Eliza Park CEO
Australasia’s premier thoroughbred breeding
publication, Bluebloods, recently ran a profile on Eliza Park CEO, Cameron
Croucher, penned by award winning industry journalist, Graeme Kelly.
Cameron Croucher’s destiny seemed set by a job choice
as a teenager and even in his wildest dreams he could not have imagined that
one day he would be in charge of the running of a major thoroughbred breeding
operation. Yet these days he’s relishing his role as CEO of Eliza Park Stud and
the joys of producing more horses like Black Caviar from the stud’s high-class
roster of stallions.
Cameron’s
Croucher’s direction in life was defined on a warm summer’s day in January 1987
at Cambridge Gardens, near Penrith in Sydney’s outer west. After successfully
sitting for his High School Certificate he had a choice between two career
options, one was with the Fleming family’s Jewel Food Stores, where he had been
working as a casual shop assistant, and the other was with the Commonwealth
Bank.
He elected to
accept a position in Jewel’s head office at Lidcombe, which 17 years on morphed
into his current role as chief executive officer of Lee Fleming’s Eliza Park
Stud at Kerrie on the outskirts of Melbourne. “I could have started at the
Commonwealth Bank after sitting the entry test and been in a totally different
place to where I am now,” Cameron said. “If you count the time I worked as a
casual I’ve been associated with the Fleming family for nearly 28 years and it
has been a wonderful journey.”
That all led
him through to his appointment, in July 2004, as chief executive officer of the
Eliza Park Stud, which belongs to Jim Fleming’s eldest son Lee. The stud is
spread over four properties covering nearly 1000ha, has a staff of 90, and with
around 1200 mares being served by its 12 stallions during the current breeding
season it has taken a significant share of the Victorian thoroughbred market.
As well as being the biggest operation of its type in the state, Eliza Park can
be rated in the nation’s second tier of studs below only the likes of
Arrowfield, Coolmore, Darley and Widden.
Furthermore,
the stud is the home of the dual G1-winning Royal Academy (USA) horse Bel
Esprit, who is the sire of the unbeaten superstar Black Caviar. However rather
surprisingly Cameron says Black Caviar’s sensational series of performances has
not had a significant influence on Eliza Park’s fortunes.
“Black Caviar
is a proven world champion and has certainly captured the public’s imagination,
so it would be wrong to say she has not had an impact. She has certainly put
Bel Esprit’s name up in lights, but at the same time we have kept his fee at
$27,500 again this year, even though she has reached enormous heights during
the past 12 months. We feel at that level he is at the right price for breeders
and we want to keep encouraging them to send their mares to him.”
As Cameron
points out it is “quite extraordinary” that Eliza Park is also standing Statue
of Liberty (USA) the sire of Australia’s second highest rated sprinter Hay
List, while Lee’s brother Dean bred Singapore speedster Rocket Man, a son of
Viscount who has recorded 16 wins and four seconds from 20 starts.
“You are
talking about the three best sprinters in the world and they all have a
connection with Eliza Park and the Fleming family. That in itself is a
wonderful achievement, and the Fleming boys should be very proud of those
results. Understandably it is something I feel very fortunate to be vitally
involved in and something I love being part of.”
It is a
connection that had its beginnings when Cameron began in the Jewel stores as a
teenager. His destiny had been virtually shaped earlier by the involvement of
his father, Eric, in supermarkets and retailing, which led through to him
spending the last 20 years of his working life in the Fleming group. “My
father’s family owned supermarkets in the United Kingdom,” Cameron said. “He
lived in a little village named Robertsbridge in Sussex where his family had
the supermarket, the newsagent and the post office.
“He was
actually bought out to Australia, from England, in 1965 by Jim Fleming’s father
James, so there is a long history there. In those days it was Fleming Food
Stores, before becoming Jewel, and the company was looking for people
experienced in supermarket retailing. Flemings were expanding and the company’s
recruitment needs took them to London in search of experienced retailers. My
father was interviewed, was chosen and was brought out to Sydney.”
However, in
1977 Eric became a widower when his Cameron’s mother tragically became the
victim of a drunken driver in a car accident. “I was seven years-old at the
time and after that my father raised me with the help of my five older brothers
and sisters. Then, when I was 15, my sister Jill, who took on most of the ‘Mum’
roles after my mother passed away, was murdered, leaving behind two small
children aged one and three. My father took over legal guardianship of them and
raised them as a single man in his late 50s.
“As you can
imagine the stress eventually took its toll on my father and he had a pretty
big heart attack, which forced him to retire. He’s since had another heart
attack, but while he’s not in the best shape physically he is still very alert
mentally, which is great. Over the years he and I have had a wonderful
relationship, we really are great mates and I still regularly seek his advice
and guidance.”
