For me, a big small-business is the way to go.

A conversation with Andrew Murray

Few people in the convenience trade outside of the major chains have heard of a company called Avem. And so it follows that even fewer have come face to face with its CEO, Andrew Murray. For almost thirty years, Avem has been the industry's mainstay supplier of foodservice equipment and Andrew Murray represents its second generation of management.

"My father, Mac, started the business in 1979 and called it The Australian Vending Machine Company. But he'd no sooner got started when he was prevailed upon by a bunch of organised criminals demanding protection money. So he quickly lost interest in vending and moved to dispensing machines.

"He changed the company name to AVEM and started with juice machines and the old brown box coffee machines. His first major client was Majik Mart, an early and rather unsuccessful foray into the convenience concept by Caltex which was later acquired and absorbed into the 7-Eleven chain.

"Dad's background was in engineering and he managed to send all of his kids to good schools. I went to Scotch College in Melbourne where I was a remarkably lazy student. But I seemed to have been blessed with a good, almost photographic, memory and exams came easily to me. The problem was that I forgot it all a month or so later.

Student days … footy & parties

"I wasn't particularly handy at fixing things and I'm sure that if I'd have been a plumber I'd have flooded half of Melbourne. So I decided that I wanted to be a lawyer. The idea of being a powerful advocate in court really appealed to me. But after six months at Monash University it became clear that studying law didn't. I was bored and restless and threw myself into playing AFL with a bunch of Scotch college old boys as well as tennis and a lot of partying. That was in 1977.

"I got a job with an insurance broker and started an insurance course at the old Prahran TAFE, which was less than stimulating. So I switched to a marketing degree at the Caulfield Tech, which later became the Chisholm Institute of Technology. When I misplaced my degree paperwork in 1987, I applied for a fresh copy and it arrived with Monash University written on the top of it, the place where I'd dropped out of law. So I have a degree in Marketing from Monash University gained by flunking their law course and therefore regard myself as their least deserving graduate.

"In the meantime I played a bit of Footy for Old Scotch in the lower grades and did all the things that young men in their early twenties seem to do. I worked behind the bar in a local pub as well as one of the first late night clubs in St Kilda, where I got held up at gunpoint a couple of times and learned why it was that wharfies always had so much money. I lived with a couple of mates in typical shared bachelor digs and life, for a young man at the time, was pretty good.

Travel, romance …. & employment

"Then I travelled Europe for a year with a couple of friends, which was very much the thing to do in those days, and developed a love of almost all things European. I continue to revisit Europe regularly and that affection has never faded.

"While I was away I became involved in a romance with the daughter of the CEO of a major international company. Looking back, I don't think he approved of the romance but he kindly confided to me that he had a very good job waiting for me at his Melbourne office. So I kissed his daughter goodbye and jumped a plane for Melbourne where, as it turned out, there was no job waiting. He and I have since met a number of times and neither of us has ever let on.

"So I got a job with NCR in 1983 and, after a six month graduate internship, became a sales executive: largely as a result of the mentoring of an older man at NCR called Charles Bose, who I still regard as one of the world's great gentlemen.

"A few weeks before I started with NCR, I went up to the Western Riverina to play in an open tennis tournament. I was a fair player at best in those days and am still seeded fifth in my family. The lesser lights like me got the clay courts and the good players got to play on grass. But players good and bad all camped out in the open. Which is where I met Jane. She was camped in a tent just uphill from us. She had done the Girl Guide thing and dug a trench around the tent. As a result, an overnight storm saw her tent flood mine, which was the start of a life long romance.

Family … & future directions

"She was an architecture student at Melbourne Uni and a very good tennis player. She made the finals, while I lost at both singles and doubles on clay as well as grass. We were married in 1987, while I was still at NCR.

"We moved to Sydney with NCR and Jane got a job in Sydney too. We found a little flat in North Sydney and had our first son, Tom, the following year. Then I moved to Fujitsu as a mid range marketing manager just when the industry was downsizing. I had the unpleasant task of having to retrench a lot of people and deal with a lot of politics. Neither of which I enjoy or am good at.

"One Sunday in 1991 I was having a game of golf with dad and he talked about me opening a Sydney office for Avem. At that time, much like now, the major convenience clients had their HO's in Melbourne. But Caltex was in Sydney and a Sydney office avoided the two-bulls-in-the-paddock thing which can sometimes happen. Soon the first serviced office grew to a warehouse, sales office and parts facility.

"In 1993 I bought half of the business from dad, with the balance in 1997. It was a good transition and my father finally retired from the business in 1999. I had a lot to learn about transferring responsibility in a cross-generational way and dad was great. The transition was seamless.

Avem now has sales offices, warehouses and parts operations in all mainland capitals and employs some 55 salaried and permanent contract staff.

"If you have one or more employees, you need to make sure that they have some expertise. Then you have to explore that expertise and take it to its boundaries. I think that most people over forty work for an employer because they want to. They like to make their decisions under the protective umbrella of an organisation and to receive support if they make a decision that is the wrong one. For me, I'd always prefer to be dealing with an incorrect decision than no decision at all. Bad decisions are something that we all learn from and you need to respect the skills of the people you work with. That's the role of the manager."

Andrew and Jane have three children, all of whom have inherited their parents' love of sport. Tom, aged 21 is studying law at Deakin University. He plays soccer for Old Scotch and Cricket for Richmond Cricket Club and works part time as a Soccer and Cricket coach. Rebecca (Bec) is aged 19 is studying law at Monash University. She plays tennis in Grade 4 pennant at Royal South Yarra and Netball in a social comp as well as working part time as a tennis coach and in a sporting equipment shop. Sam is 15 and in Year 10 at Scotch College. He plays cricket, soccer and pennant tennis and works part time in the summer as a storeman for Avem. They all snow ski and, as Andrew says, he is seeded No 5 in the family at tennis.

Avem is now the leading supplier of foodservice equipment to the major convenience and supermarket chains. Andrew travels extensively and keeps closely in touch with foodservice trends throughout Europe and the USA.

Andrew says that the Australian market presents particular challenges for foodservice equipment suppliers in particular as well as for other suppliers whose customers require close service backup.

"The Australian foodservice market is unique in the world. The size and population of Australia means that we need to maintain an infrastructure which would service a population five or six times our size. So the question arises as to what is the best size for a business like ours?

"For me, being a big small-business is the way to go."

Andrew Murray will be a keynote speaker at the Convenience & Impulse Convention & Expo in Sydney in March, where he will speak on future trends in convenience foodservice.