CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 7 February 2025

Founders, Profit & Loss

“As a founder, proving that you can be profitable is very exciting, but it also just takes a lot of weight off your shoulders.” Ben Thompson, CEO, Employment Hero [one of Australia’s largest software companies]

Luxury

“On these solid foundations [2024 financial results], we expect further robust growth in 2025.” Benedetto Vigna, CEO, Ferrari N.V.

Autonomy

“The key takeaway is that while AV [autonomous vehicle] technology is advancing, commercialisation will take significantly longer.” Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Uber Technologies Inc.

Global Packaging

“As expected, destocking continued in healthcare and demand remained soft in the North America beverage business through the December quarter.” Market Statement, Amcor Plc.

Real Estate & Rentals

“Vendors remained confident during the half with sales volumes consistently higher than the prior year.” Owen Wilson, CEO, REA Group Ltd

“Based on data from the most recent National Census in 2021, approximately 30% of the Australian population rent their homes and of the rental population, 85% are under the age of 55.” Market Statement, Eureka Group Ltd

Content & Publishing

“The sudden rise of DeepSeek is itself a salutary lesson for all AI players. Data centres, chips, and energy costs aside, we believe DeepSeek lacks the immediacy of trusted news and, ultimately, content will be king in the world of AI.” Robert Thomson, CEO, News Corp.

Social Media & Dating

“I believe that this Cambrian explosion in AI is going to allow Match Group to have the same kind of business inflection that the shift from desktop to mobile created for our category and other categories around 10 years ago when mobile exceeded desktop. And we've seen other AI-driven consumer mobile apps from TikTok to Instagram to Snapchat of step changes in engagement and retention from brilliant adoption of AI features on mobile. I see the same potential for us.” Spencer Rascoff, CEO, Match Group Inc. [world’s largest online dating company]

Food Service & Equipment

“It continues to be a very fertile innovation environment in Food Equipment…around things like water and energy savings. We see continued end market strength.” Christopher O’Herlihy, CEO, Illinois Tool Works Inc [multinational tools & equipment conglomerate]‍

Consumer Tastes & Preferences

“Palates have evolved quite a lot over the last 20 years, but if you keep coming back to the core, the most consumed protein is chicken. It’s leanest, probably the most affordable, and it’ll remain the champion.” Brett Houldin, CEO, El Jannah Chicken

“One learning experience we’ve had is changing peoples’ eating habits is not easy.” Jack Cowin, Chair, Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd

Consumer Staples

“I think from a consumer standpoint, as you've heard from many of our peers, I think you're seeing a stable but cautious consumer…I think the habits you're seeing out of consumers have been pretty consistent over the last 12 to 18 months.” Mark LaVigne, CEO, Energizer Holdings Inc.

Private Credit & Interest Rates

“I think most of the decrease we saw pretty rateably through last year, 100, 150 basis points has been the number that we quoted elsewhere in terms of the declines that we've seen, whether it was repricing existing names or new deals. For the time being, I feel like it's pretty much plateaued again…We haven't seen them continue to decline really into the first quarter as we've been pricing new deals.” Robert DeVeer, CEO, Ares Capital Management

Accounting & Private Equity

“There's enough bad news around private equity involvement in the accounting industry that's going to increase considerably, I think, over the next 3 years.” Brett Kelly, CEO, Kelly + Partners Group Holdings Ltd.

Tariffs

“This is a dynamic environment.” Donald Allan, CEO, Stanley Black & Decker Inc.

Weight-Loss Drugs

“I think we can look into all the data we have and find ways to also be more targeted, direct specific products to certain subsegments. So I think this is another example of the fact that we're in the early days of understanding obesity, how patients are different…So yes, percentage of weight loss matters, but quality of weight loss and benefit on comorbidities, etcetera, also matters.” Lars Jørgensen, CEO, Novo Nordisk A/S [maker of Ozempic & Wegovy]

Agriculture

“Demand for crop protection products has been strong, and although active ingredient prices have not moved materially, we are seeing the benefit of stability in cost of goods.” Greg Hunt, CEO, Nufarm Ltd

Toys

“We're seeing retailers prioritising toys as a strategic lever. We know that toy shoppers drive traffic, they spend more time in stores and typically have a bigger basket…it’s a general buoyancy in the industry.” Ynon Kreiz, CEO, Mattel Inc.  

Electricity

“Google data centres deliver nearly 4x more computing power per unit of electricity compared to just 5 years ago.” Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet Inc.