Despite the
distress and suffering of those years Cameron managed to cope with his studies
as well as being active in the pool and on the sports fields, where he excelled
in cricket. That led to him being selected to play indoor cricket for NSW under-17
and under-21 teams. An all-rounder, “I was probably a better bowler than
batsman,” he went on to play grade cricket for Penrith. “I started playing
cricket when I was nine and I played right through until I was 32.”
Along the way
he won a cricket scholarship as a 14 year-old which earned him the privilege of
receiving batting tuition from the legendary Sir Garfield Sobers and
Australia’s brilliant stroke-maker Doug Walters, while the bowling coach was
West Indian-born English quick Gladstone Small. “I also had the honour of
playing in a charity match on the Sydney Cricket Ground. I made only 16 runs,
but I hit a boundary as well as taking a couple of wickets and that was all
quite a thrill.”
Cameron
remembers that he was fanatical about his cricket and nearing his 15th birthday
at the time his formal association with Jewel began, when he started working as
a casual at the Werrington outlet in December, 1984. “Then when I’d just
finished school I saw a poster on the store’s notice board seeking someone for
a position in the accounts department at head office in Lidcombe. I rang up and
applied for the job, was selected and started as a junior with Jewel in 1987.”
While he had
earned his Higher School Certificate, Cameron decided he needed to further
develop himself academically which resulted in him securing an Advance
Certificate in Business Commerce at the Western Sydney Institute of TAFE in
1988. Two years later he received an Associate Diploma in Accounting from the
institute. By this stage he had come under the notice of Jim Fleming and the
company’s finance director, who agreed to pay the way for Cameron to study for
a degree in accounting, which he secured at the University of Western Sydney in
1993.
“At that stage
I could not have afforded to go to university, so Jim helped me enormously at a
vital time in my life. As I progressed through the ranks I had a lot to do with
Jim, and that continued right through until he died in 2007. He was a fantastic
guy who was loyal to the people who were loyal to him, and I had the utmost
respect for him.”
With his
degree completed, thanks to Jim, Cameron undertook the Retail Management and
Supervision Program at Melbourne’s Monash University and added a Human Resource
Certificate IV and a Graduate Diploma in Management (Marketing) to his CV in
the mid-1990s. After rising to become a trainee accountant, his duties included
handling the payroll for the 5000 Jewel employees spread throughout 130 stores
in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and
South Australia.
As well as
being busy in the area of mergers and acquisitions his work also required him
to travel around the stores as the company moved from a manual system to
computerised accounting. “I actually met my wife Sonja when I was doing one of
my audit inspections. She was appointed as manager of the Jewel store at
Colyton at 18 and was the youngest manager the company ever had. Because I was
firing so many questions at her she absolutely despised me at first, but a few
months later we met up at a social function and things began to change.”
The couple
were married in 1996 and now have two daughters, Brianna who is 11, and six
year-old Emma. A budding actress, Brianna has performed in musical theatre and
a TV mini-series and has been chosen to audition before 200 agents in Florida
in April next year, while Emma is already involved in dancing and gymnastics.
As the romance with Sonja was evolving Cameron was, in December 1994, appointed
the company accountant of Jewel Food Stores and became responsible for the day
to day running of the business’s administration and finances.
“This was a
pretty big role for someone of my age in a company turning over $1 billion a
year on a one per cent profit margin, which meant the administration systems
had to be tight,” he said. Cameron was also deeply involved in the capital
expenditure program for the introduction of fresh foods into selected
supermarkets, which originally were “box stores” with groceries. In 1995 Jim
Fleming placed Jewel on to the market and the company was snapped up by David
Holdings, which was subsequently taken over by the publicly listed Metcash.
It was in 1997
that Jim, who had remained on with the group in an advisory capacity, and Lee
approached Cameron about joining them to manage their private wealth which was
invested in shopping centres, commercial properties and shares. Lee’s holdings
also included Eliza Park, previously known as Dorrington Park, which he had
just purchased from Robert Crabtree.
“My activities
with Eliza Park marked my first serious involvement with horses, although I had
often gone to the races as the guest of Jim when he was chairman of the Sydney
Turf Club. One of those days was in 1993 when Bint Marscay, which Jim bred, won
the Golden Slipper Stakes and that was a very exciting.”
Lee’s first
season as owner of the property was in 1998 when Ascot Knight (CAN), Bahamian
Bounty (GB), Mystery Storm (USA) and Suave Dancer stood under the Eliza Park
banner and they served a total of 212 mares. “In the early days there was a lot
of development to be done on the place to turn it into a commercial operation.
Again I was involved in the setting up of the systems, the reporting, the
financial management and things like that. To begin with we had lengthy
discussions about whether we’d downsize and simply concentrate on putting
together a quality broodmare band or become larger, and that’s what we did.
