Port Melbourne was bustling in 1969, with around 80,000 immigrants arriving by ship to start a new life in Australia. Most of the people flooding Station Pier were Britons fleeing a post-war Europe; however, one vessel contained the Psaras family — a former sponge diver, his wife, and their stocky and ambitious 16-year-old son George.
Before crossing the Mediterranean Sea, George’s father spent many years plunging to its depths as a sea sponge diver. Forced to dive between 150 and 200m below sea level to collect the natural sponges, he would have to go hungry all day.
“For six months of the year, my father would be away all day diving, having only one meal at night. It is a dangerous and unhealthy job,” says George. Sponge diving was a family trade, but with an uncle paralysed from ‘the bends’, and a cousin who died, the Psaras family decided to give up the work and seek a better life overseas.
“When we left Greece, Europe was still coming out of the war, so things were still tough there. My parents made the decision to bring us here instead.” After arriving in April of 1969, George set out to find a job, and by September he was a full-time overnight line setter at a local plastics factory.
Pulling his own weight
Having now worked for almost 50 years in plastics, as the founder and CEO of Quality Blow Moulders, George says he owes his career to his teenage weight. “I saw they had a job going, and at 16 years old I was fairly well-built — I was a bit chubby — so I lied and I told them I was 21 so I could get the full salary,” laughs George.
“They fell for it, so I started working the night shift at the factory to support the family.” He rose through the ranks to become foreman, but after 10 years a lack of opportunities to grow further in the business prompted him to leave and join a start-up: Brian Bolwell Plastics. His new boss, Brian, would be a treasured industry mentor.
After seven years working together, and George becoming a minority shareholder, Brian decided to sell the company. Unhappy with the new owners, George left 12 months later to start his own business with the knowledge he had inherited. “Brian taught me quite a lot. He was a tough man but he was also very fair, and I could not ask for more. After all these years, we are still good friends.I still call him ‘Boss’.”
My biggest mistake was…
Buying old machines! In 2004, I went into the PET market and I bought a second-hand machine. I ended up losing much more money trying to maintain it than I would have spent upfront on a new one.
If you have old equipment, you can’t compete; it runs a lot slower, and costs are a lot higher. Every little bit counts in our industry, and lost time is like a river – once the water moves forward, you can’t get it back.
Keeping the business afloat
With just three old blow-mould machines, George started John Nicholas Plastics in 1988, named for his two sons. But his time with Brian didn’t prepare him for the disaster to come.
“I had an accountant and a solicitor that I trusted, but they did a lot of unethical things and sent me belly-up,” says George. As is often true in times of deprivation, George would learn how good people can be, as it was his first customer who kept the business afloat in his hour of need.
“I had a very good customer by the name of Andrew Rinder, who was the managing director of Redwin Industries at the time. I went to Mr Rinder’s office crying and I said, ‘Andrew, I have no more money. I’m closing the business’,” explains George.
“When I told him what happened, he slammed his fist on his table and said to me, ‘Have you still got your hands?’ and I said ‘Yes, but I have no money. I can’t keep going.’ And he said, ‘I’ll help you’.” Andrew rang the liquidator, bought George’s equipment for him, and promptly ordered him to go back to work.
For nearly two years, George and Andrew would meet every Friday to review expenses and provide continuing support. After acquiring a new client, Natures Organics, George could stand on his own two feet again. He relaunched the business as Quality Blow Moulders (QBM) in 1995, specialising in HDPE, PVC and PET plastic bottles for the packaging industry.
Business is not business unless it’s also personal
From these experiences, George is a strong believer in the power of forming strong relationships. To him, business is not business unless it’s also personal. He not only knows many of his clients’ names by heart, but also the names of their family members.
“Whatever I have achieved today, I owe to those first two families,” he says. “Everything that we do, we take personal care, not commercial care. Every customer is like our own, part of us, and we are part of them.” The sentiment extends to his suppliers. “I don’t believe in the word ‘client’; I believe in the word ‘friend’.”
His team, too, is like his family, both figuratively and literally, with his two sons now grown and taking on key roles in the business. “I love to see my two boys working side by side, and they are doing a fantastic job. But not only them — everyone who works here is my child. I love every one of them.”
With a foundation of affection and trust between all stakeholders, George’s company has grown to have 65 staff members, specialising in a whole range of new products, going from three old machines to 34 new ones, and counting. Now spread across 50,000 square feet in Melbourne’s Dandenong, and a new warehouse due for completion soon, QBM’s continued growth is inevitable.
No matter how successful he is, though, George never forgets where he came from. “I keep on my desk real sponges my father pulled from the sea,” he says proudly. “If you’re ever in Melbourne, I’ll show you them.”