Nigel Austin

Last updated

Nigel Austin
Born (1970-09-24) 24 September 1970 (age 52)
NationalityAustralian
OccupationEntrepreneur
Employer Cotton On Group
Spouse
Tania Austin
​
​
(m. 2008,divorced)​

Melanie Austin

Children6

Nigel Austin (born 24 September 1970) is an Australian business and horse racing entrepreneur. [1] Austin is the founder and 90% majority owner of the Cotton On Group clothing and stationery group with brands including Cotton On, Supre, Factorie and Typo. [2]

Contents

Early life

Austin grew up in Geelong, Victoria. Austin's late father, Grant Austin, ran a publicly traded clothing wholesale and import business called the Austin Group, where Austin started out learning about the fashion industry in his school holidays. [2] [3] From the age of 8 he knew he wanted to work in retail and looked up to his father. [3]

In 1988, at the Beckley Markets in Geelong, Austin started selling acid-washed denim jackets from the trunk of his Ford Bronco car. [2] [4] In his first outing at the market he sold one jacket for $30. The following week he returned with a cheaper offer, after he negotiated with his father who was the supplier, which resulted in all 20 selling out. [4] [5] Austin enrolled in university to study business but dropped out after a year to focus on his growing garment business. [3] [5] He didn't tell his father that he had dropped out for an entire year and could prove his business was booming. [3]

Career

In 1991, Austin's first store was small space in Geelong behind a butcher shop run by his grandfather and he sourced merchandise from his father. [3] [4] He told Forbes: "The rent was $110 a week; the philosophy [was to] keep the risk as low as possible. My goal for the first year was to make $2,000 a week. If I could make [that] then I could make $100,000 a year.". [3] His cousin, Ashley Hardwick, joined his venture a year later and they raised enough money to open more stores largely leveraging his father's supply connections. [3] Some of those connections still work with his company to this day. [3] It took fifteen years for the group to expand to more than fifty stores across Australia, and today stores are found around the world. The first international store was in New Zealand and has since been followed by locations such as South Africa, Malaysia, Hong Kong and USA. [3]

Austin and the Cotton On Group started the Cotton On Foundation to support healthcare and education in nations such as Uganda. [3] The foundation was started after the baptism of Austin's first son in 2007, when he was asked by the local Parish in Geelong to make a donation to a healthcare centre in the small village of Mannya in Southern Uganda. [5] [6] Money is raised through selling specially branded merchandise in group stores such as bracelets, water bottles and tote bags. [3]

Personal life

Austin has six children, three of those born with ex-wife Tania Austin who is the CEO of women's fashion brand, Decjuba. [7] His current wife is Melanie Austin.

Austin is involved in horse racing and owns Rosemont Stud, over 566 hectares (1,400 acres) in Gnarwarre and Ceres, Victoria. [8] [9] [10] The logo of the stud is a red and white gatecrasher, [11] that originally was the logo for the Cotton On chain in its early years.[ citation needed ]

His great-grandmother founded The Austin Hospital in 1882 as a charitable institution for incurables. It had several name changes before becoming the Austin Hospital.[ citation needed ]

Net worth

In 2017, Forbes Asia assessed Austin's net worth at US$1.36  billion. [3] As of May 2023, The Australian Financial Review assessed his net worth at A$2.00 billion. [12]

Year Australian Financial Review
Rich List 		Forbes
Australia's 50 Richest
Rank Net worth (AUD)Rank Net worth (USD)
2017 [3] $1.36  billion Increase2.svg
2018 [13] 32$1.96 billion Increase2.svg
2019 [14] 27Increase2.svg$2.68 billion Increase2.svg
2020 [15] 49Decrease2.svg$1.92 billion Decrease2.svg
2021 [16] 57Decrease2.svg$1.93 billion Increase2.svg
202250Increase2.svg$2.00 billion Increase2.svg
2023 [12] 56Decrease2.svg$2.00 billion Steady2.svg
Legend
Icon Description
Steady2.svgHas not changed from the previous year
Increase2.svgHas increased from the previous year
Decrease2.svgHas decreased from the previous year

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References

  1. ↑ Bishop - @bradbishop12, Brad. "Rosemont hoping for G1 birthday cheer". The Valley. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 "Nigel Austin". Forbes. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Chung, Grace (1 November 2017). "Australia's Richest 2017: How This College-Dropout-Turned-Billionaire Built A Fashion Retail Empire". Forbes. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 "From Australia to the World". Cotton on Group. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 "Cotton On: The inside story of the retailer's rise to $1.5b in revenue". Australian Financial Review. 1 April 2015. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  6. ↑ "Cotton On: the 25 year journey - Ragtrader". www.ragtrader.com.au. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  7. ↑ "Meet the three new women set to join the Rich List". Australian Financial Review. 9 March 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  8. ↑ "Nigel Austin, the Cotton On retailer chain founder, the One Towers Road Toorak buyer". Urban. 17 June 2013. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  9. ↑ Reynolds - @Reynolds_R, Ryan. "Can Nigel's Quickie dream come true?". RACING.COM. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  10. ↑ Davidson, Jock. "About". Rosemont Stud. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  11. ↑ Davidson, Jock (26 June 2019). "Mr Quickie wins G1 for Shamus Award in Rosemont Fill-up!". Rosemont Stud. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  12. 1 2 Bailey, Michael; Sprague, Julie-anne (26 May 2023). "The 200 richest people in Australia revealed". Australian Financial Review . Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  13. ↑ Stensholt, John (25 May 2018). "2018 AFR Rich List: Who are Australia's richest people?". The Australian Financial Review. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  14. ↑ Bailey, Michael (30 May 2019). "Australia's 200 richest people revealed". The Australian Financial Review. Nine Publishing. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  15. ↑ Bailey, Michael; Sprague, Julie-anne (30 October 2020). "The full list: Australia's wealthiest 200 revealed" . Australian Financial Review . Nine Publishing. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  16. ↑ Bailey, Michael; Sprague, Julie-anne (27 May 2021). "The 200 richest people in Australia revealed". Australian Financial Review . Retrieved 28 May 2021.
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