Never, Never quIt

Issue eight
Never, never quit
20
Never,
never
quit
– Words by Ellie Brade
Businessman Stefan Ackerie is
a household name in Australia,
thanks to his vibrant rainbowbranded chain of more than
50 ‘Stefan’ hairdressing salons
around the country. A lifelong
boat lover, he owns 31m
Rainbow Rose and has just
launched a new business, Stefan
Boating World, which aims to
bring affordable boating to
Australia, writes Ellie Brade.
It took me months to pin down
Stefan Ackerie, but when we finally
sit down to talk this makes sense: with
so many projects on the go and such
an enthusiasm for life, it’s a wonder
he had time for the interview at all.
Having done my research before the
interview, a portrait of a fascinating
character had emerged and I was
dying to speak with the man behind
the trademark rainbows. The day we
catch up, Ackerie has just returned
from a celebratory lunch for winners
of the prestigious Ethnic Business
Awards, which he won 21 years ago
in 1992, and is reflective and proud
of the achievement. “Back when I
received the award, I was young and
busy and didn’t appreciate how much
of a big deal it was,” he says.
Ackerie’s story starts in 1957
when he arrived in Australia from
Lebanon, aged 17, and began work
as an apprentice in his father’s hair
salon. Ambitious and driven, by
1959 he owned his first salon and
having formally founded Stefan
Hair Fashions in 1968, by 1970 they
numbered 20, by 1979, 30, and today
his salon portfolio totals more than
50. The growth rate of his business
is remarkable and a testament to
his work ethic. “People say to me,
‘Hairdressing is easy, everyone needs
to have their hair cut,’ but I’m not
the only haircutter in the world: in
Australia alone there are six thousand
hairdressing salons,” he says.
A motto often used in the Stefan
branding is “Believe in yourself and
never, never quit”. So I ask what
he thinks the key to his business
success is. “If you don’t believe in
yourself and you quit, then it can’t
happen because life is a journey,”
says Ackerie. “Sometimes it’s nice,
sometimes it’s tough, sometimes it’s
uphill, sometimes it’s raining and
sometimes there’s a pothole in the
road. Sometimes you get a flat tyre
and sometimes you blow up your
engine, but you’ve just got to keep
moving. The main secret to success is
you must have a nice team of people
who believe in your vision and want
to be part of the journey with you. If
they don’t believe then it can’t work, if
they’re not happy then it can’t work. If
they don’t respect you and you don’t
respect them, it doesn’t work.”
The importance of team is a theme
we return to several times in the
interview, and is something Ackerie
feels very strongly about. “You are
nothing without your staff,” he says.
“So many people think the hero is
the person and the name. It’s not;
the heroes are the people who make
it happen. Your team is priceless. So
many people think they can do it
alone and they can’t. If you have a
great team, well you deserve success;
if you don’t, then don’t complain, or
make one.
On the highs and lows of his career
as a businessman: “The highs are
where I am now. The lows, I’m proud
to say I don’t have many,” he says.
“You always have incidents in life. For
example there was no electricity in
Brisbane for six months and that did
incredible damage … but we managed
to cope and survive. Imagine having
a business with five hundred staff and
having no electricity for six months.
That was a low. Some lows you cause,
some are caused for you and they are
worse because you say ‘I didn’t do this’
but I guess when you are driving a car
in the road and you hit a pothole, just
because you don’t see it, you can’t say
‘I didn’t put the pothole there’,
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Issue eight
Never, never quit
23
Never, never quit
luke marsden
Opening page: An early Stefan Akerie at one of his hair salons.
This page: (Left) The distinctive 25.5m light weight catamaran
Hairazor; (Below) Ackerie has enjoyed a 30-year career in powerboat
racing, taking six national titles.
you should have seen it. No one
escapes, we all have something happen
to us.”
Along with hair and his business,
boats have always been Ackerie’s
passion. “My very first boat was a Lewis
Skiff. At 17 when I had no money I still
bought the Lewis, it was an amazing
boat,” he says. “I am Phoenician, and
it’s in our DNA to be boat people. My
father loved boats and I like boats and
I have been fortunate to race boats for
thirty years.”
