Former banker Andrew Cox grew up in Christchurch and has family history in the tourism and hospitality business. His father was the long-serving Christchurch city councillor David Cox, who died earlier this year after what was hailed at the time as “incredible service” to the community. His mother, Fiona Cox, was a fashion retailer.
What began as a desire to give his Australian-born children a taste of the South Island’s skifields has since grown into a diverse travel and tourism business, the Imperium Group, which includes some of New Zealand’s most expensive luxury accommodation.
The Melbourne-based company, which he co-owns with his Australian wife Sarah, employs more than 600 people in Australia, NZ, Thailand and India, and is believed to have a turnover of around $300 million.
Its tourism business was last year boosted by the purchase of an Australian travel company, the Website Travel Group, and now includes a transtasman travel technology platform, known as Adventium; a transtasman youth and backpacker inbound travel business; a couple of Australian hostels; and an adventure tourism business based in Australia’s Byron Bay.
The couple also owns Melbourne waterfront restaurant Elwood Bathers. But it is their Queenstown properties that are regarded as the jewel in Imperium’s crown. They include Eichardt’s Private Hotel, which has a $13,000-a-night rooftop penthouse; boutique hotel The Spire; a trio of villas called The Elms overlooking Lake Hayes; and the No5 Church Lane bar and restaurant.
Most recently they have added a 24m luxury yacht, Pacific Jemm, to the portfolio, to help meet demand for bespoke experiences in Queenstown. It can be rented for upwards of $12,500 a night.
“The ultra-luxe traveller of today has stayed at the Ritz in Paris and the InterContinental in Hong Kong, so now they want something that is out of the box — a completely different, bespoke experience,” Cox recently told AFR.
The couple’s other interests include Wardrobe World, which has franchisees throughout Australia; a football training programme for kids; and investments in various private technology companies.
In 2015, Cox (pictured) found himself at the centre of a squabble over the future of Australian super rugby, when he bought the Melbourne Rebels franchise for just $A1 from the Australian Rugby Union. Two years later he sold it to the Victorian Rugby Union for the same price he paid for it, in equally controversial circumstances.
The couple has also since sold a Melbourne macro brewery called Providence Beer Company, a graphic supplies company, and the Australian and New Zealand rights to the TGI Friday’s restaurant chain, to reinvest in their travel and technology businesses.
Cox graduated from the University of Canterbury with a BCom and previously held senior positions at HSBC, KPMG, Coles Myer and J Boag & Son. They live in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton.
Photo: Getty Images
2018: $100 million