I would like to indroduce myself. My name is Andrew Johns. I am 30 years of age and have been the owner / operator of Ccooks Galley Restaurant in Batemans Bay for the past five years.

Batemans Bay is a beautiful town, nestled on the picturesque South Coast of NSW just 4 hours from Sydney and 2 hours from Canberra. I like to think that here we combine the optimal ingredients for a successful restaurant: premium local produce focusing on seafood, a stunning location, efficient, caring service and a relaxed ambience with the added bonus of good value for money.

Allow me to tell you a little of myself and my background.

After leaving school, I worked for one year on Hamilton Island. Apart from personal challenges like homesickness, I learned a lot about running the bar and restaurant, functions and basic cooking methods.

Upon returning home to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, I enrolled at the Blue Mountains Hotel Management School and completed a Diploma in Hotel Management. As part of this course I worked at Sydney's Crown Casino for 6 months as a Valet and Bellboy. I also completed courses in Bar Management, Train the Trainer, Hospitality Operations, Team Leader in restaurant and catering, as well as OHS.

My next job was as Restaurant Supervisor at the Ibis Resort in Leura. For the two years that I was there I also managed the Food and Beverage section of the hotel.

I consequently moved to the Pavillion Restaurant in the mountains, right near the Three Sisters lookout. Although the restaurant eventually went broke due to directorial mismanagement, I learned a lot about Human Resources in particular. I also learned that life moves on. As they say in the business world, only the best of them go broke at theast once. I'm still waiting.

My next move was to Sydney's CBD, managing a group of cafes owned by the San Marco conglomerate. They specialised in Italian cuisine with quick, convenient service with value for money pricing. My job was to manage the three sites at the QVB, Fox Studios and Cockle Bay. It was here that I began to realise the positives and nagatives of how to run a business. I started to see the importance of things like service, menu design, staff training and morale, presentation, team work, OHS, budgeting, promotions, marketing and many other aspects of business.

After this steep learning curve I felt I was now ready to attempt owning and running my own business. With the assistance and guidance of my father, I invested into a large scale establishment in Batemans Bay, which we named the Global Office Seafood Restaurant and Ccooks Galley Brasserie. It consisted of a 100 seat fine dining area and the same number of seats in the Brasserie section. It also included a 500 person capacity Function Room.

This undertaking was massive, and many challenges confronted us, from human resources to sourcing fine regional food and rare, unique local produce.

Due to a family tragedy I sold the business after three years of trading. The sudden death of my eldest brother Jamie has now made me even more determined to succeed and make him proud.

After selling Global Office I took over a lease at the Bay Waters Resourt here in Batemans Bay. It is a smaller capacity restaurant that enables me more time to focus on building the sales side of the business. The restaurant goes hand in hand with our Premisis Function business called Global Concepts. This began in 2002 and through it we target local weddings, beach parties, corporate functions etc..

The functions business is operated out of the Baywaters Restaurant. We also cater to in-house guests with small functions of up to 100 per sitting.

I have recently purchased an additional and complementary business called Hire'n'Hire, which dovetails with the Global Concepts theme by combining catering and function services with party equipment hire. I feel that Hire'n'Hire has the potential to eventually extend much further along the south coast.

We hire out everything from cutlery to freezers, and although it's a challenge running three businesses, they seem to me to be linked to form a complete, holistic entertaining and dining experience.

Although I feel a very small fish in a huge pond at the moment, it is as my dad Jim always tells me: all you can do is your best. I apply this saying to business, customer service, and staff, who teach me invaluable lessons all the time.

To do my best is what I strive for. Hopefully, this shows in the service, quality and value of my establishments.

Thank you for your time.

Andrew Johns.