![]() In 1996 it came out of administration with Jeff’s brother buying 25 per cent to take out the financial partners. The business was placed into administration when the recession hit and the Pearses lost everything.īut the business survived and Jeff and Lexi were able to rebuild. In the early 90s Jeff over-stretched by going into interstate transport and taking in equity partners to finance it. It wasn’t always smooth sailing for the business. ![]() ![]() Jeff was first diagnosed with lymphoma at the age of 42 in 1987 but thanks to a course of powerful chemotherapy and looking after his health, he stayed alive for another 21 years. The thing about bikes, Fiona and Emma tell me, is that the riders get two-thirds the hourly rate of van drivers and they’re much more efficient because there are no problems with traffic or parking.Īpart from the introduction of bicycle couriers in the first place, Jeff Pearse’s great innovation was the design of a computerised allocation system to replace the old system of couriers giving gifts to the dispatchers to try to win jobs. So the Pearses started running bikes across Sydney Harbour Bridge from North Sydney into the CBD and started picking up other ad agencies as well. It turned out he was the head of one of the big advertising agencies and decided to give the Pearses his delivery business – in those days advertising proofs were hand delivered to clients, not faxed or emailed. So he and Lexi sold their house and all their furniture and started Mail Call, with Lexi driving the family Falcon station wagon to begin with and Jeff doing the dispatch.Īll new businesses need a break and Jeff and Lexi got theirs during their daughter’s tennis lessons, telling one of the other fathers about their vision for bicycle couriers in Sydney. In 1981 he and the family returned to Australia where he did some consulting for Wards Express, and realized there were no bicycle couriers in Sydney like those he’d seen in New York City. He left school at 14 and then later put himself through university while working for the Commonwealth Bank, before rising to near the top of Aristocrat Leisure. Jeff unfortunately died of lymphoma in 2008, leaving behind a wife, Lexi, and four children – two boys and two girls – and one of the unusual things about the Pearse family is that it was the girls, Fiona and Emma, who took over the running of the business, not Anthony and Patrick.įiona and Emma talk about their father with admiration bordering on awe. He was trained as an accountant and had been working for Aristocrat Leisure, running the firm’s UK and European operations. Their father Jeff Pearse started the business in 1982. Recently they launched an offshoot called to service the growing online retail sector, so they are now at the front line of the digital revolution. ![]() The first is the Pearse family of Sydney, led by Fiona Pearse, 39, and her sister, Emma Cronin, 37, who run a courier business called Mail Call. These are fascinating stories of real Australian life, about families and real business: when you read them, you’ll be reading about how most of the Australian business sector operates. ![]() That’s why I’ve decided to start a special weekly series on Australian family businesses, looking at who they are and how they run their enterprises, both big and small. Family businesses tend to go quietly about their business and keep to themselves. They control well over a third of the national GDP, employ most of the workforce and usually do the most interesting things, yet we don’t hear much about them. Most businesses in Australia – about 70 per cent – are family businesses. ![]()
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