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Tim Efkarpidis

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Tim Efkarpidis
OAM
Born
Katerini, Greece
NationalityAustralian
OccupationBusinessman
Years active1965–today
Known for
  • Founding Shop-Rite
  • Founding The Warehouse Group
  • Founding Molonglo Group
TitleDirector, Molonglo Group
Children2

Anastasios "Tim" Efkarpidis OAM (born March 1944) is a Greek-born Australian businessman. One of many post-war New Australians who became entrepreneurs in food and groceries, he later became known for building and running several supermarket chains in the Canberra area. In his later career, he moved his business to urban renewal. His projects include the NewActon Precinct in the inner north of Canberra, reviewed by critics as "the most ambitious design property in Australia."[1]

Early life and education

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Efkarpidis was born in Katerini, Thessaloniki, during the German occupation of Greece.[2][3] His mother and father, who had lived in Russian communities in Odesa, left that region to find refuge in Northern Greece.[3][4] Cared for by his older brother, Theophilos, he remained at school in Katerini to complete his matriculation. In the summer of 1962 his brother left for Australia, leaving him in Greece.[4]

A year later, Efkarpidis made his own voyage to Australia. Travelling alone, and speaking no English, he sailed to Sydney on the Patris, arriving on 29 August 1963.[4] He then travelled inland, to the central western town of Forbes, to work with his brother at the Wattle Café.[2]

Here, Anastasios took the Australian nickname "Tim", while his brother Theophilos became known as "Tom."[5] While working at the café, he met Maria Constantinou, whose family had emigrated to the outback town from the Greek island of Rhodes.[2] Tim and his brother began discussing a food and beverage business of their own, one based in the growing Australian capital city of Canberra—whose population would triple in size during the 1960s.[6]

Career

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Efkarpidis began work in Canberra, employed as a house painter and decorator during the day with the Besselink company; while working nights as an oyster shucker for Seven Seas Fishery.[4] With his savings, he began his first business with his brother in 1965: Curtin Fresh Fish and Cooked Supply.[4]

The business partnership would endure over 40 years. Three years after starting the fish shop, the brothers purchased a mini market and two blocks of land in the suburb of Higgins.[4] Here they partnered with the businessman Philipos Christodoulou, the only person outside the family the brothers would partner with.[4]

Two years after the land purchase in Higgins, Efkarpidis built what would be the first of 30 supermarkets the brothers would own.[7][4] The business did well, and Efkarpidis and his brother went on to purchase a supermarket in Chapman in 1973.[4] From there they purchased the Southlands shopping complex in Mawson, which included his first Shop-Rite supermarket; a brand he would later extend.[4] The supermarkets were popular with Canberrans, known for being clean and friendly, with long opening hours.[8] With both his brother and Christodoulou, he added to his portfolio a supermarkets in Kippax, Erindale, and Yarralumla; the group's first Cannon's Quality Fresh, in Fyshwick, along with the Belconnen fruit markets.[4]

Efkarpidis and his brother showed "enormous energy" and stayed directly involved in the running of the supermarket businesses.[8] Their children worked at the supermarkets, cleaning aisles, stacking the shelves, and carrying customer's shopping to their cars.[9]

The Warehouse Group

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Eventually, the brothers would own 30 supermarket businesses, including the Shop-Rite, Supabarn and Cannons Quality Fresh.[7] Their first property purchase in the CBD was the heritage listed Melbourne Building.[8] However, the most important accomplishment of the two brothers, "by far" was their response to being edged out of the market by the large duopoly of Coles and Woolworths.[4]

Under pressure from Coles and Woolworths, many wholesale suppliers refused to provide the brothers with stock.[4] The ACT Government responded to lobbying, and sold the brothers a land package which would become a large warehouse and distribution hub.[4] This gave their own supermarkets, and many other independent supermarkets owned by Greek Australians, a single buying block, significantly improving their margins.[3][4] Branded the Warehouse Group, it would later be described as “the most successful business in Australia.”[4][3]

Molonglo Group

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Efkarpidis divested from these interests for $86 million in 1996. He took the funds to create a new company, which brought in his two sons, Johnathan and Nectar.[10][9][11] Molonglo Group has focused on urban renewal projects, beginning in Canberra.[10][12] As of 2013 Efkarpidis senior was still listed as a director of the company.[10][13]

The company's first development was the NewActon precinct, a former government building site, commencing in 1997.[14] The precinct covers an area of over 2,000m2 on the fringe of Canberra's Parliamentary Triangle, and took 14 years to complete, with Efkarpidis encouraging his sons to drive the project.[9][15][16] Having hired the architecture firm Fender Katsalidis, the development would eventually include medium rise apartments, an 800-seat cinema for Palace Cinemas, and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water building.[15][9] The precinct's hotel, now known as Ovolo Nishi, features a staircase built from 2,250 pieces of salvaged timber.[17] Efkarpidis chose to back Japanese architects for many aspect of the build as they "know how to build more functional space."[10] The buildings and common spaces were designed to encourage walking, and feature a large number of public artworks, following "the patriarch's" belief that "art is meant to be shared and not held in the rarefied environment of boardrooms or homes of the wealthy."[15][12][9]

The New York Times would later describe Molonglo's development as giving Canberra a "decidedly hipster underbelly."[14][18] The precinct, including NewActon Hotel Hotel, won many awards for the family including:

Having completed this civic project, Efkarpidis' attention turned to Molonglo's Dairy Road project, between the industrial suburb of Fyshwick and the protected Jerrabomberra Wetlands.[22] It is described as being the next iteration of the family's "vision for Canberra", an intersection of nature and the built environment.[23]

