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Scholars in the Spotlight

Peter Cox

Managing Director, Gelista
Leadership 21 Owner/Manager Course
Melbourne Business School, 2013

Growing up on a dairy farm, Peter Cox saw first-hand the blood, sweat and tears that goes into the farming industry, and knew he wanted to contribute. In this month’s Scholar in the Spotlight, we asked Peter how he came to found one of Australia’s best gelati brands. Here’s what he had to say.

What is your educational and career background?

I graduated as an accountant (B.Bus (Accounting), CPA, MBA) and then worked predominately for manufacturers in a number of industrial sectors, including a US multinational. My “apprenticeship” was with a dairy company (now a subsidiary of Fonterra) and during that time I had several roles, ending up with responsibility for the financial management of the firm before I left, which was probably a pretty responsible role for my age.   

How has your education, experience and past job roles led you to found a premium food brand?

I grew up on a dairy farm so I know how hard farmers work for their modest returns and I knew that I wanted to value-add to the Australian dairy industry. In 2009 I completed my last gig which was a financial system implementation. In the meantime I researched many dairy product streams but the opportunity to bring quality Italian style ice-creams to the South Australian market piqued my interest. In my career as an accountant I learnt the fundamentals of manufacturing and finance, which provided a great foundation for my fledgling business.

How has the knowledge gained from your ILF-supported studies contributed to your business operations and growth?

By the time 2013 came about I realised I had so much more to learn! In order to grow the business, I had to grow. I chose the Owner/Manager course to develop professionally and also revisit some of the basics. Reviewing my management style, looking at different models for dealing with everyday problems, and thinking about long-term strategy was helpful.  But far beyond that was the great people I networked with during the course and the ongoing ILF community, whom I love to catch up with at various functions throughout the year.

How has Gelista grown since you started the business?

What we sold in one year in 2013 is about our average monthly sales today. Better marketing, continuous product and process innovation, and sticking to our core promise of indulging our customers has fuelled this growth. In October 2022 we moved our factory into a new facility in Ridleyton, SA. This will provide additional capacity and capability whilst increasing our efficiencies considerably. Today we are a team of 15 full-time employees, along with several contractors, and we manufacture more than 50 flavours which are distributed nationwide. We are also in the process of developing an export customer base. Our weekly output averages 15,000L on one shift – or about 100,000 scoops if you’re thinking about licking your way through it! In addition to the Gelista brand, we also have a brand called Bush Tucker Ice Cream, PōPSI COOL and other exciting product concepts to tell you about in the new year. Watch this space!

 What are your top tips for fellow ILF Scholars?

I will put them in a book one day, but here are a few…

Have Fun. Celebrate achievements and have fun, but not at the cost of meaningful endeavour.
Sales. Field trips matter – face-to-face with customers as much as you can.
Marketing. Present your business in the marketplace everyday.
Core activity. Stick to your knitting, be excellent in your core activity and very good at essential supporting activities.
Delegate. Get some help; in this day and age you cannot be the expert with every aspect of business.
Professional development. If it isn’t going to matter in five years, don’t spend any longer than five minutes worrying about it now.
Balance. Grow every business system of your enterprise. Acknowledge some systems may be out of control, but have a plan to work on them.
Monetizing innovation. If you feel like the risk of innovation is not fairly compensating you, don’t worry. If you’re annoying your competition then you’re still winning!

Peter Cox of Gelista