The farming family wants to work with apple growers in WA to stabilise prices as they invest in orchards in the southern forests.
The Galati family needs no introduction to many Western Australians, primarily as a result of its Spudshed outlets in the metropolitan area and key regional locations.
Patriarch Tony Galati’s bushy brows, short shorts and blue sleeveless vest have turned him into an instantly recognisable and often-parodied figure.
Of course, his fight to take on the now-defunct Potato Marketing Board is part of the state’s retail history.
The farming family of Sicilian heritage has amassed a good deal of clout and fortune on its path to prominence.
The Business News Rich 100 estimated the family’s wealth last year at about $295 million.
Galati Group runs seven farm hubs, a big greenhouse in Gingin, 19 Spudsheds, a truck fleet, and a network of storage, handling and distribution facilities from Kununurra to Manjimup.
At one point the Galatis even took an interest in buying the Kimberley Meat Company abattoir, located about 100 kilometres east of Broome.
They walked away because it was deemed the abattoir could not operate enough days of the year to make it viable.
The company remains interested in an acquisition of that nature should its beef division scale to a point where it is viable.
Both Tony and his son, Galati Group chief executive Frankie Galati, tout food security as the driving force behind the family’s farming and retail empire.
The Galatis’ current focus is Manjimup, home to about 30,000 of the company’s cherry trees and 25,000 apple trees.
“It is one of the best places in the world to grow apples,” Tony Galati said.
The landholdings in Manjimup and Lancelin are key to the Galati empire’s cropping scheme.
“On our vegetable farming side, we adjust where we are during the year based on where the most efficient place is to grow the crop,” Frankie Galati told Business News.
“We move all our potatoes down to Manjimup where they have had good rain. Then, as we move through the season, we move up to Lancelin where it is usually hotter during winter.
“Pretty much all our brassica plantings go down to Manjimup in that summer period.
“We are utilising the environment and the different climates to maximise the crop and the efficiency of it.”
Galati Group last year spent $14 million on two orchards in Manjimup.
The orchards have a variety of fruits, but the main crop is apples.
Tony told Business News the company was investing in the fruit to grow the industry and give better price protection to Spudshed customers.
“I have always liked to control my own destiny,” he said.
“The prices of apples at the moment are very expensive so we want to make sure our customers never pay that price again.
“We can’t blame the growers because it has been really tough; the cost of production – labour – is very expensive.
“There is no robot that picks them yet. Everything has to be packed by hand.”
Tony said plenty of growers had pulled their trees out in recent years to try their hand at the more lucrative avocado crop.
That, he said, caused a shortage that left WA’s apple supply at greater risk of production impacts from bad weather, for example.
“[In 2024] the growers had a bit of a tough year, a lot of dropped fruits, and yields were down up to 30 per cent on some farms,” Frankie said.
“So, I guess this is why some of the cost pressures have been created on the apples.”
The Bravo apple has been all the buzz in the industry in the past few years.
Invented in WA, the Bravo is exported to the US and China under the Soluna brand.
The Manjimup orchards purchased by Galati Group include some Bravo plantings, which will appear on Spudshed shelves.
“[There has] been a lot of research and development to create that apple in the industry,” Frankie said.
“We want to work with all the growers and industry on that apple to maximise its name across the apple world.”
Growing a significant export product would be a change of tack for the Galatis, who to this point have mostly focused on the domestic market despite periodic overseas sales of carrots, onions and potatoes.
“There are a few guys exporting Bravos now, so we want to work with them and maximise that crop where we can,” Frankie said.
Tony Galati with the Spudshed milk range, launched in late 2025. Photo: Michael O’Brien
Building up the apple sector will require infrastructure.
On-farm storage and handling has been a major trend on broadacre farms in WA this decade.
Tony said the horticulture sector was no different.
“It has taken a lot of years for us to get where we are; massive investment,” he said.
“We are putting controlled atmosphere rooms down there to cater for volume of apples.
“The farms we bought, they have got some facilities already on site, but we need to do quite a few more facilities. We have equipment coming from Italy already.
“Our main focus is food security for the future of WA … it is our duty to make sure that we give our customers affordable food for decades to come.”
That food security picture includes securing a wider standard of produce from growers.
“We have got the best quality product on shelves anywhere in the world, but in order to get that, if you produce 10 tonnes of product, probably six tonnes will make the grade,” Tony said.
Frankie said Galati Group’s grades were often adjusted to enable Spudshed to purchase most of a grower’s crop, even in bad seasons.
“For example, potatoes. It has been a cold season with a lot of storms,” Frankie said.
“You’re going to get small potatoes, so we adjust our spec in store to ensure that 90 per cent of that crop is utilised.
“You are not getting all your perfect potatoes at 200 or 220 grams, but you get them at a cheaper price, and we are utilising the whole crop.
“We do the same thing with apples and every other product.”
The other side of the food security puzzle is the Spudshed network through which the produce is sold.
Opened last year, Spudshed’s new store in Kalgoorlie-Boulder is its 19th outlet.
Tony drove a truck full of produce to Kalgoorlie to fill shelves at the new outlet.
“We still have to deal with dad busting our chops every other day,” Frankie quipped when asked about his dad’s prominent role in the family business.
“He likes to start fires everywhere, but it is good fun, he is very hands on.”
Tony said Albany or Geraldton would be next for the Spudshed brand.
