The Peregrine Corporation is an Australian

privately owned company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

which operates the

On The Run On the Run may refer to: * "On the run", a phrase often used to describe a fugitive, a person fleeing custody Literature * ''On the Run'' (novel), by Nina Bawden * On the Run (novel series), by Gordon Korman * ''On the Run'', a novel in the S ...

brand of service stations and

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...

s in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, as well as the Smokemart & GiftBox

tobacconist A tobacconist, also called a tobacco shop, a tobacconist's shop or a smoke shop, is a retailer of tobacco products in various forms and the related accoutrements, such as pipes, lighters, matches, pipe cleaners, and pipe tampers. More specia ...

vape An electronic cigarette is an electronic device that simulates tobacco smoking. It consists of an Atomizer nozzle, atomizer, a power source such as a battery, and a container such as a cartridge or tank. Instead of tobacco smoke, smoke, ...

& variety retail stores nationwide. It was founded by Fred Shahin in 1984 with the purchase of a BP service station in Woodville; and in 2020 it was listed at number 15 in the ''

Australian Financial Review ''The Australian Financial Review'' (abbreviated to the ''AFR'') is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New Sou ...

's'' "Top 500 Private Companies", with an estimated annual revenue of $2.6 billion. Peregrine bought the

Mobil Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999. ...

fuel outlets in South Australia in 2010 and 25 company-owned BP outlets in 2014. The acquired sites were rebranded and upgraded to 24-hour On the Run (OTR) convenience stores along with the service stations. The company owns

The Bend Motorsport Park The Bend Motorsport Park is a bitumen motor racing circuit at Tailem Bend, South Australia, Tailem Bend, South Australia, Australia, about south-east of the state capital, Adelaide. The complex has a bitumen circuit, drag racing strip, and d ...

Tailem Bend Tailem Bend (locally, "Tailem") is a rural town in South Australia, south-east of the state capital of Adelaide. It is located on the lower reaches of the River Murray, near where the river flows into Lake Alexandrina. It is linear in layout s ...

and the

Mallala Motor Sport Park Mallala Motor Sport Park is a bitumen motor racing circuit near the town of Mallala in South Australia, 55 km north of the state capital, Adelaide. Mallala Race Circuit (1961–1971) The Mallala Race Circuit, as it was originally know ...

History

Fathi (Fred) Shahin and his

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

family moved to

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

during the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

, when he was ten years old. Shahin went to night school to qualify as an accountant. After working for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

for 27 years, he and his family migrated to Australia. When he could not find work, he bought a BP service station in the Adelaide suburb of Woodville, and the family lived on site. Peregrine was founded in 1984 with the purchase of the service station, soon followed by a chain of Smokemart (

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

retailer) stores across Adelaide. After Fred's death, three of his sons, Yasser, Khalil (Charlie) and Samer (Sam) took over the business. Peregrine bought the Mobil fuel outlets in South Australia in 2010 and 25 company-owned BP outlets in 2014. The acquired sites were rebranded and upgraded to 24-hour On The Run sites. By June 2014, Peregrine owned a chain of 24-hour convenience stores and service stations operating under the On The Run brand. Yasser Shahin and family were included on the

BRW Rich 200 The ''Financial Review Rich List'', formerly known as the ''BRW Rich 200'', is a list of Australia's two hundred wealthiest individuals and families, ranked by personal net worth published annually in ''The Australian Financial Review Magazine' ...

list in 2014. In 2015 Peregrine announced plans to redevelop the former

Mitsubishi Motors Australia Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited (MMAL) is a fully owned subsidiary of parent company Mitsubishi Motors Corporation of Japan. The company was established in 1980 and began vehicle manufacturing in that year, having taken over the facilities ...

test site outside

, that opened in 2017, and in May 2017, announced the purchase of the

. In 2020, Peregrine Corporation was listed at number nine in the ''

s "Top 500 Private Companies", with an estimated annual revenue of $2.6 billion.

Company description

Peregrine Corporation owns and operates a diverse range of businesses. Peregrine brought the

Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme, Inc. (previously Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.) is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain. Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph (1915–1973), who bought a yeast-raised recipe from a New Orleans ch ...

doughnut

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

to South Australia and also runs the Mexican food franchise Guzman y Gomez. As of September 2020, Peregrine was the 9th largest privately-owned company in Australia, and the largest in South Australia. The Peregrine Corporation is South Australia’s largest private sector company and the state’s largest private sector employer, employing more than 4,500 employees across retail, marketing, human resources, property development, legal, business development and operations.

Controversies

Nasmin Pty Ltd, the registered owner of Nasmin Farm, was fined $28,000 for the 2012 dumping of of slightly contaminated soil, taken from the redevelopment of an On The Run store located on Nasmin Farm. In 2018 the OTR brand of the company received significant criticism from consumers and environmental groups for a decision to ban reusable coffee cups, amongst growing concerns of the negative effect of the 1.2 billion disposable cups that end-up in landfill in Australia each year. A

class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

on behalf of 1,050 On The Run workers was lodged with the

Federal Court of Australia The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indic ...

on 13 May 2020. The company was accused of failing to pay overtime, underpaying staff and misusing its traineeship program as a method to reduce workers' pay, dating back to 2014 and involving all stores in South Australia. OTR allegedly used eight different wage minimisation tactics that enabled gross underpayment of its staff. In March 2020, the Federal Court had upheld a separate decision by the South Australian Employment Tribunal to award $2,342 to an OTR employee who had been underpaid. In 2020 there was opposition by local residents to a planned OTR outlet on

Kensington Road Kensington Road is a section of road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the A315 road. It runs along the south edge of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. To the west it becomes ...

in Kensington Park, and to the expansion of the Peregrine headquarters building in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

to a height of seven storeys with a

helipad A helipad is a landing area or platform for helicopters and powered lift aircraft. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard s ...

on top of the building. In August 2020 Peregrine was ordered by the South Australian Employment Tribunal to pay $65,000 to an employee after being found to have deliberately underpaid him over the period of a year in 2016, at an OTR at

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

References

{{Authority control Companies based in South Australia Convenience stores Family-owned companies of Australia Retail companies established in 1984 1984 establishments in Australia Smoking in Australia