Spotlight Group Holdings Pty Ltd (SGH) is an Australian retail conglomerate and one of the country's largest

private companies 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 ...

. Its Spotlight Retail Group (SRG) division operates fabric and craft store chain Spotlight, outdoor retailers

Anaconda Anacondas or water boas are a group of large snakes of the genus ''Eunectes''. They are found in tropical South America. Four species are currently recognized. Description Although the name applies to a group of snakes, it is often used to re ...

and

Mountain Designs Mountain Designs is an outdoor clothing and equipment business based in Australia. They sell hiking, rockclimbing and general outdoor and recreational equipment. The company stocks a variety of international and local brands, as well as their ow ...

, and department store chain Harris Scarfe. The first Spotlight store was established in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in 1973 by brothers Morry Fraid and Ruben Fried.

History

Spotlight was established by brothers Morry Fraid and Ruben Fried, whose names were spelled differently due to a mistake by their teachers. They immigrated to Australia from Israel in 1956 with their parents, who established a fabric stall at the

Queen Victoria Market The Queen Victoria Market (also known colloquially as Vic Market or Queen Vic) is a major landmark in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Covering over , it is the largest open air market in the Southern Hemi ...

. The first Spotlight store was opened in 1973 in

Malvern Malvern or Malverne may refer to: Places Australia * Malvern, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide * Malvern, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne * City of Malvern, a former local government area near Melbourne * Electoral district of Malvern, an e ...

. By 1990 there were 30 stores across Australia and the company was turning over about 90 million, with the brothers' net worth estimated by 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 ...

'' as about 30 million. Beginning in the late 1990s, Spotlight used economic value added as an internal metric to calculate employee bonuses. By 2006, Spotlight was employing 6,000 people and had a turnover of 600 million. It used the Howard Government's WorkChoices legislation to entice its employees to accept Australian workplace agreements with lower wage rates. In 2017, Spotlight was reportedly Australia's fifth-largest privately owned retailer, behind

7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc., stylized as 7-ELEVE, is a multinational chain of retail convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. A ...

, the

Peregrine Corporation The Peregrine Corporation is an Australian privately owned company which operates the On the Run (convenience store)#Australia, On The Run brand of Filling station, service stations and convenience stores in South Australia, as well as the Smokem ...

, Cotton On Group, and

Peter Warren Automotive Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

Expansion

Outside of Australia, Spotlight has stores in Singapore (1995), New Zealand (1996), and Malaysia (2014). In March 2018, Spotlight Group announced that it had acquired outdoor retailer

for an undisclosed sum. In March 2020, Spotlight Group was awarded the exclusive right to bid for Harris Scarfe, a chain of department stores placed into voluntary administration in 2019. The sale proceeded for a reported $70 million. In March 2021, Zac Fried announced that Spotlight Group planned to open 50 new Harris Scarfe stores in order to compete against

Big W Big W (stylized as BIG W) is an Australian chain of discount department stores, which was founded in regional New South Wales in 1964. The company is a division of Woolworths Group and as at 2019 operated 176 stores, with around 22,000 employee ...

and Kmart.

Net worth

In 2021, ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'' listed Morry Fraid and Zac Fried, a son of Reuben Fried, as the 30th and 31st richest people in Australia, with a

net worth Net worth is the value of all the non-financial and financial assets owned by an individual or institution minus the value of all its outstanding liabilities. Since financial assets minus outstanding liabilities equal net financial assets, net ...

of 2.81 billion each. Meanwhile and in a contrasting assessment one month later, Morry Fraid, Zac Fried and family were listed on the ''Financial Review'' 2021 Rich List with a collective/joint net worth of 3.19 billion.

Structure

Spotlight Group Holdings is divided into the Spotlight Property Group (SPG), managing the group's property portfolio; the Alara Investment Group, managing other investments; and the Spotlight Retail Group (SRG), which is divided into the brands of Spotlight, Anaconda, Mountain Designs, and Harris Scarfe.

References

External links

* {{Retailers in New Zealand Homeware retailers of New Zealand Homeware retailers of Australia Family-owned companies of Australia Australian companies established in 1973 Holding companies of Australia