longer and there's a lot more
responsibility and unfortunately nobody's
going to do it for you so someone's got
to do it. Correct, correct. Mum and Dad
were always hard workers.
(05:21):
I thinkDad was a bit of an
entrepreneur, he wasn't lucky, his timing
was always wrong but he was a good man,
he had a lot of friends, he had a great
attitude to life. I learned a lot from
his sense of humor. Mum was hard-working,
Mum could work seven days a week. She'd
pop a kid out, she had six kids, she'd
pop a kid out and go back to work. In
fact, the oldest girl raised the younger
(05:43):
too almost, she was looking after her
before school, after school. It was a
different world in the 60s and 70s.
Yeah. So I'm I'm going to go back because
is it really about
luck?You know, you said, oh, my dad, you
know, my dad was, you know, wasn't lucky.
Do you think luck plays a huge part
(06:06):
in business?Timing is everything. You've
got to you've got to work hard because if
you don't give a damn and you don't work
and you don't plan and you don't like
people and you don't know what you're
doing. You don't like people like that.
In my game, in hospitality, you've got to
like people. You've got to like the
crowd. You've got to be able to handle
the rush and that involves liking people
(06:28):
and putting up with stress andyou know I
had a i had a way of handling. I'd fill
up the restaurant with bookings and then
when people complained that the table
wasn't ready, I'd buy them a drink of
course which you do. My attitude was a
booking gets you in here. Now we were we
were cocky. A booking doesn't get you a
table but we ran fun places
that you know it worked. My My
(06:49):
style of of management worked. Pasta
Pasta is a classic example, you know
it works. But
timing is everything, you can have a
fantastic idea, you can you can have all
the planning, you know the right people
and then something, say
the COVID
(07:11):
comes along, that's the luck, you know
that's that's the time, your your life
partner leaves you, your business partner
turns out to be not as straight as you
know yeah in business as you, that
happens a lot. I know a lot of people
that work harder than I
smarter than me and didn't quite
get there. So that's where the element of
(07:31):
luck, but you've still got to-- You've
still got to do the hard jobs. Yeah.
You've got to love what you do and do
what you love and it'll happen. So
before you mentioned hospitality,
like you mentioned the markets, were you
always hospitality or did you ever
deviate into a different before you hit
on hospitality?I did a couple
(07:52):
of years at law school, yeah I didn't
like it. My son's a lawyer, my brother's
a lawyer, my daughter-in-law's, I'm
surrounded by them. I didn't like the
fact you're always solving people's
problems. You know I worked it out even
at law school, we used to do Tuesday
evenings, we'd have a legal workshop. We
weren't lawyers, they knew we weren't
lawyers but they'd just get an idea of
(08:13):
their position, they'd still have to go
to legal aid or see a lawyer and I just
realized all these people are coming in
whinging about this, their neighbors,
their life partner, their business
partner, the government. You know Do I
want to spend the rest of my life doing
this?And I realized at a very early age,
no. I was also a waiter at the time,
two or three nights a week. That's that
(08:34):
work ethic. It's not, you can't be a
full-time student. You've always got to
work. And a lot of students end up
in the field that they do part-time or
their union, that some end up with a
degree and still pursue their second
love, which becomes their first love.
With me, it became my first love. I
went to work for the government, I was
(08:56):
working in the Australian Taxation Office
for four and a half years, but I was
again, it was just too
restrictive and a lot of people, it was a
dream job, money was good, uh
you don't work really hard,It was
interesting, it's mentally stimulating,
but I think it just wasn't enough. I
(09:18):
needed, without knowing it at the time, I
was young, I I needed to work for myself.
And the opportunity came up, a gentleman,
Vic Ventura, he's still a mentor today,
still a friend. Vic's 17, 18
years older than I am. I'd worked for him
in his own restaurant. I'd worked with
him in other people's restaurants over
the previous seven, eight years.
(09:41):
Our paths had crossed several times and
he asked me if I was ready to open a
restaurant. Without thinking I said yes.
Well well you didn't have like the chef
background or anything like that. We
talked about your mum being a big
influence for you in the kitchen and
obviously you're one of six children?Yes,
older from six. Yeah so that's like
(10:03):
big family. So go on sorry.
