As the biggest franchise in Western Australia measured by the number of outlets, Jim's (WA) reflects two of the major trends in franchising – it is a service-based business and a diversified group.
Those looking for more input in the direction of the City of Perth will have to buy or lease a property in the city before October in order to get a chance of securing a vote in its council and mayoral elections.
Just about all of Vanya Cullen's Margaret River neighbours have produced lower-than-average grape crops this year after weather conditions in 2005 and 2006 left vines bearing smaller grapes and smaller bunches.
Rob Mann is one of a handful of Western Australian winemakers lucky enough to get his hands on some cuttings of pinot gris – a white wine style growing in popularity with wine drinkers in Europe and the US.
Great Southern Ltd has rejected claims from the Wine Grape Growers' Australia that the grape glut that crippled many players in the industry during 2005 and 2006 would return to haunt the sector within five years.
The 2007 harvest has been a welcome relief for grape producers in WA, with unexpected sales to east coast operators easing the burden of oversupply. But the glut is yet to be fully overcome.
The grape glut may have created headaches for many players in the WA wine industry, but it has provided enormous opportunity for South West producer Stella Bella Wines Pty Ltd, which has plans to build a cellar door not too far from Leeuwin Estate.
Fortescue Metals Group Ltd boss Andrew Forrest laid the groundwork for his current wealth four years ago this month when he negotiated a deal with Allied Mining & Processing.
WA Business News' Wealth Creators may be sitting on enormous fortunes, but that wealth is predominately on paper. And while the stock market can push the value of an individual's shareholding up, it can just as easily make the wealth disappear.
The iron ore boom has underpinned the enormous wealth of Fortescue Metals Group Ltd managing director Andrew Forrest, and it has also boosted the wealth of some of Western Australia's most famous families.
The resources boom has swelled the job books for many of the country's engineering firms, which in turn has lifted company profits and share prices and lined the pockets of some of the industry's long-serving executives.
There may be a host of rags-to-riches tales among the executives enjoying the share price spoils of their publicly listed entities, but it's a storyline that also extends to the private sector.
The Western Australian entrepreneurs who have created the most wealth in the non-mining sector are led by people who spent most of their business life running private companies before opting for a sharemarket float.
The city's taxi industry continues to plague the local tourism sector, with hotel owners and tourism business operators joining in a chorus of outrage over the standard of the service.
A study looking at Perth's hotel needs for the next 15 years is expected to reveal significant capacity constraints as the sector experiences its biggest growth period in two decades.
The shortage of hospitality workers has hit crisis point, according to several tourism industry leaders, who say increasing the number of immigrants to work in the sector will help businesses grow and prevent service levels falling.
Former Perth Airport chief executive Graham Muir has called on current airport management to fast-track the development of an integrated domestic and international airport terminal in line with its now 20-year-old master plan.
Tourism WA chair and restaurateur, Kate Lamont, believes Western Australia's tourism promotion should be focused on markets that bring in big-spending tourists rather than attracting lots of low-spending ones.
WA Business News invited some of the state's leading tourism identities to discuss the key challenges facing the industry, and to offer a possible vision for the future of the sector in WA.
Watershed Premium Wines managing director Geoff Barrett said his company would turn to foreign investment to continue in its push to plant a total 240 hectares of vineyards.
As the sector's dominant player, agribusiness investment manager Great Southern Ltd is used to successfully weathering legislative storms. And the latest ATO tax challenge for non-forestry MIS will be no different, according to executive director and gene
With uncertainty surrounding the future of non-forestry managed investment schemes, promoters are expecting an increase in MIS project sales this year.
Managed investment scheme promoter Rewards Group Ltd believes its close alliance with listed investment company, The Ark Fund Ltd, will reduce the adverse impact of recent tax changes on its non-forestry projects.
The current decision to end managed investment scheme involvement in any industry bar forestry has significant repercussions for rural Australia, not to mention the legion of city-based corporate types who have lived well off this system.
The federal government's February 6 announcement that the ATO would cease issuing product rulings for non-forestry managed investment schemes after July 1, thereby removing the 100 per cent up-front tax deduction, sent shockwaves through the industry.
The establishment of a register of lobbyists is one of the main reforms flowing from the CCC inquiry, but apart from voyeuristic journalists it is hard to find supporters of this initiative.
