‘No brainer’: Why this ex JB Hi-Fi CEO backed a Byron laundry

“In Byron, and the surrounding areas like Lismore, there’s a lot of disadvantaged people and it’s hard to find jobs in regional areas.”

While Byron is a mecca for the wealthy, the wider Northern Rivers region has a high rate of youth unemployment and homelessness, exacerbated by the floods that devastated towns like Lismore and Mullumbimby in early 2022.

Mr Terry, the head of Beacon Laundry’s parent company White Box Enterprises, raised $12 million for the project, $1 million shy of its target, including from the Richard and Lorena Uechtritz Foundation and the Ian and Shirley Norman Foundation.

Finding the funds did not come easily, Mr Terry said he “wore out his shoe leather on Melbourne’s Collins street” asking family offices to back the social enterprise.

“Even though we had some of Australia’s biggest household investment names involved in it … it was really difficult,” he said.

Social enterprises are self-sustaining businesses that deliver a social benefit, such as providing employment to disadvantaged groups. They rely on private capital, often from wealthy philanthropists, family offices, foundations and investment funds, to get started.

Mr Terry said investment committees often viewed the social enterprise model as unproven and were hesitant to invest despite the returns such businesses offered.

Towards the end of its capital-raising push, White Box Enterprises turned to friends and family who could invest amounts of $25,000 with returns of 8 per cent or 12 per cent.

‘We’ve done our research’

“Commercial laundries aren’t cheap to set up, but we’ve done our research and know there is a market for this in the Northern Rivers, with most hotels currently sending their linen two hours down the road to Coffs Harbour or up to Logan in Queensland,” Mr Terry said.

Around $4 million of capital was spent acquiring the land and sheds, while $8 million has been allocated to equipment, fit-out and start-up costs.

Mr Uechtritz said the business case behind the laundry was a “no-brainer”.

“To me as a businessman, it made sense because it’s a great business model that happened to be a social enterprise, but it’s not necessarily everyone’s cup of tea,” he said.

Beyond the economic benefit, Mr Uechtritz said it was incumbent on anyone fortunate enough to live in Australia to support the country’s social fabric.

“A lot of success that we have in Australia is not because we’re super smart, it’s because of our social structures,” he said.

“There’s so many benefits of being lucky enough to be born and do business in a Western society, it’s time to give back. As someone once said to me, it’s no good being the richest person in the cemetery.”