The former NRL player has built a billion-dollar company through hard work and diversification.
Already a subscriber?It all started with $14,000, a bank loan, a bobcat and a tip truck. It wasn’t much, but it’s all former South Sydney Rabbitohs player Wes Maas needed to kick-start his ASX-listed construction materials, equipment and services provider, Maas Group.
Maas’ tendency towards hard work was on show during his rugby career, spanning his late teens into his early 20s . He was one of only 10 per cent of players who always had a job while a full-time sportsman. “As soon as I could work, I was working in the bottle shop at the pub, doing different bits and pieces,” he says.
Today, Maas Group has $1.3 billion in assets, more than 450 machines for hire, quarries and real estate assets spanning residential and commercial developments. But Maas describes the early days of the company as ones of “survival and fear”, where he worked as many hours as he could. “We’re very much a self-performing company,” says Maas. “That’s a point of difference that sets us apart from others.”This diversification strategy has generally served Maas Group well. It led to Maas acquiring his brother’s plumbing and construction businesses and provided new growth drivers and protection against construction industry contractions. But it has also led to some mistakes.
Maas Group’s civil construction and hire segments are both individually larger now than the company was when it listed in late 2020. It had an issue price of $2 per share; Maas Group now trades at more than double this.
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