No No not at all. You're right and I
think that'sWhat was probably holding me,
I never thought of opening a restaurant
at that age. I may have eventually, may
have taken me another 10 years. What were
you, mid-20s by this stage?Yeah, Yeah I
would have been 79, I was 25
exactly, right in the mid-20s. And
(10:25):
the reason, that's the
greatest fear of any young person in
hospitality. If you're not a chef, a lot
of chefs don't always succeed because
they don't focus on front of house. A
lot of waitersThat
don't know enough about backer house have
problems. Yeah, you sort of almost need
(10:46):
that partnership of somebody in the back,
somebody at the front, and they're
usually the best partnership. Yeah. And
this is what happened now. Vic wasn't a
chef, but he'd been doing it long enough.
He picked up and he was. best waiter I've
ever seen but he admitted it that he was
burnt out. He said I don't want to talk
to people anymore, I've had it. He
was late 40s but he'd learnt enough
(11:07):
about the kitchen that no one could bluff
him and if somebody walked out you know
on a Friday, Saturday night, which I'd
seen happen in other restaurants and the
owners panic and the service
goes downhill, they could put the apron
on or he was already in there working
anyway, no one ever left us because they
didn't have that leverage. and I
(11:27):
I trusted Vic sufficiently. He was
fine, there was no ego clash between us.
He ran the back, I ran the front. We got
on very, very well for 40 odd years. And
it sounds like you had that, you said you
spoke about people and you loved people,
you really had that the bookings not
guarantee a table. I'll keep you in. I
(11:47):
think there's a couple of restaurants
that I go to in Adelaide here. They never
turn you away, it does not matter. They
could be up to the hill. And you always
feel special. You know you know They've
taken the time, they're giving you a good
service. The best restaurant in the
world is a subjective thing. It's where
you are known and liked. So if you can
(12:08):
walk in, you feel comfortable, the food's
got to be okay, you don't have to have
the best food, you've got to have good,
fresh, you've got to have all theBut
if you're known and liked there and
you're made to feel special, people don't
go out just to eat. People go out
special occasion, they don't feel like
washing the dishes, it's on the way home,
(12:29):
it's before the theatre. There's often a
lot of reasons people go out. So it's
understanding that that keeps you ahead
of the curve. And sometimes saying I've
got, you know, I've done that a few times
and I've got tickets to Her Majesty's and
they go no worries and all of a sudden,
they realize that you know you're on a
bit of a clock and just taking that time
to even just know about about
(12:50):
you. So you did the restaurant
and you just mentioned there about
Vince being able to get the apron on and
you know staff didn't leave you. Do you
think there is something in
thatdoesn't matter where you are within
the business, having that mentality of
rolling your sleeves up and getting stuck
(13:12):
on when you need is a big thing. It's
part of leadership, you lead by example.
The team's got to believe in you and part
of that belief is knowing that you or
your partner or there's people there that
can do the job. So they're not, you're
not relying on them to to have to
do it. A) that puts unnecessary pressure
on them, B) that reduces their belief in
(13:34):
you. SoYou've got to have a
clear vision, you've
got to share that vision, you've got to
surround yourself with smart people,
smarter than you, no problems, but you've
got to know what you're doing. You've got
to believe in the job, you've got to love
the job. I think if you want to succeed,
you've got to find something you're
really passionate about and do it for
(13:54):
other people for a while, then take the
plunge and do it for yourself. And if you
get all that right, get the team around
you right, nine out of ten times
time will look up. You don't know at what
point you've you've got there because the
money comes. If you're doing it for the
money, it's not going to come. Yeah
It's like winning a lottery if you're
doing it for the money, you've got to jag
(14:16):
it. You do it for the right reasons, you
spend a decade partially working for
other people, a few years later you just
wake up one day and it's happened. It's a
bit like your apprenticeship really,
you've got to you know you've got to do
those, you've got to do the hard jobs.
So you talk about being in front of house
and obviously your business partner was
back of house, but what got you from
(14:39):
that restaurant to the next level?
You know, sometimes people can just be
content with that. Well, I
think the entrepreneurial spirit in you,
you want to do well. Once I burnt my
bridges with the government, it wasn't
going back there. I wasn't going to go
back to uni. Life was good, business
was going well. UmDipped my tongue
(15:00):
in the water with real estate. Rick and I
bought a building in the city. Back in
the day, we're talking a couple 100
grand. You buy a nice building in thecity,
1981-82.
We were not only, we worked hard, we had
the right attitude. We got lucky early.
