HE MAY have sold his pizza empire, but Eagle Boys founder Tom Potter hasn’t lost any of the perks.
“I actually rang the store on Friday to order some pizzas and they still gave me free pizza,” he laughs. “They always get a good tip from me so they’re usually jumping over themselves to get there.”
Mr Potter stepped down as company chief executive last week after settling a management buy-in deal with private equity group NBC Capital.
While he will remain a substantial shareholder, he said the changes were necessary to take the business to the next level.
“If there’s anything we’ve lacked in the last few years it’s been cash,” he said. “We’ve done everything else. The company’s results in the last 12-18 months have been record results. What this does is inject a lot of capital into the business to allow us to accelerate things.”
Mr Potter is not saying just how much it’s worth.
“We set the deal up like a winged keel so no one will ever know,” he says.
Despite two other offers for Eagle Boys, which has an annual turnover in excess of $100 million, Mr Potter said only NBC met the criteria he was looking for.
“I wanted to stay on as a shareholder and (the business) had to stay in Queensland and Australian hands,” he says. “No one was to lose their job and there was to be no major rationalisation.”
Founded in 1987 in Albury, on the NSW-Victorian border, Eagle Boys has grown to 180 stores and is the third largest pizza franchise in the country.
Mr Potter will remain as a consultant for 12 months but said he had “absolutely no plans” after that.
“It may be time to start smelling the roses,” he said.
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