• Anthony Pratt (pictured earlier this year at the Global Food Forum in Sydney), will play host to US President Trump and Australian PM Scott Morrison in Ohio this week.
    Anthony Pratt (pictured earlier this year at the Global Food Forum in Sydney), will play host to US President Trump and Australian PM Scott Morrison in Ohio this week.
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Visy boss Anthony Pratt is Australia's richest person for the third consecutive year, beating mining magnate Gina Rinehart on the Australian Financial Review's roundup of the country's 200 wealthiest people.

Pratt's $15.57 billion worth of wealth is a substantial improvement of last year's $12.90 billion, and comes, says AFR, off the back of Donald Trump's corporate tax cuts and instant investment write-offs, as well as stronger price-to-earnings multiples of comparable companies such as Amcor and Sonoco.

Pratt told AFR that he intends to keep Visy, and American arm Pratt Industries, as family-owned businesses. "There’s a culture in my family of work. Nobody actually told me I was going to go into the business, but it’s just a foreign concept not to," he said.

The Visy executive chairman has topped the Rich List since 2017, and this year came in ahead of Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehart, who is worth $13.81 billion. He called earlier this year for a "Minister for Food" in a speech at the Global Food Forum in Sydney.

Food & Drink Business

CCEP has completed a $39.7m manufacturing upgrade at its Kewdale facility in WA, installing a high-speed can production line that increases capacity by more than 40% and lifts production speeds to 1500 cans per minute.

Nearly 6 in 10 Aussies in food and beverage manufacturing believe their organisation is becoming less productive, despite continued investment in workplace technology, according to Argon & Co.

Every food, drink, personal care and household product made in Australia starts with an investment decision. A company chooses to replace a production line, automate a process or expand a plant. That choice is now made in a global market for capital, and Australia is struggling to compete. The question is simple. Will the next generation of manufacturing investment come here?