Lucky early, the business took off and we
(15:22):
managed to keep the restaurant at one
time. 1979 was one of the busiest
Italian restaurants in Adelaide. What we
did there was interesting. We were the
first Italian restaurant to not. At the
time, every Italian restaurant was a
clone of every other Italian restaurant.
They were all white walls, they all had
Alitalia posters, they all had Accounti
(15:42):
bottles hanging from the bar. Red white
tablecloths. Most of them had a
pizza bar in the corner, kitchen out the
back, toilet next to the kitchen out the
back. Yeah, we opened it
up. Ours wasblue walls, Bruegel prints,
stainless steel kitchen completely open.
We had Western Red Cedar barn in the
(16:04):
middle. It was quite controversial at
that time, I mean. They could have
flopped. We We went with our gut
feeling, let's do it different, let's
have some interesting food, but make the
venue interesting and it worked.
There's that little bit of luck, the
color could have been a little bit wrong.
We picked a location down the end
(16:24):
of Rundle Street,The East End Market
was just in the process of vacating. They
were still there... That could have been
high risk. Very high risk, but it
it worked in our favor. We got some
rents very, very cheap for La Mensa
and then al fresco across the road, we
opened a big Gelabarria uh
(16:45):
and that that part of town exploded. Now
it could have gone the other way, as you
say, it was risky. That's where the
element of luck comes in that you don't
control. We controlled what we could, we
worked hard, we planned, we had the right
team, the right food, uh
but the other things we couldn't control
happened to fall in our lap and it it
(17:07):
exploded. We sold the
Menza, kept the al fresco, put the money
into a building which we opened
Marco Polo which was another full-service
restaurant, 170 seater, but we had this
300 square meter basement. And I
told you a little bit of the story, we
can elaborate on that later. But yeah,
that really set us up. We're already
(17:28):
doing well, life was kind, but then
Pasta Pasta really set me... So where did
Pasta Pasta come from?So you've got your
Marco Polo, you've got your gelateria.
Where did that... we talked about
you had this dormant real estate, but
come on... Sometimes your
greatest asset can come from just a
(17:50):
throwaway idea. Everything we opened, we
had a point of difference. This is very
important in business. If you're going to
do something, if you're going to open a
plumbing business or electrical, don't
just open it and rely on your trade. Come
up with a a point of difference that
makes your customers talk about you.
With us, La Menza had the
different look and the feel and the open
(18:13):
kitchen. Alfresco, we made Gulati in
public view behind a glass wall. We
pulped watermelons, we pulped mangoes, we
baked cakes. all in public view. So the
smell, the visual was
mind-boggling. We seen a hundred people
in this gelato here and people were
coming in you know with that that wow
factor was in the visual not just the
(18:35):
product. The product was good but the the
whole package. It was an experience.
Marco Polo, we had a a couple of ladies
making gnocchi in the cornerWe'd give it
away, we'd take it home, we'd give it to
our friends. We had a lot of gnocchi
specials, but that was visual. Yeah.
Extend that a little bit further. First,
the pastor was in a basement. The front
(18:57):
door was down a side street. It.
Normally it would be very difficult to
fill. I had the luxury of a busy
restaurant, Marco Pollo. So if Marissa
came in with a partner, I could say,
Guys, you finished the milk, can you do
me a favor?I need the table, but
dessert's on me. Come downstairs, I'll
buy you coffee, I'll give you. What's
downstairs?After about four months,
(19:19):
there was no downstairs to take them to
because it was chock-a-block. But in that
first four months, we just filled it with
friends and rallies and and regular
customers. The other thing that made it
work, apart from that, I put three
machines downstairs, one extruder,
which just pushed out spaghetti and
macaroni, the other one made cappelletti,
(19:41):
which are like ravioli, and the other one
made ravioli. So one was meat filled, one
was ricotta filled, so there was this
visual wall of, it's like a little
factory. It smelled fantastic. It It was
more, the smell came from the sauce
cooking. Pasta doesn't actually have a
root, but visually it was amazing. And
every business we've had has sort of had
something like that. We've found a
(20:03):
way to get the public talking about the
place without necessarily being on TV. Or
advertising or whatever. Yeah. So
back to your, I don't remember your
question, Marissa. So I was saying, Pasta
Pasta really came from that basement as a
overflow really to the Marco Polo.
you kept that unique difference of you
(20:24):
wanted something visually stimulating
that could get be a conversation starter
when people weren't in the restaurant.
