Jack Cowin: A Successful Entrepreneur in the Food Franchise Industry

This article provides an overview of Jack Cowin, the founder and CEO of Competitive Foods Australia. It discusses his success in the food franchise industry, including his establishment of the Hungry Jack franchise in Australia and his involvement with Domino Pizza Enterprises. The article also highlights Cowin's business diversification and his recent acquisition of Apache, an oil and gas company.

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Introduction
Jack Cowin is a prominent Canadian/ Australian businessman who has interest in
private food restaurants and franchises and other business. Cowin is the founder and CEO of
Sydney based Competitive Foods Australia. The company has been given the rights to
operate the Burger Kings Franchise of Australia known as Hungry Jack (Anthony, & Lu,
2017).
What is entrepreneurial ecosystem?
It is an economic and social environment that affects both the local and regional
entrepreneurship. Businesses that are located in innovation hubs and incubators have a
higher chance of success (Narayan, 2019).
Starting his Business Franchise
In his industrious career in Business, Jack has been able to open more than 430
Hungry Jack franchises all over Australia and a food processing division of the same
franchise. Cowin is also a shareholder and a majority shareholder of the world renowned
Domino Pizza Enterprises, a company that is listed in the Australian stock exchange and an
Australian franchisee of the parent company which is the Dominos of the United States. The
billionaire has amassed a fortune estimated to be more than $2.1 billion through franchising
of fast foods in Australia. He started the first KFC joint in Perth in 1969 after immigrating to
Australia from Canada.
Fast foods had worked in both the United States and Canada. In 1969, Cowin saw the
opportunity to start a fast food restaurant as there was none in Australia. He knew the
opportunity for a booming business had risen since the model had worked elsewhere, it could
also work in Australia. His business journey began when he borrowed $10,000 from 30

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Canadians to fund the move to Australia in the year 1968. That could be worth only $25
million but he is worth billions now. He owns 98.5% of competitive foods Australia.
Originally with the 30 investors, he would get 65% of the share while the 30 investors could
own 35% of competitive foods. Over the years, he has bought most of them and the only
original investors own 1.5%.
From the 30 people who were university friends, he raised $300,000. He would later
pay them back in 5-10 years. In 1987, he also took an additional external funding of $40
million from four Japanese institutional investors (Mamoon, 2017). They have also been
bought out. The average annual turnover for competitive foods is $ 1.34 billion. In Dominos
where Jack is the Chairman, his initial capital of $400,000 in what was initially called Silvios
Pizza has a market value of more than $1 billion today. His Domino shares have sored to
billion dollar investments. His business have faced a lot of criticism and negative media
attention due to underpayment of employees. He has however defended his businesses saying
the systems are not broken.
Conclusion
Cowin is a shrewd businessman who has been diversifying his businesses with
competitive foods cash flows. He has a stake in Sydney Bridge Climb and also other assets
bought in Canada. He owns the Lonestar restaurant chain in Canada (Rametse, et al,2018)..
His recent acquisition is the $ 500 million purchase of Apache, a Houston based oil and gas
and logistic company in February of 2017. He is a firm believer of compound interest in
business over a long period of time which has worked marvelously for his companies. .

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References
Anthony, S., & Lu, G. (2017). ABOUT INDUSTRY SUPER AUSTRALIA..
Mamoon, D. (2017). Economics case study: Harvard Business School pedagogy techniques:
From teaching entrepreneurship to influencing business policy through
research. Turkish Economic Review, 4(3), 290-300.
Narayan, A., 2019. Service portal for connecting inventors and entreprenuers with the
investment community. U.S. Patent Application 15/721,347.
Rametse, N., Moremong‐Nganunu, T., Ding, M. J., & Arenius, P. (2018). Entrepreneurial
Motivations and Capabilities of Migrant Entrepreneurs in Australia. International
Migration, 56(4), 217-234.