Terry Morris and Sirromet make their mark in hotels
Just when you thought he was set to call time on more than half a century in business, Terry Morris couldn't resist one more round.
Property developer, winery owner, marketing guru, motorsport boss and now pub baron - the commercial chameleon has again adapted where he sees an opportunity to flourish in a new environment.
His ability to shift from one sector to another depending on the economic climate has characterised his colourful career, but so too has the rare knack of remaining successful.
Few others have reinvented themselves so many times in so many industries without suffering financially, but Mr Morris's accomplishments make a mockery of the "stick to your knitting" mantra.
In partnership with Morris International chief executive Dean Merrell and a third investor, the 73-year-old has spent the past year on a hotel buying spree.
The Dugandan Hotel at Boonah, Oasis Hotel, Dalby, Westbrook Junction Tavern, Toowoomba, Australian Hotel, Boonah, Tarampa Hotel, Lowood, and Warehouse Tavern, Yatala, were snapped up in 11 months since June last year for a cost of more than $10 million.
"It's a bit counter-cyclic but most of the ones we bought for less than the real estate value," Mr Morris says.
"And then you get your poker machine licences and your goodwill attached to the hotel really comes for nothing. Dean Merrell my CEO is heading it up, he's very good at that sort of stuff."
The trio clearly believe there is money to be made from Queensland's watering holes and the early signs are positive.
"At The Dugandan we've more than doubled the takings in the 12 or so months we've had it," Mr Morris says.
"And that's not doing anything fancy it's just looking after people, making sure the toilets are clean, making sure the food's good value, making sure the beer's cold."
Though their focus may have momentarily moved from planting vines to pulling schooners, Mr Morris and Mr Merrell also saw the hotels, which come under The Good Times Pub Group, as a chance to strengthen the Sirromet Wines side of their business.
"Dean wanted to see if we could vertically integrate some wine sales. It looked like a no-risk play to do it because of the value you're buying the real estate at," Mr Morris says.
"One of the big things we've found is by integrating our wine into it, not only are we increasing the sales of wine in the hotel, we've increased the gross profit margin quite substantially.
"We believe we're developing a model that will make it very easy for an independent hotelier who wants to give his customers something he can't get elsewhere."
With a target to sell around 20,000 bottles of Sirromet wine at each hotel, the strategy could provide a timely boost to Sirromet's domestic business which makes up 40 per cent of sales.
Though exports to Sweden started in December after a five-year approvals process and demand from Japan and China increases year on year, Mr Morris wants more Queenslanders to drink their home state's wine.
"My big wish is to get every wine-drinking Queenslander to drink two bottles of Queensland wine a year and if we do that we'll increase the size of the industry by five times," he says.
Citing the permanent jobs such expansion would create, Mr Morris thinks the State Government should do their bit.
"It wouldn't cost them very much. Things like insisting Queensland wine be served at all Queensland functions," he says.
"We raised it with the previous (State) Government ... and I'm preparing a document to put to (the current State Government) but I haven't asked them to do anything yet."
With regional pubs tending to conjure up images of frosty schooners of Fourex and bubbling Bundy and Cokes, Mr Morris says one challenge is giving punters a food and wine pairing they will keep returning to.
But the hotels won't become trendy wine bars.
"I think it's much more enjoyable to sit down and have a meal with a nice glass of wine than it is with a glass of beer. That's what we are finding, the customers really do appreciate that," he says.
"I'm a great believer that a well-run hotel is a great contributor to the social fabric of any community.
"You need to have a meeting place where people can go, that's why we call our hotels The Good Times Hotel Group, that's what we believe a hotel should be for."
And recently regional Queensland has also meant resources boom. "The one at Dalby for instance, that's the hub of this huge energy, coal seam gas development," Mr Morris says. "There's a demand for accommodation, there's a demand for goods and services in Dalby. So I don't think there's any risk there."
Time will tell whether the canny entrepreneur's latest venture will have the investors raising their glasses to one another or crying into their beers.
"We'll know a bit more in 12 months time if our strategy's been right. We're still learning, it's still uncharted waters for us," Mr Morris says.
"(Any more hotel purchases) would have to be funded from the cashflow of the existing hotels. We've probably put as much capital in as we want to at this point in time."
Though many before him have found hotel investment a sobering experience, Mr Morris remains optimistic the deals will prove money well spent.
"There's a risk with everything but we've been very careful," he says.
Source: The Courier Mail, 20 August 2012