Ackerie’s passion for boating got
really serious when he began offshore
powerboat racing in 1985, kick-starting
a 30-year career in powerboat racing
that included six national titles. This led
to his first experience of building a boat
when he got involved in the design of a
new racing cat, named Stefan Shampoo.
“It was a brand new design from Italy
and was way, way ahead of its time,” he
says. “It was half airplane, half boat, it
half floated and half flew; with a cat if
the wing design is clever in the middle
you actually lift and when you land it’s
not like a stone hitting the water, it’s like
cotton hitting the water.” With Stefan
Shampoo complete, Ackerie followed
the racing circuit around the world,
enjoying repeated racing success.
Skip forward many years and the
next boatbuilding project was a big and
radical 25.5m lightweight catamaran
design, which on her launch in 2011
was named Hairazor. The project had
started life as the brainchild of another
businessman who, having spent two
million dollars on the project, went
bust. Some time later Ackerie stepped
in and bought the hull and built it as
a lightweight and fuel-efficient new
build. Hairazor was completed in 2011,
when she debuted at the Sanctuary
Cove International Boat Show (SCIBS),
and was bought not long after by a New
Zealander who owned an Americanbuilt superyacht called Barbarina. “We
negotiated a deal, and he finished up
with my Hairazor, and I finished up with
Barbarina,” says Ackerie. Barbarina is
now Rainbow Rose, named for Ackerie’s
partner Rose, and is berthed in
Ackerie’s home city, Brisbane. “She is an
awesome boat.”
It is clear that although a boat lover,
Ackerie’s real enjoyment lies in the
creation of boat projects. “I’m not really
a pure yachtie, I like to build them, I
like to design them, I like to make them
happen, and then I like to do the next
one,” he laughs. “I love going on boats,
but I’m not one of those people who
has every weekend out on the boat, get
on board Friday come back Monday.
I used to do that a long time ago but I
don’t do that now.”
With this love of creating boats, it is
therefore unsurprising that many more
yacht projects lie on the horizon. A
major step is the imminent launching
of a new business, Stefan Boating
World, which has been three years in
the planning. The 20-million-dollar
“So many people think
the hero is the person
and the name. It’s
not; the heroes are
the people who make
it happen. Your team
is priceless. So many
people think they can
do it alone and they
can’t. If you have a
great team, well you
deserve success; if
you don’t, then don’t
complain, or make one.”
facility, located in Coomera, south of
Brisbane, totals two acres. Offering a
wide range of boats, all hand selected
by Ackerie, the business model is
to make yachting more affordable,
without compromising on the quality
of the product. This would be a
challenge for anyone, considering
the strength of the Australian dollar
and rising production costs, but it’s
a challenge that Ackerie is keen to
take on.
“There’s no question that
everything is getting dearer, but I
believe that boats don’t have to be
as expensive as they are. It’s up to
me to see how clever I am [with the
business], and if I’m clever I succeed
and if I’m not I don’t. I’m under
no illusion that what I’m doing with
Stefan Boating World is a walk in the
park,” he says. “A friend of mine once
said, ‘There’s a lot of waste in boats,’
and I’m trying to avoid the waste. I
want to get boats that are clever, from
manufacturers who are clever, so I
can offer dealers boats that are very,
very competitive and a range that is
comprehensive.”
The focus for Stefan Boating World
is selling smaller boats, but there is a
superyacht construction side to it as
well: Ackerie’s investment into Stefan
Boating World includes the facility
of the beleaguered Warren Yachts
[whose most recent launch was
Ghost II in 2009]. A 29m superyacht
project, started by Warren Yachts,
is now in build there. Ackerie has
used his own experience with boats
to improve the design. Originally
27.5m, a 6ft swim platform has been
added to the design to extend it, and
a flybridge incorporated as well. “I
like Rainbow Rose very much, but I
think the Warren yacht will be less
complicated,” says Ackerie. “I just
don’t think that superyachts should
be so complicated to use. In a house,
you turn the switch and you get light.