Correct. But then where did you
take what what made you go I can
replicate this?We normally didn't
replicate anything and you're right a
Pasta Pasta was opened in '84
we didn't replicate it till '89. In those
(20:45):
five years we opened a restaurant called
Via Vanatu which wasmore casual than
anything we've done. Had a 100-seater
full service and then it had a 60-seater
big set here, but just electric. Yeah
It was in Goodger Street, took off.
Everything we opened worked, energy,
location, the right team, it worked.
(21:08):
Then we did something really exciting,
which is probably the most interesting
business I ever did, I was involved with,
a place called Sector Bellor, corner of
South Terrace and Pulteney Street. It's
no longer there, it's now a a gaming
room. Machines have taken over
everything. We opened the first wood...
This is before Pokies probably. Yes, yes
(21:29):
This opened in '88 and it was the first
wood oven pizza bar in Adelaide. Ohh Now
we got the idea from Italy, we flew over
a guy we'd met that owned his own
pizzettia inMilano
Maricchi in in Italy. So he
got, we got on well, said you want a
little holiday?We gave him good money. I
was a pizza maker but I didn't understand
(21:51):
about making pizza dough with spring
water and letting it, using the 00
flour, letting it rise in the cool
room over 48 hours. This was all new to
me. I was a pizza maker, I'd worked at
Pizza Hut and I'd let it mate, that's
okay, not a problem. So
all of thishappened in those
(22:12):
five years. While we had sat the bell or
one of our regulars used to come in at
least once a week was building
some shops on the corner of Glenburn and
Greenhill. The precinct, they're
still there, the Fuster
Pasta that we opened there that was there
for nearly 20 years is no longer there
for a couple of reasons. We do move them
(22:34):
around as as you know customer
base changes. Umm
He wanted us as an anchor tenant there. I
kept saying to him, look, I'll go to
Italy for a few weeks. I'll come back
with something that'll blow you away. No,
don't want something new. I want a faster
pasta there. We kept saying no, he kept
upping the ante. Sorry to interrupt
(22:55):
because this was before my time in
Adelaide. So we had Mark Apollo, was the
basement called FasterPaster?Yes, the
brand, we had a registered logo, we
had... I just wanted to double check.
Yeah, Yeah everything we did, we we put a
bit of work into a brand. We didn't
register the logo until we took off. Then
all of a sudden we painted it, we had a
trademark as opposed to a brand.
(23:18):
UhBut the deal just got so good and from
memory, without without double
checking, I think we ended up with the 18
months rent free and he did most of the
fit out, but it had to be a fuss to pass
it. So we we buckled in. I'm glad we did.
Yeah. That's a little bit of luck
or good negotiation. You know, you
know not everyone, that's not a position
(23:40):
that everyone's in. We didn't need it. So
we could afford to say thank you, but no
thank you. In the end the deal got so
good we had to say yes. It wasn't the
fact that it worked. We knew it was gonna
work. We just were cocky. We knew it was
gonna work. Um
And it wasn't the speed of a success.
There's one particular gentleman, I'll
never forget. We had a lot of
(24:03):
reps, food reps that we've got to know,
they wanted one. They They wanted a fast
pass. We're not doing, we're not gonna
keep doing this. Until one night, I've
been working there about a month and a
gentleman, elderly gentleman asked
forI put an Esker, yeah, and
a spaghetti bolognaise, gave me a $20
note. I gave him a few dollars change. He
(24:24):
took his cutlery. Now that the cutlery
was the key. That was our system. They
sat anywhere they like. If they moved,
the staff were trained, we didn't have
table numbers. The tables were numbered
but the customers didn't know. Yeah So
they didn't know they were sitting on...
How did that get to know your customer?
They didn't know they'd moved from B4 to
C5. We knew and we had a
(24:44):
system where we were always on top of it.
So we very rarely lost a meal, even when
the place was packed and there were
skews. This gentleman never asked me, how
do you find us?Everyone else sort of did,
the new customers. How do you know where
I'm gonna be sitting?Do you call us out?
