The $500m pub owner you’ve never heard of
David Tomsic may not be a household name like his father-in-law, billionaire pub and pokies baron Bruce Mathieson, but he’s quietly accumulated a portfolio of gaming venues over the past 18 years that’s turned him into one of the country’s biggest publicans.
His latest acquisition, the Royal on Ninety-Nine in the Queensland outback town of Roma – purchased for about $7 million this week – takes his Black Rhino Group, which he runs with his wife Deborah Mathieson-Tomsic (the youngest of Bruce Mathieson’s two daughters) to over 40 venues spread across Victoria, South Australia and Queensland.
The portfolio spans large historic venues including the Hotel Shamrock in Bendigo, The Grand Hotel in Mornington and Craig’s Royal Hotel in Ballarat, inner-city Melbourne pubs such as the Richmond Social and Waterloo Cup in Moonee Ponds and remote rural pubs including the Opal Inn Hotel in South Australia’s Coober Pedy and the St George Hotel in Central Queensland.
While he now owns more venues outright than his father-in-law (the bulk of Bruce Mathieson’s $1.7 billion fortune is tied to his 15 per cent stake in ASX-listed Endeavour Group which operates over 350 hotels), Mr Tomsic makes no claim to his crown.
“He’s the king, I’m just the prince,” he says.
Tomsic started out as a bricklayer, and then got into doing building work including on pubs owned by his father-in-law.
“The first pub I bought was the Browns Corner Hotel in Coburg [in Melbourne’s inner north] in 2006,” he told AFR Weekend. This pub is now owned and operated by PubCo Group, a business with 12 venues run by his sister-in-law Jodi Grollo, Bruce Mathieson’s oldest daughter, and her husband Gianni.
Swift rise
“Then I started buying a few hotels and renovating them. I didn’t go into this business full-time until 2012.”
It’s been a rapid ascent since then. Black Rhino Group now employs more than 1100 front-of-house staff to manage a portfolio that industry insiders reckon is worth well over $500 million.
The Tomsics are also one of the country’s biggest owners of gaming entitlements, operating over 1100 poker machines in Victoria alone. They also run a substantial accommodation business with more than 500 rooms.
All three of the couple’s children have roles within the business.
“Our eldest daughter does all our social media, my son is involved in running one of the pubs and my youngest daughter is also involved,” Tomsic says.
Alongside keeping a low profile, he is reluctant to discuss any financials, including turnover, profits or the value of his empire.
But he says business has been good despite a cost-of-living squeeze hitting punters. This success he puts down to the affordable nature of the pub offering, and the group’s focus on three key things: cold beer, good food and welcoming spaces.
“We have steak nights, parma nights, $5 pints. It all comes back to good value. Look at how many top-end restaurants have closed. You don’t see too many pubs closing down.”
His latest acquisition in Roma (acquired from The Waratah Hotel Group in a deal brokered by HTL Property’s Glenn Price and Brent McCarthy) is part of an expansion out of Black Rhino’s Victorian home base and into regional towns in Queensland and South Australia that are “underpinned by stable economic indicators”.
“Roma is a beautiful and strong town. I fell in love with the hotel [built in 2016 after the previous venue burnt down] and the area,” Tomsic says.
Regional opportunities
The acquisition of the Roma hotel is Black Rhino’s third in regional Queensland this year. It bought the Overlander Hotel in Mount Isa in May and the Kalka Palms Hotel in Rockhampton in June. The group is also acquiring the Grand Hotel in Millicent on SA’s Limestone Coast.
“I love the regions. There are good buying opportunities in good towns,” Tomsic says.
“A lot of owners have neglected these pubs for a long time. I like to get stuck in and renovate them and turn them into something special.
“I don’t want to disrespect the city [pub scene], but in the country it’s so much easier. It’s at another level.”
Tomsic is not the only one seeing opportunities in the regions. Specialist fund manager Harvest Hotels has built up a 13-strong portfolio of iconic regional pubs in places including Wagga Wagga and Woy Woy in NSW and in Reynella and Hackham in South Australia valued at about $320 million.
Country pubs have also attracted the interest of corporate high-flyers including Byram Johnston, the former CEO of ASX-listed funds administrator Mainstream Group. In the past few years, he has bought three historic pubs in the NSW Central West including 150-year-old Tarana Hotel near Lithgow and the 160-year-old O’Connell Hotel near Bathurst.
