In every edition of Ulton Connect to date, we’ve dedicated a little piece of real estate to client success stories. We share these pieces because nothing illustrates our impact better than our clients’ own achievements.
While each issue’s client success story has been entirely unique, looking back over the stories shared, a pattern emerges: our featured clients have all been partnered with us for many, many years—decades, in most cases.
This time, we’re bucking that trend.
Meet Dan Corliss, publican of The Grand Hotel in Childers. Barely a year into the Ulton fold, Dan already leans on our business services, tax advisory and business insights services, while his mother has entrusted us with her wealth management and SMSF planning.
We first connected with Dan last year, just as he and his wife, Dani, were preparing to take the reins of the historic pub from Dan’s mum, Pam.
A heritage-listed pub established in 1892, The Grand has been in Dan’s family since Pam and Dan’s late father, Dennis, bought the hotel in 1996.
Back in the ‘90s, Childers was, in many ways, a different town. There was a bevy of jobs available for young people—locals and backpackers alike. On Friday and Saturday nights, Dennis and Pam would host a disco with a free BBQ, which drew in upwards of 100 thirsty patrons. Despite having a stockpile of 80 jugs, on Fridays and Saturdays, they were always in short supply.
Even as the town of Childers changed from those early days in the ‘90s, The Grand Hotel had many great decades with Dennis and Pam at the helm.
Sadly, Dennis passed away in June of 2020. In his absence, Pam continued to keep the pub running as best she could, but with so many spinning plates, as Dan says: “The Grand took its finger off the pulse”.
Invoices were slipping under the radar, tax was being lodged late. Little things were falling off the plate—little things, which left untreated, can quickly snowball into much bigger problems.
“It’s not that they didn’t have the means to pay the bills. They just weren’t aware there were bills there to be paid,” says Senior Accountant Nathan Short, who has been working closely with Dan since last year.
The situation prompted the family to have Dan and Dani step in and take on management responsibilities.
“[Since Dan’s taken over,] he’s brought everything up to scratch—the supplier accounts and the general repairs around the pub. He’s brought some fresh air back into the business,” says Nathan.
In the short time he’s been leading the business, there has been marked change within the hotel. Not only has the business’s financial management been brought up to spec and their sales increased, but Dan’s also leveraged social media to draw in new crowds.
Coined ‘The Mongrel Menu’, Dan’s newly introduced eating challenge has gone gangbusters on Facebook, with many punters travelling far and wide to take a shot at getting their name on the leaderboard.
“There’s been a few famous influencers that have stopped in to give it a crack. It’s really kicked the pub into a new life,” says Nathan.
And when it comes to revitalising the Grand Hotel, the Mongrel Menu is just the beginning. Nathan recalls the first meeting he and Mark McLean had with Dan, where Dan shared his vision for the business:
“His grand plan is to get the pub back to how it looked in 1892,” says Nathan.
“There’s been a few fires that have gone through the town over the years, most of the towns buildings had been destroyed, we are one of the last genuine buildings from the era.”
“The challenge is that the pub is heritage listed, so there’s lots of constraints around what can and cannot be done…lots of hoops to jump through. Dan’s already started to get the ball rolling on this—liaising with the Heritage Council and exploring grants that might be available,” he says.
An expensive and time-intensive endeavour, Nathan says the Business Insights team are invaluable when it comes to assisting Dan in planning for the major renovations.
“If you’re going to spend half a million dollars, you want to be sure you’re doing it in the right way, at the right time,” he says.
Business Insights have been working closely with Dan to explore those important questions. Questions like:
Nathan adds that the family’s journey with us so far has been, in many ways, ideal.
“They originally came to us to assist with tax matters. Conversations we shared about the business and its performance led Dan to engage the Business Insights team. And through developing a rapport with the family, Pam, who has recently retired, has also begun working with the Wealth Management team,” says Nathan.
“It doesn’t always happen this way, but it’s certainly a good scenario when it does,” he says.
In Nathan’s view, this allows us to deliver a service that’s greater than the sum of its parts. The word that comes to mind for him: community.
“The way we’ve brought in different divisions to solve different problems and how we’ve maintained seamless communication between teams—it’s created a real sense of community,” Nathan says.
This sense of community is what makes The Grand Hotel a fantastic illustration of Project Superhornet.
Project Superhornet is designed to bring The Ulton Way to life by enriching Business Services clients with the guidance of our external CFO services. And, in the case of The Grand Hotel, specialised wealth management support.
Backed by a multi-disciplinary community of experts, our clients are supported to realise their full potential and reach greater heights of financial success.
Dan’s breathing new life into The Grand, and we’re right there beside him—helping a Childers favourite hit its stride again.