On a boat you’ve got to turn this,
and that, and it’s complicated. But I
guess in a house you have a city that
supplies you with things. On a boat
you are the city, you are the provider,
you are the sewage plant, you are
everything. So maybe superyachts
have to be complicated.”
This new build is almost 80 per
cent complete and Ackerie is looking
forward to the finished result: “It’s
a very beautiful boat. When we
added the flybridge it doubled the
interior, which made it very, very
nice.” Once the yacht is finished,
how it is received by the market will
determine whether activity at the
Warren facility continues. “We
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Issue eight
Never, never quit
will wait and see who buys it. If someone
buys it, we can’t wait to go again, the
shed is magnificent and the factory
where we are building it is awesome.”
On top of his work and his boating,
a range of charitable projects keep
Ackerie busy. Humble about his
philanthropy, I had to push Ackerie to
talk about these projects, which include
the Rainbow Truck, an incentive he
launched five years ago to feed the
homeless of Brisbane. “I used to ride my
bike [through the city] every morning
and I would see homeless people and
I thought it would be nice for them to
have something to eat and a nice cup
of coffee in the morning instead of
wondering where they were going to get
their next meal from. So I said that to
a friend of mine, Sonny, and I thought,
let’s do it. So we thought of the name
and got the van and we haven’t missed a
day in the past five years.”
One scheme he was happy to talk
about, and is clearly proud of, is the
Make A Sick Kid Smile (MASKS)
Foundation, set up in 2006 and run in
conjunction with the police. “We deliver
toys to sick kids in hospital. It masks the
pain and you get a smile. I remember
when my little boy was sick in hospital
and whenever I gave him a toy there
was no pain.” Similar initiatives are
run at Easter, bringing Easter eggs to
hospitalised children. “It’s good to do
things to help if you can,” he says.
Of all Ackerie’s philanthropic
endeavours, however, he is probably
best known for his purchase of
Brisbane’s Skyneedle – a landmark in
the centre of the city – at the eleventh
hour, before its sale to Disney World
Japan. “Now that’s one hell of a
story,” he says. “I had a phone call one
day from a person and he wouldn’t
Never, never quit
stop calling or tell the girl on the
switchboard what it was about. Finally
he told her it was about the Skyneedle. I
said what about it? He said if somebody
doesn’t buy it by Friday – this was
Tuesday – it was being sold to Tokyo.
So I said OK, you’d better come in and
we’ll talk.”
They met and discussed the
landmark and Ackerie began to
realise the Skyneedle’s importance,
both to Brisbane and to him. “I had
been in Europe in that period of
time and I saw a lot of monuments
and lots of landmarks and symbols
that represented great moments, for
example the Eiffel Tower in Paris. That
was an Expo symbol and they were
going to tear it down. What they wanted
to do to the Skyneedle is kind of the
same thing. It’s a 10 million dollar piece
of art and they want to tear it down
and sell it to Tokyo. Then I started to
get quite upset, because where I live
I see it every night, so I became quite
emotional and attached to it. It was a
very special monument for Brisbane,
and I got caught and thought how dare
they sell this to Japan. So I got a bit
carried away and I did it. The Skyneedle
is the highest symbol in Australia, it is
300ft, and it’s the biggest piece of art in
Australia. Forget the money issue, you
need to have history.”
As we closed the interview, I asked
Ackerie if he had any final thoughts.
“I just feel privileged. I live in Australia,
I love Australia, I love what I do,” he
said. “People say when are you going
to quit? I say what do you mean? I’m
just starting.”
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This page: (Clockwise from top left) The 31m
Rainbow Rose; Ackerie and partner Rose on board
Hairazor; The MASKS Foundation at work.
“I just feel privileged. I
live in Australia, I love
Australia, I love what I
do. People say when are
you going to quit? I say
what do you mean? I’m
just starting.”
25