Owner Insights

James Orchard speaks to Robert Hill-Smith from Hill-Smith Family Estates, home to Yalumba, Australia’s oldest family owned winery. As the fifth generation of his family in the business, Robert brings more than four decades of experience and a candid perspective on an industry undergoing significant change.

With falling global wine consumption and oversupply reshaping the market, Robert explains why the business is resetting its size and operations to reflect demand, with the long-term future firmly in mind.

In this episode, Robert shares his insights on:

• How to make a business smaller, including simplifying the product range, releasing capital and reviewing vineyards and costs.
• Managing family dynamics, tackling difficult conversations and preparing the next generation to take over.
• The importance of knowing what your brand stands for.
• The impact of government red tape and the rising cost of doing business.
• What the future may hold for Australian wine.

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What really caused South Australia’s devastating algal bloom?

In this episode of Owner Insights, Lester Marshall, founder of Coffin Bay Oyster Farm, shares his personal view that the toxic algae affecting South Australia’s coastal waters in 2025 was likely introduced by two cargo ships.

Drawing on more than 30 years of experience farming the state’s waters, Lester explains why he believes these vessels may have introduced the algae through ballast water discharge – offering a thought-provoking perspective from someone who describes himself as a "canary in the coal mine" for the state's marine environment.

But this episode is about far more than the algal bloom. Lester's business journey is one of the most remarkable stories of resilience we've featured on Owner Insights:  

• Losing everything at 26: How rising interest rates forced a 26-year-old Lester to cull 3,000 sheep and walk away from farming.
• Starting from scratch: The journey of founding Coffin Bay Oyster Farm in 1992 and helping build one of Australia's most recognised oyster brands.
• Surviving the perfect storm: Navigating a brutal series of setbacks since 2016, including disease outbreaks, COVID, market shutdowns and algal blooms.  
• Fighting for survival: How the business survived as staffing fell from 18 people to just two.

Lester reflects on the highs, the lows and what has kept him going in a candid conversation about resilience, reinvention and the determination required to keep moving forward when so much was beyond his control.

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Libby Prell grew up in rural NSW and first became aware of the gap between the “haves and have-nots” while at boarding school - a realisation that has shaped much of her life since.

After moving to Central Australia in the 1980s, she met her now husband Tony Smith. Together they built NT Link, a transportable modular building company based in Alice Springs and Darwin, with a fleet of more than 800 buildings.

But the journey has been anything but straightforward.

Their story has been shaped by setbacks that would have ended many businesses:

• Discovering unexpected liabilities in Tony’s first business purchase at just 24
• Losing everything after an over capitalised expansion in the late 1990s
• Cyclone George destroying one of their major accommodation camps in 2007

Yet Libby and Tony kept going - driven by a deep belief in their business and the people around them.

In Episode 15, Libby reflects on the lessons those experiences taught them:

• The importance of resilience
• The central role people and relationships play in a business
• What it takes to step back from leadership

It’s a powerful conversation about setbacks, persistence, and how those who face the toughest challenges are often the most driven to help others.

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Nick Addison doesn’t run a typical business - and Adelaide Oval isn’t a typical organisation.

In this episode of Owner Insights, James Orchard goes behind the scenes with Nick Addison, CEO of the Adelaide Oval Stadium Management Authority, to explore what it really takes to operate a world-class stadium and the collection of businesses that sit behind it.

Originally from Melbourne, Nick relocated to Adelaide in 2022 with his young family to take on the role, bringing a deep passion for sport and a sharp commercial lens. He shares his personal story, while also lifting the lid on how Adelaide Oval actually works, who owns it, how it became a world-class venue, and what it takes to stay there.

Inevitably, the cost of a pie comes up. Nick also explains why great “content” - from elite sport to major concerts - underpins everything, how Adelaide Oval competes with the couch, and why the Oval’s grounds expertise has become globally sought-after, including being approached by the ICC to support the Cricket World Cup in New York.

A fascinating look behind the scenes of one of South Australia’s icons, offering insights into leadership, diversification and world-class performance - applied to a very different kind of business.

Connect with James Orchard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesorchard1/

See other episodes: https://accruharrisorchard.com.au/podcast/

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In episode 13 of Owner Insights, James Orchard speaks with Ben Lumbers about the remarkable story of Gliderol - a South Australian manufacturing success founded by his father in the 1970s. The company pioneered roller garage doors and was known for a culture that was anything but ordinary, including long lunches and footy trips on the infamous “Gliderol Bus”.

Gliderol grew into a truly global operation. But this is not just a growth story.

Ben takes us inside the decision to sell the family business in 2011, and the point at which he realised the future he had imagined wasn’t going to play out as expected.

