Australian Venue Co
OVERALL |
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Owned |
USA |
Rating |
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Pub group
Created in 2017 when KKR bought an 80 per cent stake in Bruce Dixon's pub group for $190 million. Since then KKR has made a number of bolt-on acquisitions, including Coles' Spirit Hotels business, which controls about 90 pubs, mainly in Queensland. Coles still operates the liquor stores, but has left the pokies business.
Company Ownership
The Australian Venue Company | AUS | website | ||||
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co LP ![]() owns 80% of The Australian Venue Company |
USA | website | ||||
Private equity firm One of the world's largest private equity firms. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2010. Acquired Unilever's spreads business in 2017 for 6.83bn euros. Acquired Campbell Soup Co's international operations (including Arnott's) in 2019. |
Company Assessment
PRAISE | CRITICISM | INFORMATION | ||
The Australian Venue Company | ||||
This company owns over 150 venues across Australia, many of which offer gambling services including poker machines.
Source: company webiste (2020)
Human Rights Law Centre's 2022 report, "Broken Promises: Two years of corporate reporting under Australia's Modern Slavery Act", examines statements submitted to the Government's Modern Slavery Register by 92 companies sourcing from four sectors with known risks of modern slavery: garments from China, rubber gloves from Malaysia, seafood from Thailand and fresh produce from Australia. Modern slavery statements are analysed to see if they comply with the mandatory reporting requirements, identify or disclose obvious modern slavery risks, and demonstrate effective actions to address risks. This company's modern slavery disclosure statement received a rating in the 11-20% range. The average score was 44% and the highest score was 89%.
Source: Human Rights Law Centre (2022) |
California, the UK and Australia have all enacted legislation requiring companies operating within their borders to disclose their efforts to eradicate modern slavery from their operations and supply chains. Follow the link to see this company's disclosure statement.
Source: Modern Slavery Register (2020) |
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Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co LP | ||||
This company is listed as having best practice on a report card on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in corporate America.
Source: Human Rights Campaign (2021) |
Forest 500 identifies the 350 companies and 150 financial institutions with the greatest exposure to tropical deforestation risk, and annually assesses them on the strength and implementation of their deforestation and human rights commitments. This financial institution received a score of 0%.
Source: Forest 500 (2021)
In 2005, Toys "R" Us was purchased in a US$6.6 billion leveraged buyout by private equity firms Bain Capital, KKR, and Vornado Realty Trust. While Toys "R" Us' revenues remained steady over the next 13 years - US$11.1 billion in sales in 2017 - the retailer was saddled with debt it couldn't repay. By 2007, 97% of the company's operating income was consumed by interest, which left the company unable to upgrade technology or evolve its business model. The heavy debt load eventually led Toy "R" Us to file for bankruptcy in 2018. The company liquidated in June of 2018 and closed their remaining 800 stores. Over 33,000 employees of the company lost their jobs and their severance payments in bankruptcy court. The PE companies controlling the Toys "R" Us bankruptcy refused buyers that would have saved thousands of jobs and instead chose liquidation to maximize the financial extraction. The private equity firms that owned Toys "R" Us collected more than $470 million in fees and interest from the retailer over the ownership period, while a total of 64,000 jobs were lost.
Source: United 4 Respect (2019)
On 29 June 2015 the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission charged this company with misallocating more than US$17m in 'broken deal' expenses to its flagship private equity funds in breach of its fiduciary duty. KKR agreed to pay nearly US$30m to settle the charges, including a penalty of US$10m.
Source: US SEC (2015)
In 2014, this company, together with other private equity firms Blackstone and TPG, agreed to pay US$325m to settle a lawsuit that accused seven private equity groups of conspiring to fix the prices of some of the world's biggest leveraged buyouts.
Source: Financial Times (2014)
This company received an S&P Global ESG Score of 26/100 in the Diversified Financial Services and Capital Markets category of the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment, an annual evaluation of companies' sustainability practices (last updated 23 Sep 2022). The rankings are based on an analysis of corporate economic, environmental and social performance, assessing issues such as corporate governance, risk management, environmental reporting, climate strategy, human rights and labour practices.
Source: S&P Global (2022)
JUST Capital polls Americans every year to identify the issues that matter most in defining just business behaviour. For their 2023 rankings JUST Capital asked a representative sample of 3,002 Americans to compare 20 different business Issues on a head-to-head basis, producing a reliable hierarchy of Issues ranked in order of priority. Issues are organised under the headings Workers, Customers, Communities, the Environment, or Shareholders & Governance. JUST Capital then define metrics that map to those issues and track and analyse the largest, publicly traded U.S. companies. This analysis powers their rankings, in which this company ranked 716th of 951 companies, and 30th of 34 Capital Markets companies.
Source: JUST Capital (2023) |
This investigative report by China Labour Watch reveals how KKR turns a blind eye to the human impact of the massive production outsourced by Dollar General and other companies in its portfolio. CLW Executive Director Li Qiang states that DG has 'the worst labor performance in China of all major US retailers'. [Listed under Information due to age of report]
Source: China Labor Watch (2009)
This company received a score of 10/100 in the Newsweek Green Rankings 2016, which ranks the world's largest publicly traded companies on eight indicators covering energy, greenhouse gases, water, waste, fines and penalties, linking executive pay to sustainability targets, board-level committee oversight of environmental issues and third-party audits. Ranking methodology by Corporate Knights and HIP Investor.
Source: Newsweek (2016)
This company has environmental, social and governance (ESG) claims on its website.
Source: company website (2016)
California, the UK and Australia have all enacted legislation requiring companies operating within their borders to disclose their efforts to eradicate modern slavery from their operations and supply chains. Follow the link to see this company's disclosure statement.
Source: company website (2016) |
Company Details
Type | Private company |
Revenue | 600 million AUD (2019) |
Subsidiaries | Hawthorn Brewing Company Pty Ltd ![]() Craft beer makers Founded in 2008 as the backyard idea of 3 mates with a long history of home brewing. Their beers are brewed under contract. Acquired by Dixon Hospitality (renamed Australian Venue Co) in 2017. Queensland Venue Co (50% owned) ![]() Hotel operators This joint venture began in 2019 when the KKR controlled Australian Venue Company took over Coles' hotels business which operates mainly in Queensland. Under the deal KKR runs the hotels (and poker machines) while Coles runs the liquor stores. |
Contact Details
Address | 3/616 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne, VIC, 3004, Australia |
Freecall | 1800 836 837 |
info@ausvenueco.com.au | |
Website | www.ausvenueco.com.au |
Products / Brands
Hawthorn Brewing Co
Hawthorn Beer |