Personal life

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Efkarpidis' paternal grandfather in top right with members of the Pan Pontus Congress, Athens, 1921

Efkarpidis married Maria at St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Kingston on 22 August 1971.[4] The marriage brought them two sons, Νεκτάριος (or Nectarios, commonly known as Nectar) and γιάννης (or Yianni, commonly known as Johnathan) who are partners in their father's business.[24][25][26]

Having moved to Canberra, Efkarpidis has never lived anywhere else.[4] He and Maria did buy the historic harbour-front property Chiltern in Darling Point Sydney, originally built by the founder of Woolworths Supermarkets.[11] However, the couple sold the property a short while later, having never moved in.[11] The couple reside today in Canberra's inner south suburb of Red Hill.[11][27] The family are supporters of the Canberra Raiders rugby league team.[28]

Honours

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In the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours, Efkarpidis was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for services to business through the retail and construction sectors.[27]

Philanthropy

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Like his forebears, Efkarpidis is a Greek Orthodox Christian; his family identified with the Pontic Greeks.[29][30] He supports several concerns related to the local church community, Greek community club and global Greek diaspora, including the Greek Orthodox Community of Canberra and the global Hellenic Initiative.[31][30] He, his company, and his family have been patrons to the arts in Canberra, which has included the festival Art, Not Apart, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery of Australia[12][32][33][34]

Notes

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  1. ^ Junker, Ute (13 May 2016). "The best hotel designs in Australia". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Hawcroft, Rebecca (ed.). "The Other Moderns: Sydney's Forgotten European Design Legacy [1 ed.] 9781742248400, 9781742235561". dokumen.pub. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d Peppas, Laura (2016). Whitley, Amanda (ed.). "Australian Dream" (PDF). Her Canberra. No. 6. pp. 31–37.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Tamis, Anastasios Myrodis (1999). The History of Greeks of Canberra and Districts. La Trobe University: National Centre for Hellenic Studies and Research. ISBN 0646379879.
  5. ^ "The new Aussies pitched in". The Canberra Times. 10 January 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  6. ^ "Canberra Population 2024". worldpopulationreview.com. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Page 2100 week07 2006 - 6th Assembly Hansard - ACT Legislative Assembly". www.hansard.act.gov.au. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  8. ^ a b c Rusk, Gary (2003). Regrets: Too Few To Mention. p. 103. ISBN 9780646426174.
  9. ^ a b c d e Chong, Florence (27 August 2011). "Designs on Living". The Australian. p. 1.
  10. ^ a b c d Cleary, Paul (8 March 2013). "A capital sense of community in the making". The Australian. p. 12.
  11. ^ a b c d "Price check on Chiltern". Australian Financial Review. 21 August 1999. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  12. ^ a b c Tricolas, Alex. "Don't like Art, not Apart? Get over it!". This is Canberra. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  13. ^ "Molonglo Group". Dun and Bradstreet. 2024.
  14. ^ a b Rout, Milanda (5 June 2015). "NewActon gives Canberra some cool". The Australian.
  15. ^ a b c d Rout, Milanda (6 November 2016). "Winning design proves a capital gain". The Australian. p. 4.
  16. ^ White, Sue (31 August 2019). "Canberra: Cool moves". Business Traveller Asia Pacific.
  17. ^ Shollenbarger, David Prior,Maria (15 December 2015). "8 Best Places to Go Next in Australia". Condé Nast Traveler. Retrieved 4 July 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ Pearse, Emma (5 June 2014). "36 Hours in Canberra, Australia". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  19. ^ "2017 ACT Architecture Award Winners". News & Media. 12 July 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  20. ^ "NewActon Nishi". FK. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  21. ^ Musa, Helen (20 June 2015). "NewActon wins top spot in ACT Architecture Awards". Canberra CityNews. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  22. ^ Vivian, Philip (October 2023). "Dairy Road Masterplan: Architecture Australia". Architecture Australia. 112 (5): 56–61.
  23. ^ "NewActon precinct could set Canberra record". Australian Financial Review. 13 November 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  24. ^ Underhill, Hester. "Tales of the city". Monocle. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  25. ^ "Meraki Properties". Meraki Properties. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  26. ^ "Συναπάντημα Ποντίων - Neos Kosmos". ΝΕΟΣ ΚΟΣΜΟΣ (in Greek). 21 January 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  27. ^ a b "Queen's Brithday honours". The Sydney Morning Herald. 13 June 2010. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  28. ^ Hepworth, Kevin (31 March 1992). "Record price paid for first-release Raiders numberplate". The Canberra Times.
  29. ^ Loukas-Karlsson, Chrissa (14 May 2019). "Ancient Greece, Australia and Criminal Justice" (PDF). ACT Courts.
  30. ^ a b Tamis, Anastasios Myrodis (1 January 2017). The History of Hellenes in Australia Volume III. Patakis Publishers. p. 175. ISBN 9789601676210.
  31. ^ Sirigos, Dean (ed.). "2022 Annual Report" (PDF). The Hellenic Initiative.
  32. ^ Carter, Catherine (2015). Whitley, Amanda (ed.). "HerCanberra" (PDF). HerCanberra. No. 2. p. 11.
  33. ^ "Terry Snow and China, 2017". National Portrait Gallery collection. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  34. ^ Ward, Lucinda (2009). Radford, Ron (ed.). "Soft Sculpture" (PDF).

References

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  • Tamis, Anastasios M (1999). The History of Greeks of Canberra and Districts.
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