Strong foundations for private companies

Private business is a big player in some important WA sectors.

WHILE Gina Rinehart grabs the headlines as Australia’s richest person, the private business world of Western Australia is much more than mining.

In fact, outside of Ms Rinehart, mining is mainly represented at the big end of the private sector in the services side such as contracting, with the likes of Barminco and, to a lesser degree, BGC, dominating.

That is because mining has tended to be the domain of public companies from start-up and mining services has tended to go public when the scale of the business has required it.

Construction, mostly in WA’s capital Perth, has been the real bastion of private business.

Len Buckeridge’s BGC was only last year pipped as the nation’s biggest house builder, even though his firm only operates in WA. Dale Alcock-led ABN Group comes in closely behind BGC. 

Fast food retailing is another major sector where private business has a substantial presence.

Several big private companies in WA are nearing a point where there is speculation about how their founders will transition power to another generation, and what that means for the company when strong-willed entrepreneurs let go of the reins (see Family features strongly in the succession plans of many entrepreneurial businesses).

Some of these characters are larger than life and increasingly caught up in the politics of the day, much more so than a decade before.

Click here to read all the articles in this year's private business feature.