Eddy Groves

infobox person

---

birth_date = 16 June, 1966
occupation = Founder, Chief Executive Officer
boards = ABC Learning

Edmund Stuart "Eddy" Groves (born 16 June, 1966) is an Australian businessman, founder and former Global Chief Executive Officer of ABC Learning, one of Australia's largest companies and one of the world's biggest childcare providers.

Early life

Eddy Groves was born in Durban, South Africa to a soldier and a schoolteacher. The family returned to Canada in late 1966. A further relocation found the family on the West Coast (Victoria, British Columbia) in July 1968. Eddy arrived in Australia by 1970 and settled in Queensland, Australia. cite web|url=http://www.news.com.au/business/money/story/0,25479,23301084-462,00.html|title=Eddy Groves fights to hold on|accessdate=2008-04-23|publisher=Courier Mail]

He was educated at Padua College. cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/stories/s1428537.htm|title=Businessman Eddy Groves|accessdate=2008-04-14|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Queensland)]

After leaving school, he enrolled at university in a business degree, but left half way through, eager to engage in business rather than learn about it, and got his first job as a bank clerk with the ANZ. cite web|url= http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24064979-5017691,00.html|title=Fast bucks slide for ABC chief Eddy Groves|accessdate=2008-08-29|publisher=Herald Sun (Melbourne)] Later he became a milkman for Paul's Milk in Brisbane. Armed with a loan from his family he bought a distributorship when he was nineteen years old which was the start of his business career. He expanded his milk distribution business to the point where his company Quantum Food is now the biggest distributor of milk in Queensland.

In 1985, at the age of nineteen, Groves married Le Neve, with whom he has two daughters. By early March 2008, the couple had subsequently separated. cite web|url=http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23321183-661,00.html|title=ABC Learning founders split|accessdate=2008-08-29|publisher=Herald Sun (Melbourne)]

ABC Developmental Learning Centres

In 1988, Groves and his subsequently estranged wife, Le Neve, opened a childcare centre in suburban Brisbane, having previously concluded that childcare was a universally "needed service" much like milk distribution. Run as a franchise model, their centres quickly became successful, expanded quickly, with bank finance from St George Bank of $20 million by 1993 and listing on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2001. They both held a 14.9% share in the company worth $2.5 billion at its peak, making Eddy Groves one of Australia's richest people at the time, according to Business Review Weekly.

However, in February 2008, with the share price falling rapidly, both Groves and his wife had to sell their entire shareholdings in the company because of margin calls by banks who had lent against the value of the shares. The fall in the share price was caused by a 42 per cent fall in net profit, and rumours that the company was in default of its lending covenants. [cite web|url=http://business.smh.com.au/eddy-faces-annihilation-as-abc-board-caught-by-margin-calls/20080227-1v5b.html|title=Eddy faces annihilation as ABC board caught by margin calls|accessdate=2008-04-30|date=2008-02-27|publisher=Sydney Morning Herald]

Even though Mr Groves stated to the ASX that ABC had complied with its financial obligations, there was concern that several directors has sold shares in the days leading up to the announcement, before the price fell, and that Mr Groves had not fully revealed the effect that the stock losses would have on the business through the effect of margin calls by lending partners. At the end of February 2008, the ASX was reported to be watching activity closely. [cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/27/2174104.htm|title=ASX closely monitoring ABC Learning|accessdate=2008-04-30|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation]

Groves and his wife left the company in September 2008. [cite web|url=http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aDuH3E1k.4Ok&refer=australia|title=ABC Learning Names Webb Interim Chief; Groves Departs|publisher=Bloomberg|accessdate=2008-09-30|date=2008-09-30|author=Fenner, Robert]

Other assets

In 1999, Groves purchased the Brisbane Bullets basketball team that competes in the National Basketball League competition. He restructured the organisation, he injected funds and caused the team to be much more successful. The team made the finals in the 2003/4 season. [cite web|url=http://www.icmi.com.au/Speaker/Business_Speakers/Eddy_Groves|title=Speaker Eddy Groves|accessdate=2008-04-26] He bought a stake in the Distinctive Homes Dome in Adelaide in 2006 for $3.95 million, which houses the NBL team Adelaide 36ers. [cite web|url=http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,20131883-12428,00.html|title=All steady says Eddy|accessdate=2008-05-03]

In April 2008 Groves announced that he was putting the Bullets on the market in order to "focus all [his] attention on ABC". [cite web|url=http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23551466-664,00.html|title=Eddy Groves bites bullet on Brisbane Bullets sale|accessdate=2008-04-23|publisher=Herald Sun] Although getting close to clinching a sale to another prominent Brisbane businessman at one stage, Groves failed to secure a buyer and the Brisbane Bullets folded later in the year. [cite web|url=http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24443393-3122,00.html|title=Fall and fall of Eddy Groves at ABC learning Centres|accessdate=2008-10-10|publisher=Courier Mail]

References

External links

* [http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23277906-952,00.html News.com.au artcle]
* [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=a_CkSWrTS4yg&refer=australia Bloomberg Business News]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/27/2174104.htm Australian Broadcasting Commission]
* [http://www.icmi.com.au/speaker.phtml?id=537&name=Eddy%20Groves Eddy Groves Biography from Speakers Agency]
* [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23338904-601,00.html Eddy Groves Reversal of Fortune]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/insidebusiness/content/2007/s2228276.htm Eddy Groves] on "Inside Business"