“I found as
the stud grew I was spending more and more time working on Eliza Park related
matters and less time on other Fleming family interests. It was a steep
learning curve, but we were fortunate to have Denis Roberts as manager. When he
left in 2004 I thought Lee would hire a specialist horse person to replace him.
To my surprise Lee and Jim took me to lunch in Coogee and offered me the
position of chief executive officer of Eliza Park.
“I was a
little overwhelmed to start with because I felt there were lots of areas where
I didn’t have the necessary technical skills, but at that lunch I said I’d give
it a go for 12 months on three conditions which were that I had the autonomy to
run the farm, that I could build my own team, and could hire the people with
the expertise and technical skills I didn’t have in the practical handling of
horses. It was also agreed that if either party was not satisfied after a year
I could revert to my previous position, with no animosity.”
Over the
ensuing months Cameron employed Sue Ellis to look after the racing division,
Irishman Alan Clark as the veterinarian, and David Somers who had previously
been at the Irish National Stud was appointed as stud manager; Shane McGrath
who was already at Eliza, was chosen to head up sales and marketing. By then
the stallion roster had been expanded to Bel Esprit, Black Hawk (GB),
Clangalang, Delago Brom, Desert Sun (GB), Grass Wonder (USA), Jetball, Planchet
and Val Royal (FR).
At that point
Cameron, in consultation with his management team, formed a five-year strategic
plan for Eliza Park covering the growth and development of the operation. A
feature of the policy was that each division was to be conducted as a separate
cost centre so that the individual sections of the business could more easily
be monitored. During the preceding years Cameron had “learned something about
horses” and was going racing more frequently. His experience was further
broadened by visiting Hong Kong for the International Races, and travelling to
Kentucky for the sales.
He was also at
Royal Ascot in 2008 to watch the Flying Spur horse Magnus, who was being added
to the roster later in the year, finish third behind Miss Andretti in the
King’s Stand Stakes-Gr.2 (5f). Earlier that year David O’Callaghan who handles
Eliza’s bloodstock advisory work, had brokered a deal for Lee Fleming to
purchase the Danehill (USA) horse Shinzig, who was quickly syndicated as a
racing and stallion proposition. Cameron became a shareholder just 24 hours
before Shinzig, in the care of Mick Price, edged out Niconero in the C.F. Orr
Stakes-G1 (1400m) at Caulfield.
“That was a
fantastic thrill. It was really exciting, particularly given the time frame.
These days I am, naturally, following the stallion career of Shinzig very
closely.”
It was quite a
momentous year for the operation as in 2008 Eliza Park became the first
Australian stud to open an office in Singapore and has since been frequently
moving horses to the city-state through private sales and leasing arrangements.
The stud is also indulging in racing horses in Singapore to take advantage of
the attractive prizemoney on offer there. Now, looking back, Cameron says
“about an 85% completion rate” has been achieved on the strategic plan.
“That was
pretty good but there are still a lot of things left unturned,” he said. “For
instance our intention is to race more horses in Singapore in the future, and there
are a number of other initiatives we have in the pipeline. Also, we have
continued to expand our land holdings even though I’ve been saying for two or
three years that we wouldn’t be.
“We have the
main farm at Kerrie, which houses the administration, the racing division and
the stallions. We have the facilities to stand 17 horses and we are constantly
looking for new stallion prospects, but we will probably max-out at 12, which
is a nice number. We lease an 1100 acre (445ha) property where the mares and
foals are situated, and a 165-acre (66ha) property, which is a specialised
sales preparation facility. They are both at in the north-eastern region of
Victoria, just north of Nagambie. Then recently we took on another farm, the
former Newlands Stud which is situated right next door to Darley’s facility at
Seymour. Our plan is to house our expanding wet mare and foaling unit numbers
there.”
Added to that,
the stud has its head office in Bridge Street in The Rocks in Sydney, where
Cameron and Lee, Dean and Paul Fleming are based, as well as offices in the
inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton and Singapore. Ironically, given the success
being enjoyed, Lee’s decision to buy Eliza Park and invest heavily in the
Victorian thoroughbred industry was against his father’s judgement.
“I remember
Jim told Lee that he was mad and advised him that ‘he didn’t want to do this’
but he stuck to his guns,” Cameron said. “Here we are 14 years later and Lee’s
commitment hasn’t wavered. Lee is a private man who doesn’t seek the limelight.
However, he receives enormous pleasure following the progeny of his stallions
on the racetrack and attending the various sales around the country. He is also
very proud of the fact that his youngest son Reis is working at Eliza Park and
is progressing along nicely. So now these days Lee is starting to see the
fruits of his hard work and investment in the breeding and racing industry in
Victoria, and he deserves whatever success he has … and that’s what we are
continually working to achieve.”
Reprinted courtesy of Bluebloods
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