Former Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon adds Glebe watering hole to pub portfolio
Former Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon is fast becoming a pub baron with the purchase of his third hotel, the Nag’s Head, in inner-city Glebe for more than $5 million, adding the popular property to his coterie of family-owned historic inns stretching from Camden in Sydney’s outer west to lower north shore McMahons Point.
New pub baron Geoff Dixon has also stepped down as Tourism Australia chairman.
(Source: News Corp Australia)
Bought from the O’Hara family of hoteliers late last week, the Nag’s Head will undergo a major renovation in keeping with its Old English style theme, Mr Dixon told The Australian from Shanghai yesterday.
Fronting St John’s Road the Glebe pub, which sports 17 gaming machines, is a popular watering hole with Sydney University students.
It is about 150 years old, in keeping with Mr Dixon’s popular Blues Point Hotel in wealthy McMahons Point, which dates back to 1864. The Dixon family paid more than $6m for the Blues Point Hotel last year and have since renovated the holding.
Mr Dixon, who stepped down as chairman of Tourism Australia yesterday after a six-year stint, started buying pubs for his family in 2012 with the purchase of the historic Plough and Harrow in Camden, 65km southwest of Sydney’s CBD, for more than $4m.
With partners investment banker Mark Carnegie and entrepreneur John Singleton, Mr Dixon also part owns another 12 pubs through the Australian Pub Fund in Sydney and Brisbane. The APF continues to scour the eastern seaboard for good pub deals, listing the Elephant Arms in Brisbane and the Bristol Hotel in Sydney among their assets. Mr Dixon is expected to look for more pubs to purchase through the family’s G & D Dixon Investments.
The purchase of the Nags Head from Dan O’Hara was an off-market deal. The O’Hara Group owns several city and regional pubs, including The Fairfield Hotel and the Central Hotel in Blacktown, in Sydney’s west. Mr O’Hara could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The federal government, meanwhile, has yet to name Mr Dixon’s successor at Tourism Australia. Sources close to The Australian said Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi was in the running to take over the chairmanship but this was denied by senior government sources yesterday.
Several well-known Australian executives, including Carnival Australia CEO Ann Sherry, have told The Australian they would be keen to win the role. Liberal Party stalwart Bruce Baird is also understood to be interested in the high-profile position.
Source: The Australian, Lisa Allen, July 1st 2015