This gentleman went to the bar, got a
carafe of wine and a soft drink, went and
sat down and started chatting with his
missus. It dawned on me that we'd
(25:05):
created a system. This was before bistros
and it was a pub system that we sort of
perfected. And I thought, we've got a
little bit more than a business, we've
got a system, we've got something. So the
legal training kicked in. I started, how
can we duplicate this quickly
without going to the bank and borrowing
millions, cut people in, the right people
(25:26):
give them half at the right price and all
of this. And then I learned to franchise
and then... So what year was your first
franchise?'89 was
technically a franchise, not in the sense
of percentage of turnover but it was a a
business partnership. We owned half,
I learned a lot from that and we had two
(25:47):
partners that had a quarter each of the
business. And we did that because we were
still in the mood. I wasn't aware at that
stage that we're going to have more of
these. We were still opening things. I
was in my early 30s by then. The
wheelchair oyster. Yeah, Yeah you're
bulletproof. So we did that to
free up time and capital to
(26:09):
move on to the next venture, which for
the next couple of decades happened to be
Fuster Pusta. We
I say it was a type of franchise because
we've explained very clearly, they were a
partner in this business but we own the
name yeah and the two had to be the same
food-wise, we had to buy from the same
suppliers. You were dedicated in that
system. Yeah. We were learning about what
(26:31):
franchising really should be about, which
is standard. It probably wasn't even
the words. It wasn't, you're right. I
didn't understand what a franchise was,
we learned that later. it was an American
word that we were just partners but we're
keeping the name, if we do any more of
these blah and they were okay with that.
They They understood, it was it was
(26:52):
transparent, there was no aid, and we're
still friends today. So then you went and
had 12 in South Australia?
We had 12, we had 11 in South
Australia before we
Sorry, we had eight, we quickly moved to
11. Before we went into state, we were
approached by a syndicate of
(27:13):
guys that very, very successful. They had
done um KFC
in Australia, Pizza Hut in Australia,
Sizzlers in Australia, and they were
currently doing Lone Star. They
approached us to buy us out. We had eight
restaurants already in Adelaide. We said
we're not interested in selling. We're
only beginning to grow. Yeah, this is
your journey. And then they explained how
(27:35):
franchising works. Would you sell us the
rights to do the rest of the country and
you guys do?So that's basically what
happened. OK. yeah So you still had the
controlling interest though, which was
good. So Faster Pasta, so you're still
involved in the business. Yes. At more of
a strategic level. So what's happened to
Faster Pasta now?So it's celebrating
(27:56):
what, where are we now?
41 years this year,
we did our 40th year last year in
'24. We've had a couple of steps
backwards, we've consolidated and that's
necessary every now and then. you
sort of get rid of the ones that are
losing money. Yeah Sometimes you prop
them up for growth reasons. We currently
(28:17):
only have two interstate but we still
have 23 restaurants because
Adelaide's the strongest market. So
we have 21 here going very, very
well. We still, when I left, I've set up
five different divisions. We had
a retail division of restaurants that we
owned and then we hadat the time, 30
(28:39):
restaurants that we had franchise. So
nine we owned, actually company owned
restaurants, 30 were franchise.
Even the ones we owned had a franchise
agreement back to the head office. We
had a manufacturing division where we
made all the sauces and shipped them
around Australia, guest blush, bag in
box. It's not like
(29:02):
zapped and and served to you. They were
the base sauce, the napiri or the
bolognese or the bechamel. They still had
to be cooked in a pan and ingredients
added and freshened. We
had, we made all the pasta, par cooked,
portion controlled, bag in box, again gas
flushed, shipped around, nothing
frozen, it was all good shelf life.
(29:25):
Pasta is, I mean you buy pasta, it wasn't
made yesterday. Um
We had
uh a building division which which is
your real estate?Yeah no that was enough,
the real estate that we own was a fifth
division, the building division was to
change the stores open them, yeah
(29:46):
yeah so we had five
profit centers that reported to me, they
all had a general manager and that still
exists today, that's sort of the
foundation that you know that set the
company up long term.
Looking back because you know, you say
there's there's look involved in there
working with the right people. If you
(30:08):
look back and I know you're obviously
still involved in the business but would
there be anything that you've done
different?Hindsight's a very easy tool to
use. Would have bought a lot more real
estate and sold none. You know yeah We
sold real estate to buy a little bit
more. Would have bought a lot more
knowing what I know today that you know
interest ratesgo up and down but
(30:30):
generally banks will fund you into the
next venture if you've got a good
history. And assets, assets
are assets. We definitely do that. I mean
the biggest, our biggest division now is
real estate. My own real estate is what's
enabled me to retire early.
