The owners of toy company Zuru have been named New Zealand's wealthiest people, the first change to the top spot in 20 years.
This year's NBR Rich List saw Mat and Nick Mowbray bump packaging, property and investment magnate Graeme Hart from number one.
NBR co-editor Hamish McNicol says the pair have openly planned to become the next Google or Tesla.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heather Duke for Cela.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
So this year's rich list, the Mobra family have dethroned
Gavin Hart Graham Heart brother and been so I've already
forgotten who he is yesterday's man, Graham Heart. It's been
named at the top of the NBR Rich list. Now Zuru,
as you know, are owned as owned by the brothers
Matt and Nick Mobra and the NBR Reckons. The estimated
worth has reached twenty billion dollars. Graham Heart is now
a distant second. He's got an estimated worth of twelve
(00:23):
point one billion dollars and the collective wealth of this
year's list has been put at ninety five zero point
sixty eight billion, which is up twenty seven percent from
last year. Hamish McNichol is the NBA's co editor with
us Now Hamish.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Hello, hey ever, how are you very well?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Thank you? How have the Zuru boys managed to get
this rich so fast?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, it's an astonishing story and it's unlike anything I've
seen before in business, particularly when you also consider that
they don't have any external bank debt, They've never taken
a loan from the bank, and they've never raised any
external capital either. They've just the whole time, they've just
any profit they've made, they've reinvested it back in the business,
and they've managed to make this just an incredible machine
that's tuning out money.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Somebody was saying to me that they've got an ambition
like something crazy, like being the next Microsoft of that.
Are they talking about that publicly?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, Nick is quite open about wanting to be the
next Tesler Google Apple. So we have them at three
billion dollars revenue this year as a group, and Nick
was telling us in an interview the other week that
he wants to hit ten billion revenue in the next
five years. That's so a long way off some of
those companies, but you know, given how quickly they've grown
and how big they are already, you can it's hard
(01:33):
to bet against them at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
When you heard him say to you that the revenue
was going to be three billion a year, did that
shock you because you guys only had their value at three.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Billion, Yeah, it did. We. I mean, they're a privately
hard company that we've never really got the sort of
insight that Nick gave us the other week in that
interview he did with us. I think they're at a
point now where you know, most people know them as
the toy company and that's a two billion or a
year business now. But they've also expanded and expanding into
(02:03):
these other areas. So they've got the consumer products company,
which is things like Rascals, nappies. They're making billions of
nappies a year, Monday, hair care products like that. So
that is now recording a billion dollars of revenue in
a year, and in just six years it's grown to
that size. And now they're taking on automating the construction
of property. They've bought a twenty five acre factory in China.
(02:26):
They're starting to build test houses. The first ones of
those should be up end of this year early next year.
And you know, if they tackle housing and can do
it cheaper and more affordably across the world than who know,
it's how big they can get.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Are they just really clever?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I think they're really clever. I think they are really
driven and ambitious, and they're the sort of people who
don't take no, you know, happy to happy to figure
out how to do things their own way. I mean
the way Nick talks about the processes that they've built,
every single component in the factories that they have has
been built in house. They just are so precise on
(03:03):
everything and how they put everything together. And I think
that level of attention to detail and care just goes
to show how they've got to where they are now.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Some of the businesses that you have had looked at
look at on this rich list thinking about how to
transfer their wealth to the next generation. Is there necessarily
a next generation there?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, and a lot of the family So we have
one hundred and nine people profiled on the list this year,
and more than half of them are classified as families
rather than just individuals. And a lot of those families
have been there for a long time and they're sort
of onto their third or fourth generation of ownership within
the family of the family business. But then they've also
(03:42):
got other examples su Mark de Naichek and his partner
Dorothy Spots with down Wellington. They're donating all of their fortune,
which we submit to be about four hundred and fifty
million dollars to the Nico Foundation in Wellington to giveaway.
You've got Sukutaki family who we've made newcomers this year.
They came over from Japan about fifty years ago. They've
got their still investment vehicle which has an ambition to
(04:05):
invest in one hundred New Zealand companies over the next
ten to twenty years. And all of those companies and
ideas that they want to invest in are all about
one hundred year timeframes and horizons as well. So this
is thinking regardless of government, regardless of policies, all sorts
of stuff. What sort of ideas, what sort of businesses
can we back that will have intergenerational effects?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Interesting stuff? And will there be an impact do you
think on I don't know, the property market, things like that.
