Tom left school at 15 to become an apprentice baker but found himself jobless at 23. In 1987 he borrowed the money to open his first pizza shop in Albury, New South Wales. Today he has built his business to over 145 stores throughout regional and metropolitan Australia, basing stores across Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and ACT.
The Eagle Boys enterprise employs over 2,300 full-time and part-time employees.
Tom has set down an ambitious national and international growth strategy for Eagle Boys in the next five years with a focus drive into Victoria and the Asian markets. This following building a 40 store network in New Zealand in only a few years, winning the majority of the market, and selling the operation to a multinational and the proverbial “offer that was too good to refuse”.
Eagle Boys was awarded the FAANZ Award for Master Franchise of the Year in 1996 and has collectively won the New South Wales and Queensland Retail Franchise of the Year in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
Eagle Boys now remains one of the only wholly Australian-owned and originated fast-food companies, both competing against a majority of offshore-owned fast-food operators in Australia but also exporting its expertise to other countries.
In 1994, Tom Potter was named the Australian Young Business Person of the Year by the Australian Financial Review, entitling him to a scholarship to attend Harvard Business School. He completed a three-year OPM Executive Education Degree and graduated Valedictorian of the 1997 class.
Tom is a keen sportsman and a past member of the Board of Ports Corporation (Queensland), Wallace Bishop Jewellery, the Committee of Brisbane, a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a member of the Young Presidents Organisation (International).
TOPICS:
->People = Success
->Change - It’s with us forever, deal with it.
->How to work out 'What Customers Really Want'.
->The Story of Eagle Boys.
->Guerilla Marketing and Relationship Marketing
->How to Beat the Big Boys
->Global application for your business
->Hard Nose Retail - Life from the Edge
->Teamwork / Warfare / Winning
->The Competition Want You Dead - What are you going to do about it?
Tom started his business life with only a basic education behind him, no money and no mentor.
How did he achieve so much in only a few years in one of the most competitive industries in Australia?
How did he become Australian Financial Review Young Business Person of the Year? Why was he chosen to deliver the Valedictorian speech on behalf of his graduating class at the world famous Harvard Business School.
As a result of his aggressive and creative marketing Tom’s took on the multi-national Pizza Hut Corporation in a Federal Court battle over who really is Australian in this industry. Eagle Boys won the case and received nation wide support and press and media coverage.