We lived reasonably frugally in the 90s.
(30:51):
We didn't live, we we didn'tlive
freely but we didn't live extravagantly,
we didn't have flash cars and and flash
homes so we put a lot of our profits into
real estate. I would have put a lot more,
I would have kept a lot. It's interesting
you say that because um
I sometimes think some of the most
successful business people that you
(31:13):
know are very,
very humble. They're not the big
flashyyou know And I think that's
because they know, not necessarily just
work ethic being the hard yards, but
you've also got to plow money back in to
the businesses, you've got to invest, and
that's got to compound, and it will
(31:34):
compound over time rather than
extracting things and you know having the
big flash car and having the perception.
You know Even talking about your ATO days
before off camera, you turn around and
went, if you're only living onX amount,
but you're driving a big Porsche, you're
going to get a knock on the door because
something's not quite adding up.
(31:55):
It's interesting, but in this day and
age, a lot of it is about
that perception and the external
perception you're giving on what success
is. Not necessarily.
Most Most of my peers that I really,
really admire and respect that have done
well in life, and even those that
haven't, the best people, as you say, are
(32:16):
humble. They don't take themselves too
seriously. They get it that there is a
big element of luck in in their success.
There's a lot of hard work, of course,
but there is an element of luck. There's
also, they've
learned to give back. Yeah, and you've
got to do that. If you want in a really
balanced, interesting life, you you
(32:37):
enjoy your success, but you've got to
learn to give back, whether it's money,
whether it's time, whether it's mentoring
young people, whatever it is, you've got
to give back if you want that balance.
Yeah, 'cause you've been involved with
the Variety Club for. It's not a club
anymore, it's the Variety SA. The club
sort of connotates the wrong, it was
called the Variety Club for many years.
Variety SA... It's a big abuse now. Yeah,
(33:00):
Yeah one of the best charities in the
world, they they
single digits actually to run it. So
they run the whole organization with
eight, nine percent of their turnover and
there'd be charities that would kill for
those sort of charities that pay
and I I get why, but they pay 60% of
their their return over on salaries and
(33:22):
rent. Yeah, it's all about doing good
and they put it in the right place. We
have a lot of volunteers. I was chair of
the BASH for three years and involved a
lot of time and my own money, but you
actually organize the BASH, you go out
there and do surveys all on your own
time. You know Not only do you not get
paid, it costs you money to do the job
because you're paying for your own
accommodation, your own petrol,
(33:43):
your own... But we
raised 6 million bucks in three years,
right through COVID. And it's a good
feeling. It's just a great feeling
helping people that, you know, can't
always help themselves. that's definitely
about giving back to the community. Yeah,
Italian radio is the same as one of my
mum's greatest joys is to have that radio
(34:03):
on and you know in the backyard and and
dad not so much but mum always had the
radio on, loved the music, loved the
news, loved the language. I spent 10
years with Italian radio, Radio
Daliana 531 and it
was just a great joy to to help in any
way you can. So you talked about
mentoring young people and we've got a
(34:25):
lot ofthat they're all in different
stages in business. Sometimes they're
actually employed and got that little bit
of a spark. What advice would you give
to our listeners?Make sure that
you know that you love what you do. You
do what you love, but you got to love
what you do. Don't do something because
it worked for a friend of yours. Do
(34:46):
something because you enjoy doing it.
Whatever it is, it could be making dolls
and dresses. If you enjoy doing it, do it
for somebody else for a while and learn.
Learn from them, then if you get an
opportunity to do it for yourself, jump
in. When you get a fantastic opportunity,
offer it, take it. Say yes, worry about
it, Blake. George, it's been an absolute
(35:07):
pleasure having you on The Glass Ceiling.
And yeah, we were talking about before,
and I love such an asker. So yeah, we had
a great decision. One of my favorites
too, Marissa. Yeah, fantastic, thank you
so much. Thanks for tuning in to this
episode of The Glass Ceiling. If you've
liked what you heard, please subscribe,
as we'd love to have you as part of our
community. We're grateful to our guests
(35:28):
for sharing their inspiring stories and
insights with us. This podcast was
brought to you by WaveBreaker. Join us
next time as we shatter the glass ceiling
one story at a time.
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