As this money passes from generation to.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Generation, well that's the big thing, and that's what everyone
is thinking about globally as well. It's estimated that there's
US ninety trillion dollars of assets to pass down from
the baby boomer generation to the next generation over the
next ten to twenty years. And you know, if you
are below the Baby boom generation or even younger than that,
and then your parents or your grandparents have built up
(04:52):
all this wealth and they suddenly hand it to you,
what are you going to do with it? Are you
going to put it into property? Are you going to
stop working? Are you going to invest it. This sort
of creates all sorts of questions about how people are
going to handle this and what it means for the
future of work and property and things like that.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, very interesting, Hamish, thank you for your time, appreciating
well done on the list. That's Hamish McNicol, MBR co editor.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Heather Duke for Cela.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
So this year's rich list, the Mobra family have dethroned
Gavin Hart Graham Heart brother and been so I've already
forgotten who he is yesterday's man, Graham Heart. It's been
named at the top of the NBR Rich list. Now Zuru,
as you know, are owned as owned by the brothers
Matt and Nick Mobra and the NBR Reckons. The estimated
worth has reached twenty billion dollars. Graham Heart is now
a distant second. He's got an estimated worth of twelve
(00:23):
point one billion dollars and the collective wealth of this
year's list has been put at ninety five zero point
sixty eight billion, which is up twenty seven percent from
last year. Hamish McNichol is the NBA's co editor with
us Now Hamish.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Hello, hey ever, how are you very well?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Thank you? How have the Zuru boys managed to get
this rich so fast?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, it's an astonishing story and it's unlike anything I've
seen before in business, particularly when you also consider that
they don't have any external bank debt, They've never taken
a loan from the bank, and they've never raised any
external capital either. They've just the whole time, they've just
any profit they've made, they've reinvested it back in the business,
and they've managed to make this just an incredible machine
that's tuning out money.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Somebody was saying to me that they've got an ambition
like something crazy, like being the next Microsoft of that.
Are they talking about that publicly?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, Nick is quite open about wanting to be the
next Tesler Google Apple. So we have them at three
billion dollars revenue this year as a group, and Nick
was telling us in an interview the other week that
he wants to hit ten billion revenue in the next
five years. That's so a long way off some of
those companies, but you know, given how quickly they've grown
and how big they are already, you can it's hard
(01:33):
to bet against them at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
When you heard him say to you that the revenue
was going to be three billion a year, did that
shock you because you guys only had their value at three.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Billion, Yeah, it did. We. I mean, they're a privately
hard company that we've never really got the sort of
insight that Nick gave us the other week in that
interview he did with us. I think they're at a
point now where you know, most people know them as
the toy company and that's a two billion or a
year business now. But they've also expanded and expanding into
(02:03):
these other areas. So they've got the consumer products company,
which is things like Rascals, nappies. They're making billions of
nappies a year, Monday, hair care products like that. So
that is now recording a billion dollars of revenue in
a year, and in just six years it's grown to
that size. And now they're taking on automating the construction
of property. They've bought a twenty five acre factory in China.
(02:26):
They're starting to build test houses. The first ones of
those should be up end of this year early next year.
And you know, if they tackle housing and can do
it cheaper and more affordably across the world than who know,
it's how big they can get.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Are they just really clever?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I think they're really clever. I think they are really
driven and ambitious, and they're the sort of people who
don't take no, you know, happy to happy to figure
out how to do things their own way. I mean
the way Nick talks about the processes that they've built,
every single component in the factories that they have has
been built in house. They just are so precise on
(03:03):
everything and how they put everything together. And I think
that level of attention to detail and care just goes
to show how they've got to where they are now.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Some of the businesses that you have had looked at
look at on this rich list thinking about how to
transfer their wealth to the next generation. Is there necessarily
a next generation there?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, and a lot of the family So we have
one hundred and nine people profiled on the list this year,
and more than half of them are classified as families
rather than just individuals. And a lot of those families
have been there for a long time and they're sort
of onto their third or fourth generation of ownership within
the family of the family business. But then they've also
(03:42):
got other examples su Mark de Naichek and his partner
Dorothy Spots with down Wellington. They're donating all of their fortune,
which we submit to be about four hundred and fifty
million dollars to the Nico Foundation in Wellington to giveaway.
You've got Sukutaki family who we've made newcomers this year.
They came over from Japan about fifty years ago. They've
got their still investment vehicle which has an ambition to
(04:05):
invest in one hundred New Zealand companies over the next
ten to twenty years. And all of those companies and
ideas that they want to invest in are all about
one hundred year timeframes and horizons as well. So this
is thinking regardless of government, regardless of policies, all sorts
of stuff. What sort of ideas, what sort of businesses
can we back that will have intergenerational effects?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Interesting stuff? And will there be an impact do you
think on I don't know, the property market, things like that.
As this money passes from generation to.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Generation, well that's the big thing, and that's what everyone
is thinking about globally as well. It's estimated that there's
US ninety trillion dollars of assets to pass down from
the baby boomer generation to the next generation over the
next ten to twenty years. And you know, if you
are below the Baby boom generation or even younger than that,
and then your parents or your grandparents have built up
(04:52):
all this wealth and they suddenly hand it to you,
what are you going to do with it? Are you
going to put it into property? Are you going to
stop working? Are you going to invest it. This sort
of creates all sorts of questions about how people are
going to handle this and what it means for the
future of work and property and things like that.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, very interesting, Hamish, thank you for your time, appreciating
well done on the list. That's Hamish McNicol, MBR co editor.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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