Manildra Chairman Dick Honan has leap-frogged from 146th position in 2023 to 72nd place in 2024 on Australia’s Richest 250 of 2024 list to become the country’s latest drinks billionaire.
Produced by The Australian, the list is the biggest annual study of Australia’s wealthiest and most successful people, who this year are worth a collective $591.31 billion.
Honan’s wealth was estimated at $932 million in 2023.
The Australian said: “Documents lodged with the corporate regulator late last year shed some more light on the sheer size of Honan’s wheat processing and ethanol production empire. Manildra’s revenue hit $2.3 billion last year and the company, which employs about 1150 people, made a net profit of about $203 million, pushing Honan’s estimated wealth up considerably. About half of Manildra’s revenue is derived from Australia, with another $737 million made in the US. The company traces its history back to 1952, when Honan’s late father Jack bought a flour mill in the central-west NSW town of Manildra.”
Manildra Group is Australia’s leading producer of ethanol. Its Shoalhaven Starches site in Nowra, NSW, is the largest facility of its kind in South East Asia. Its seven column distillery facilitates full-scale production of the grain-neutral spirits for a range of craft and big brand beverages.
In 2022, Manildra reported that its premium grain neutral spirit was the blank canvas base for many Diageo products, including Smirnoff’s Red bottled spirit, Smirnoff Red, and Double Black Ice RTDs; Gordon’s bottled spirit, Gordon’s Pink, Gin and Tonic RTDs, and UDL flavours ranging from passionfruit to mojito.
Pictured main: Honan with his Manildra team.
Australia’s drinks billionaires
There are at least 11 Australians who have achieved billionaire status in the drinks space in 2024. Let us know if we’ve missed any!
- Leonie Baldock & Alexandra Burt (VOC Group) – $3.21billion combined (up from $2.83billion in 2023)
“Baldock and Burt are the granddaughters of the late Peter Wright, one-time business partner of Gina Rinehart’s late father Lang Hancock. The sisters own Wright Prospecting with their billionaire aunt Angela Bennett, with both sides of the family’s wealth based on the hundreds of millions in iron ore royalties they receive annually. Wright Prospecting has taken legal action against Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, alleging it is entitled to share in royalties Hancock Prospecting receives from Rio Tinto, in what is an ongoing court case. Burt’s assets also include the Voyager Estate winery in Western Australia.”
2. Bruce Mathieson (ALH Group) – $2.55billion (down from $2.90billion in 2023)
“Mathieson is battling on plenty of fronts, including watching his significant stake in Star Entertainment fall in value as the casino group continues to struggle. However, most of his wealth is tied to the listed Endeavour Group, the result of the merger of his pub assets with Woolworths and liquor outlets, including BWS and Dan Murphy’s, which was spun out into a listed vehicle in mid-2021. Mathieson is considered the best pub deal-maker in the country, having bought and sold about 1000 of them since acquiring his first hotel in 1975. He also owns substantial land holdings on Melbourne’s city fringe.”
3. Dick Honan (Manildra Group)
4. John Casella, Giuseppe Casella and Marcello Casella (Casella Family Brands) – $1.82billion combined
“Casella Wines, founded by Maria Casella and her husband Filippo, who migrated from Italy in 1957, is the nation’s largest family-run winemaker. It shot to fame and fortune soon after the Sydney Olympics in 2000 when an idea on a drawing board for Yellow Tail wine became a huge international business. Yellow Tail was the wine most imported into the US at one stage and has also found popularity throughout Europe, Asia and Australia. The business is now run by the late founders’ three sons, who last year sold 35 vineyards to a Canadian pension fund as part of a sale and leaseback deal. Casella’s brands also include Peter Lehmann, Baileys of Glenrowan and Morris of Rutherglen.”
5. Arthur Laundy & family (Laundy Hotels) – $1.65billion (up from $1.51billion in 2023)
“Pub baron Laundy pulled off another big deal last year, joining with Theo Karedis and his family to pay $192 million for the Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort on the Gold Coast. The Laundy and Karedis portfolio of jointly owned hotels now comprises around $600 million worth of beachfront properties, including the Crowne Plaza Terrigal on the NSW Central Coast, Sydney’s Manly Pacific Hotel, and the Sofitel Noosa Pacific Resort. Laundy Hotels is the basis of the family fortune though, with more than 30 hotels, pubs and bottle shops.”
6. Justin Hemmes & family (Merivale) – $1.52billion (up from $1.40billion in 2023)
“Hemmes has about $3 billion of real estate in his portfolio, comprising more than 80 pubs, restaurants and other venues that dominate Sydney, as well as a significant presence in rural NSW towns such as Narooma and Byron Bay. The business, named for the House of Merivale fashion and property business started by his mother Merivale and late father John, has also pushed into Victoria in recent years, opening in coastal Lorne and soon to arrive in Melbourne’s laneways. Hemmes is also still mulling over plans to redevelop his hugely successful Ivy precinct in Sydney’s CBD, where he has considered building a tower on top of the building.”
7. Sandy Oatley & family (Hamilton Island and Balmoral Australia) – $1.41billion (up from $1.34billion in 2023)
“The Oatley family last year considered selling its $1 billion Hamilton Island resort but, after a review by investment bank UBS, decided to hold on to the popular tourism asset for now. Hamilton Island is the jewel in the Oatley family’s crown. It was bought by Sandy Oatley’s late father Bob for about $200 million in 2003, two years after he sold his Rosemount winery to Southcorp for $1.4 billion. The family also owns Robert Oatley Wines and operates Sydney’s Woolwich Dock precinct.”
8. Theo Karedis (Theo’s Liquor & Arkadia Property Group) – $1.18billion (up from $1.16billion in 2023)
“Much of the Karedis family fortune is now found in property, including a portfolio it owns with a fellow billionaire family, the Laundys. Last year, the two families paid $192 million for Sheraton Grand Mirage on the Gold Coast, adding it to other assets like the Sofitel Noosa and Crowne Towers on the NSW Central Coast. Theo Karedis made his initial fortune from the Theo’s chain of bottle shops, sold to Coles for about $200 million in late 2002. The family investment business Arkadia owns about 25 retail and commercial properties.”
Merivale’s The Ivy and Melbourne redevelopment projects stall