By Margaret Maccoll
Lavin Park was built to impress from its self-opening iron gates, meandering concrete driveway, past thoroughbred-stocked paddocks to its palatial sandstone home and 360 degree vista.
Peter Lavin’s success in business has given him the financial means to support his family, allowed him to follow his passion for racehorses and also ensured Cooroy’s biggest manufacturer remains in the area.
While their Lake MacDonald property exudes luxury, the Lavins are more down to earth, showing country hospitality.
When I knocked on their front door last week, Peter’s daughter Caitlyn Lavin fought a losing battle to hold back an exuberant welcoming party of five labrador-sized dogs, one a visitor and another a stray that stayed.
Both father and daughter share a relaxed, easy style, and despite their professional success are quite unassuming.
A roofer who came to Brisbane from New Zealand, Peter grew his business with eight people in 1995 to 80 employees before selling it in 2005.
“That was the good times. It was a land of opportunities,” he said.
He would have been better known in Brisbane by rugby league fans as a half-back who played in Brothers’ golden run of five successive premierships from 1980-’84.
Others may know Peter through his long-term interest in horse racing which continues with the family stocking about 20 thoroughbreds currently on the property.
“I’ve always bred and sold racehorses,” he said.
“We won a Magic Millions once, and we’ve had plenty of slow ones.”
Peter had no plans to move into the food and beverage business after retiring from roofing, but his wife Toni had other ideas.
“My wife came out one day and said Wimmers is going to be taken over by a big company. It might close down. She suggested I look at it,” he said.
Established in 1905 by a German family Wimmers operated from Nambour for 45 years then was run from a base in the main street of Cooroy.
Before the Lavins bought the business in 2012, it had been taken over two or three years earlier by a company that went into receivership.
“We took it out of receivership,” Peter said.
The new business owners retained Wimmers employees, invested in new machinery and moved the factory to the old PGH brickworks on a 30-acre block enabling room to expand.
“The machinery was 50 years old,” he said. “And we needed to concentrate on sales and marketing,” Peter said.
“When we started, we had no access to Woolworths, Coles or IGA. We got into IGA and had to deliver to each store independently.”
Wimmers is now distributed across Queensland through major supermarkets.
With government assistance, the factory adopted environmentally friendly designs including solar power and underground cooling.
Peter said holes were drilled 70m underground where pipes carrying oil are chilled in the natural surroundings, then travel around the factory bringing the coolness with them while producing heat as a byproduct that is used in manufacture.
They retained Wimmers traditional carbonated drinks and looked at contemporary options.
“Soft drink is a declining product,” Peter said.
“People are going more for health options, juices.”
They started from scratch with Cooroy Mountain Water but gaining access to the source water proved an obstacle when property owners put caveats on the company accessing it.
Having won a court battle, the Lavins have open access to an unlimited supply of spring water from a natural spring on Cooroy Mountain.
“It’s quality water. We bottle it at the source. We don’t chemically add anything. It’s a natural product, just pure water,” Peter said.
The natural spring water will capitalise on the Noosa brand and be marketed as Noosa Natural.
It’s one of the projects Caitlyn has introduced after taking over the business from her father about 12 months ago.
When Peter, who has health issues became too ill to work, Caitlyn stepped away from the job she loved -training racehorses- to take over the business. Peter, however, is still involved in the day-to-day operations.
Caitlyn said it had been a learning curve, but she had already slipped into the role with the same aplomb she applied to horse training.
After completing a property economics degree at university, Caitlyn fell into horse training by being involved with the horses on the farm every day.
The farm is well equipped with its horse-walking equipment, treadmills, multiple paddocks and stables, and Caitlyn is quite comfortable working with other trainers.
In only 10 weeks from her debut race at Eagle Farm, she took the Queensland Racing Industry by storm with three wins out of four races.
The Lavins now outsource the training, but Caitlyn is still involved with the horses, feeding them morning and evening.
Her plans for Wimmers include introducing slightly carbonated water and natural fruit juices and flavours using local products from local farmers.
Peter takes great pride in having preserved Wimmers for the town of Cooroy, continuing a manufacturing tradition begun more than 100 years ago.
