Pub With No Peer Becomes A Black Eye For Australia

Eric Ellis, Seville

10/12/1992

TOMORROW in this beautiful Andalucian city, the world's most ambitious universal exposition will come to an end, 500 years to the day after Christopher Columbus first laid eyes on the New World.

The occasion promises reflection and anticipation, where people from around the globe farewell new friends and look forward to cementing the business associations forged over the past six months.

But in the Kangaroo Pub, Spain's most popular restaurant this year and Australia's unofficial pavilion at the Expo, the mood will be one of bitterness, looking forward to an ocean of debt and the possibility of legal fireworks long after Expo's closing pyrotechnics. The Kangaroo Pub, this dinky-di symbol of Australia that so delighted the Expo millions, is now making money for a Canadian rescue team after the Australian management sent it broke with trading losses of $A6 million.

Its original Brisbane-based owners are believed to owe up to $US2 million ($A2.78 million) to Spanish suppliers and there are allegations that large amounts of cash are missing from the company. The Seville office of the accountants Arthur Andersen is now in charge of sorting the mess out.

``It's been a total disaster and extremely embarrassing for the Australian effort at the Expo. They've blown $A6 million in just six months,'' said Mr Warwick Brookes, one of the businessmen originally behind the Kangaroo Pub.

The $A40 million Australian Government Pavilion, whose public relations machine promoted the pub in the lead-up to the Expo opening at Easter, has washed its hands of the Kangaroo Pub disaster.

``It is a totally separate facility and has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the Australian Pavilion,'' said Australia's ambassador to Expo, Mr Doug MacLelland.

The experience of the Kangaroo Pub, the re-creation of a bush pub where many Spaniards got their first taste of Australiana, has battered Australia's reputation as a business nation of integrity in what was supposed to be a showcase of trade.

This sad tale had its beginnings in the 1988 Brisbane Expo when Mr Brookes, a hotelier with 20 years experience in the Queensland and New South Wales hospitality trade, took an idea from Brisbane and sought investor support for an Aussie pub in Seville.

A Lismore solicitor, Mr Ian Savins, and a businessman, Mr Greg Campbell, led other Australian investors in putting up the funds and took effective control, with Mr Brookes the managing director and prime mover.

A vehicle, Wiley International, was formed and in February 1991 a deal was signed by which the Seville Expo authority would take a royalty of 22.5 per cent of the pub's gross takings, in line with other similar concessions at the site.

On April 20, Expo opened and the Kangaroo Pub was an immediate success.

It offered fun in an otherwise sober exposition. Its 240-strong staff of Australian teenagers spoke Strine to bemused locals, there was ``Oz karaoke'', bush bands, barbecues and Spanish beer dressed up as Aussie brew in a souvenir glass.

Five thousand people wandered through every day, spending a collective $US70,000 on burgers, steaks and fries and generally having a good time.

But behind the scenes, a good time was the last thing on people's minds. Disputes over its management blew up just two days after opening when Mr Savins and Mr Campbell pulled rank and ownership over Mr Brookes, who resigned after ``differences in an unworkable relationship''.

Despite having little experience in the pub trade, Mr Savins and Mr Campbell took over the running of the pub.

``I stayed on as a director but from that date I ceased to have anything to do with it,'' said Mr Brookes.

In late August, the pub, which was the envy of the other concessionaires for the amount of traffic it received, was shut down. Mr Savins resigned from the board amid ultimatums from the Expo authority, which was and is still owed around $A600,000 by the pub but wanted to see it reopen.

Expo put it out to tender and the Canadian group, Nakis, the biggest concessionaire on the site, took it over.

Mr Leonard Daoussis, a Nakis director, said: ``It's been an absolute disgrace what has gone on here. It's one of the worst cases of mismanagement I have ever seen anywhere. This place should have been a goldmine.

``They got it all wrong with staff, with ordering, they were walking around with mobile phones like they owned the world.

``We had it opened and making money within 24 hours of getting the deal.'' He added that there were allegations that funds were missing from the company.

Both Mr Brookes and Mr Savins deny any knowledge of the missing funds. Mr Savins said by phone from Lismore that it was possible some money was used to pay trade creditors and that ``Arthur Andersen will sort it out''.

Mr Savins said the Expo authority should shoulder some of the blame for the disaster.

``They led us to believe there would be more people and more money spent than actually occurred,'' he said.

``I also heard they charged the foreigners 22.5 per cent while they were only charging the Spanish concessionairres 9-10 per cent.'' (Expo denies this.) ``I don't think they marketed the Expo very well. Let's face it, there's a recession everywhere and we suffered because of that,'' he said.

With the Australians gone, the Kangaroo Pub is making money. The Canadians have drafted Mr Brookes back in as an adviser in its last days.

``To be honest, we've played around with the portions, put up some prices and cut some staff,'' said Mr Daoussis.

``We're making money. Canadian dollars of course.'' But for the Australians, there's nothing but recriminations.