Passion, perseverance and perspiration

Quick with a laugh, always ready for a chat, but intensely private, Hugh Watters, CEO of the New Sunrise Group, doesn't come across as the traditional executive type.

Hugh was born and grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Kew. Like his older brother Hugh was always a keen sportsman.

"Sport was definitely my thing," says Hugh. I was dead keen on cricket and AFL but switched to hockey when I turned thirteen when all the other blokes suddenly became a lot bigger than me. My first hockey game resulted in a fairly big whack in the face with 39 stitches and a lot of loose teeth. But I got straight back into it and ended up captain of the school team as well as playing in the juniors for Victoria. On the plus side, I missed the Year 9 exams."

A whack in the face followed by captaining the team has been a metaphor for Hugh Watter's career, which has been nothing if not wide ranging.

"The academic stuff was definitely not my strong suit at school, but a close family friend, who I always thought of as an uncle, was a real mentor to me. He had worked at Shell for many years and suggested I look for a traineeship with one of the big oil companies.

An assortment of books & jobs

"So, at the age of eighteen, I started as a commercial trainee with BP. In those days, BP moved trainees right through all aspects of the company and insisted they combine this with part time study."

Hugh began a business diploma and then switched to a degree, finishing with a Bachelor of Business from Swinbourne university, with a major in accounting.

"BP moved me every three to six months, with exposure to operations, supply, commercial, retail operations and a lot more. Then as a graduate trainee, I ran a couple of depots and later went out on the road as a heating oil rep, then a commercial rep and later into retail."

After finishing his training, Hugh was moved from one job to another with BP every two years or so – through retail to market research and administration.

"It was a wonderful grounding and something that kids rarely get today. They usually have to change companies to get that kind of business exposure. I was very fortunate."

During these early years at BP Hugh worked weekends with a mate who was a part time Bookmaker and he convinced Hugh he should do the same. So for a couple of years Hugh carried his own bag as a registered bookmaker and says it was a great learning curve about small business and people. "I didn't make much dough but it was an exciting time and I learnt a lot".

Hugh's first real break in retail came in 1978, when BP was getting its Food Plus franchise off the ground. At the age of 29, Hugh was sent to the USA to study site selection and methodology and to help select an American model on which to shape the Food Plus operation in Australia.

Up & running: the Food Plus franchise

"They were exciting days. Tony Brookes and I came back to Australia and got the very first Food Plus stores in Preston and Brunswick up and running. We worked right through the Christmas period. It was a hectic time and I loved it."

As Food Plus was rolling out nationally, Hugh's work was pretty much over. BP moved him to Canberra on secondment to the Commonwealth Government under an executive exchange program. A year or so later, Hugh moved to BP South Australia as Personnel & Industrial Relations Manager.

'I found that dealing with people was fantastic. But it was also very challenging and sometimes confronting, particularly in dealing with retrenchments of people who, over the years, had become good friends. Dealing with the major unions was a great education for me with all sides passionate about what they wanted and totally convinced they were in the right."

Two years later Hugh took on a human resources role at Head Office in Melbourne.

"It was the usual personnel matters plus lots of emotive issues about executive trappings like cars, travel allowances and salaries, plus some interesting dealings with one or two unusual expat characters from the UK, about which I will say very little." Hugh smiles.

But Hugh says that he already missed retail.

"Food Plus was a fantastic knowledge building exercise for me. Food Plus represented a new horizon for BP and it was a wonderful opportunity for me to be closely involved and to see what did and didn't work. It also kindled an interest in me in what can be achieved by motivated independent business people."

Hugh moved on to NSW, as Sales Development Manager, looking after all promotions, planning, retail and admin support for the State. He was also responsible for BP CORO (Company Operated Retail Outlets) the first move BP made into Company Operation. He then took on a commercial and industrial role and was appointed the Chairman's Representative for the State. It was almost five years later that BP Head Office wanted him back in Melbourne.

"By this time, my wife Rosalyn and the kids had put up with a lot. I had been with BP for over 22 years and our eldest daughter Fiona, who was just starting Year 7, had been to six different schools. So I decided to call it a day and left BP with no job to go to."

Hugh then spent 8 years with a large engineering consulting firm, where he became General Manager Finance. Hugh laughs: "It was my closest brush with accounting since training as an accountant."

The company went through a number of takeovers and Hugh was retrenched. During the latter part of his involvement with the engineering consultancy company he launched himself into some real estate studies and actually became a licenced real estate agent (and for a short period of time owned a real estate agency called R&W Hunters Hill). However at the same time Hugh had maintained contact with Reg Johnston, a former BP executive from the BP CORO days. The story becomes vague at this point as to who it was who got the idea of forming a buying group for service station and convenience store independents. But it seems that the concept evolved in the mid 90's.

"It was an idea that evolved over about eight years. Reg and I became partners and we started UCB with about 40 members. In 1998 we picked up the BP shop program for independents."

"It was a fabulous business opportunity. But some partnerships last and some don't. I was very disappointed to leave because it seemed that I had put so much of my life into the UCB concept. But you hit brick walls on many occasions in businesses as well as in life and I like to think I've never been short of passion or persistence."

For a period he involved himself in a successful financial planning software business called Xplan, including Financial Planning studies. Hugh later bought into a general auctioneering business, Mason Gray Strang, which Hugh recalls was "a bit too hectic and colourful for me – personal threats, armed holdups, fraud, that kind of thing. I sold inside a year."

Passion, persistence & the New Sunrise Group

However passion and persistence soon resulted in the formation of the New Sunrise Group which initially traded as CRS & CSS.

"It always seemed to me that independents in all small businesses were the real backbone of the Australian economy. Where would we be if all business was left to the big end of town? What would happen to prices? What would become of customer service? Where would the jobs for our kids come from?"

Hugh saw that Shell was the only major oil company without a shop and buying program for its independent operators and spent the next three years pitching for the business.

"Finally in 2003/4, we got Shell over the line and set up the New Sunrise Group with me, Rosalyn and Laurie Bignell, a former Shell staffer. That was when the real work started. The tacit approval of an oil company means a lot, but you still have to visit every retailer, get to know and understand their business, and present a set of benefits that make sense to them."

Several years later New Sunrise pitched for the Caltex business and won. The company continued to grow and then a couple of years ago Hugh enticed Steve Cardinale to join him as a partner, after he had left Caltex to seek a quieter life style! Steve brought with him the skills to help move the company through the next level of its development into being a provider of a total retail system. Now New Sunrise has grown to 14 staff and over 600 members, mostly fuel retailers across a range of brands, but with the potential for a growing number of non-fuel retailers.

"The purpose is to provide some real value to these people. We offer all of the aspects of a franchise, a total retail system, but without the franchise. We like to think of it as a reverse franchise, where we pay members for superior performance. The more successful the retailer becomes, the more successful New Sunrise becomes, and vice-versa."

"We are very lucky at New Sunrise to have a passionate group. We all understand and agree on what we are about – the survival and prosperity of the independents. The enthusiasm seems to rub off on everybody. Passion picks you up and I still get a thrill out of it."