Four years later, Ben spots the business back on the market - this time making losses for the first time in its history. What follows is a tense negotiation, a bold decision to buy it back, and a rapid turnaround driven by reuniting key people, restoring culture, and refocusing on the customer, before eventually selling the business again a few years later.

This episode of Owner Insights is a reminder that nobody understands a business quite like the people who built it. When decisions drift too far from the customer and the culture, even strong businesses can lose their way, as this story shows.

Imagine combining the systems and efficiency of Amazon with the design flair of IKEA - and applying it all to kitchens.

That’s the business Steven Bosley has built with his two sons at Amorini Australia.

In this episode of Owner Insights, Steven modestly describes the company he founded as “purveyors of chipboard,” despite employing more than 65 people and generating around $30 million in turnover. At its core, Amorini is a logistics business, managing hundreds of moving parts behind every kitchen, with systems and processes doing the heavy lifting.

Fuelled by more than 100 overseas trips, Steven has built the business around his love of travel and a drive to innovate. Growth, he says, is an outcome - not the objective. The conversation also explores Amorini’s distinctive approach to recruitment, relying entirely on word of mouth and creating opportunities for people who might not otherwise get them, alongside the disciplined systems that support growth without complexity.

A thoughtful discussion on building a scalable business without losing the joy that started it all.

Episode 11 of Owner Insights features Danny Di Iorio from Aquamate - a business whose journey has been far from linear. A believer in the ‘seven-year itch’ and regularly shaking things up, Danny had a strong first chapter with Aquamate, helped by a large-scale drought in Australia that boosted demand for their steel water tanks. But when the drought broke and the GFC hit, turnover declined for almost a decade.

That downturn led Danny to rethink the business, but a move into the Oil and Gas industry didn’t go well. Many lessons were learnt, and a refocus on being the best in the world at something got the business back on track. The catalyst came from an unlikely source - a Texan goat farmer, prompting Aquamate to develop a flat-pack design that opened the US market.

Today, the US accounts for 30% of Aquamate’s $12 million revenue and is expected to overtake the Australian side, all still manufactured in Adelaide. Aquamate is now exploring a Big Science project in South America that could require up to 4,000 tanks - and with global demand rising, Danny is gearing up for the most ambitious chapter in the company’s history.

At 17, Matt MacMahon left school to chase a professional tennis career across Europe. Those years on the tennis circuit gave him the resilience and mental toughness that would later define his approach to business.

After returning home due to his father’s terminal illness, Matt took over the family’s small road maintenance company, PMP, and together with his business partner grew it from four staff to a $35 million enterprise before selling to Fulton Hogan.

Today, he’s a Non-Executive Director at Fulton Hogan and a Director of Roomia Self Storage, a growing Australian brand with 13 sites and more in development.

In this episode, Matt reflects on the lessons that shaped his journey - from taking bold financial risks to continually pushing himself - and why he believes being unafraid to lose is the key to building something great.

Imagine being 30 years old, leaving a secure career in investment banking, and with no job trying to raise $40 million to build a business from the ground up.

Fast forward a few years, now with a young family and in the middle of the GFC, feeling like you’re on a treadmill you can’t get off, with your house and everything else on the line.

That was the reality for Grant Wilckens in the early days of building what would become the G’day Group. Starting in 2004 with a blank sheet of paper and a handful of caravan parks in WA and Victoria, Grant set out to commercialise a traditional cottage industry, transforming Australian caravan parks into holiday parks and resorts.

Today, the group employs 2,600 people and includes 90 holiday parks and resorts under Discovery Parks, 330 licensed parks in the G’day Parks network, and tech platforms like WikiCamps and Bookeasy. In this episode, Grant shares how he rebuilt from those challenging early years, shifted the focus from simply owning assets to delivering exceptional customer experiences, and why digital innovation is shaping the next chapter.

In this episode of Owner Insights, we sit down with Meg Paech – founder of Yellow Door Care – whose quiet determination has built one of Adelaide’s most trusted in-home care providers.

Ten years ago, after 25 years as a nurse, Meg saw a gap in the market when her father-in-law needed care. What began as a deeply personal mission has grown into a business employing over 150 casual staff and delivering 3,000 hours of care every week to clients under the NDIS and Aged Care systems.

Meg is an incredibly humble entrepreneur – someone who dislikes selling, found early business meetings with bankers intimidating, but always knew she wanted her own business.

She shares how she’s grown Yellow Door while staying true to her values – keeping the business family-owned, resisting multiple offers to sell, and maintaining a personal touch in an increasingly complex industry. With all three of her kids working in the business and her twin sister Chris as Operations Manager, Yellow Door is a true family success story.

This is a refreshing conversation about doing business your own way – and staying grounded while making a big impact.