APRIL 2010

Creating A Winning Bottom Line

Sean Ashby, Aussiebum

Australia's big department stores may be wishing they'd been a little kinder to Sean Ashby when he approached them several years ago with the prototypes for his Aussiebum range of men's swimwear and underwear. They told him to go away, so he did - to the Internet, and from his suburban loungeroom in Sydney built a business that turned over more than $23 million last year. His products sell in many of the world's major department stores but - although Australia provides 20 percent of his turnover - he still won't sell to the retailers who gave him the brush-off. It's not just about dollars, he says, it's about principles and he's stuck to those - including manufacturing only in Australia - as the business has become a global success story.