About Us

Champions of the Bush is a group of businesses and organisations that operate proudly in regional Australia.

Our members are both 'champions' in their own right, and committed to championing the cause of regional and rural Australia.

The organisation was formed in 2002 and has brought together individuals and businesses that are passionate in their commitment to rural and regional areas.

Our members have made a major investment in the country, both personally and financially, and are committed to sustainable regional development.

We share a common concern that society currently undervalues the contributions made to the wealth of our nation by the 30 percent of Australians who live outside metropolitan areas.

We aim to continue to recruit new members throughout Australia who share our passion for the future of country communities.

Our vision

Regional Australia is equally recognised for innovation, development, investment and living.

Our mission

1. To improve the image, skill base, capacity, performance and prospects of regional communities throughout Australia.

2. To demonstrate the benefits and strengths of regional enterprise.

3. To encourage and develop leadership, coordination and involvement at a local level.

Richard Rijs Chairman Champions of the Bush

A bigger pie

Richard Rijs is a bush chief executive, and he intends to keep it that way. Rijs is managing director of pie manufacturer Patties Foods, based in the eastern Victorian country town of Bairnsdale. Last November, he toasted the listing of Patties Foods on the Australian Securities Exchange following a $103 million float. It was a proud day for the business which began life as Patties Cake Shop in nearby Lakes Entrance, a small business acquired by Rijs' Dutch immigrant parents in 1966. The six Rijs brothers will retain 48 percent of the listed company.

The float prompted speculation that Patties may relocate to Melbourne, particularly given its plant to pursue rapid expansion, including by acquisition. As if to signal loud and clear that Patties would not be severing its bush roots, the same month that Patties listed on the ASX, Rijs was elected chairman of the regional business lobby group, Champions of the Bush. The group's membership of regional employers account for a combined turnover of $2 billion and 10,000 employees.

"The reality is there are upsides to running a business in regional Australia, and we want to get that message across," he says.

Had Patties wanted to relocated to the big smoke, it had the ideal opportunity to do so in 2003 when it acquired the blue-ribbon brands Four'N Twenty, Nanna's and Herbert Adams from the US food giant Simplot, in the process doubling the size of the business.

The acquisition transformed the company into Australia's number-one pie maker, giving it a 50.5 per cent of the retail frozen savoury market and 17.7 per cent of the retail frozen dessert market. "We're firm believers in the skills of the people we've got," Rijs explains. "I know it's a cliche, but our people are our biggest asset in the business. We would have felt uncomfortable about uprooting our business to a city location."

The main reason for the listing, he says, was a desire by the family to continue the company's growth, which was becoming more difficult as a privately owned business. "The last acquisition [from Simplot] stretched our resources as far as we were able to: we borrowed $80 million to do it. The acquisition itself was $60 million, but it was a massive integration exercise, upgrading our plant at the same time to handle the extra capacity. The options were to borrow to do another acquisition, or become a public company."

Rijs joined the family business in 1971 and has been managing director since 1989. His brother Harry, who joined Patties as an apprentice pastry cook in 1972, is deputy managing director. Retaining a 48 per cent slice of Patties for the family ensures a role for the third-generation Ð "ThereÕs around half a dozen of the third generation working in the business" Ð although what that role will be remains to be seen. "We don't know where itÕs going to go from here," Rijs says. "One of the things we've done as a family business is to promote according to what your capabilities are."

Leo D'Angelo Fisher
BRW, February 15-21, 2007, p.50

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