Just Projects expanding into the Asia Pacific region

AUTHOR: Lachlan Colquhoun   DATE: 03.05.06   ISSUE 1, 2006

But while Lend Lease saw the move as a necessary cost cutting measure, Prestoe realised that the wider shopping centre industry could ill-afford to do without the skills and expertise of the sacked managers, and spotted an opportunity.

Several years on, Prestoe’s company Just Projects has found a lucrative niche as a recruiter of short-term management staff for shopping centres throughout Australia and increasingly overseas.

The venture, which is forecasting a turnover of close to $5 million in the coming year, has been so successful that Just Projects and Prestoe – an AGSM alumnus who graduated in 1999 – made this year’s BRW Upstarts list of Australia’s fastest growing new businesses.

“The growth has been exponential and its been a roller coaster ride, but it’s always stemmed from a desire to create something in an entrepreneurial sense and drive my own destiny.”

Photo: Jeremy Prestoe

“There was a lack of graduates going into the shopping centre industry for training and development because all the operators seemed to concentrate on was poaching staff from each other, and I could see that this was going to create a massive gap in the market for quality individuals because of the continual change and disruption in this dynamic industry.

“These people have highly marketable skills, but many of them had their job taken out from under them in a restructure, or were mothers going back into the workforce (only wanting three days work), or they have made a lifestyle choice about moving into contract work on a full-time basis.”

Founded in 2001, Just Projects today has upwards of 70 people placed in short-term positions in shopping centre management and Prestoe has branched out of this core business into other areas, such as providing full-time recruitment as well as outsourced marketing services for centres which don’t have their own dedicated marketing teams.

He is also pondering other expansion moves “in directions north, south east and west” including the recent purchase of a supplier’s business offering shopping centre promotions, and contemplating a move into the commercial property sector.

Just Projects, which has grown from its NSW base to include offices in Queensland and Victoria, is also expanding geographically with placements now into New Zealand, Dubai, China and India. The current full-time headcount is up to 15 staff.

“The growth has been exponential and its been a roller coaster ride, but it’s always stemmed from a desire to create something in an entrepreneurial sense and drive my own destiny,” says Prestoe.

Just Projects, which has grown from its NSW base to include offices in Queensland and Victoria, is also expanding geographically with placements now into New Zealand, Dubai, China and India.

Prestoe began his career with former financial services group National Mutual, and completed a marketing degree part-time while in that role. He then moved into a senior marketing role with McDonalds (family restaurants) before taking a management position at Lend Lease.

While there he started his MBA (Executive) in 1997, and went through it “as fast as possible” before graduating in 1999.

“I did the MBA to access the latest thinking on management strategy, but also I guess to prepare myself for one day running my own business - that ambition has always been simmering away,” says Prestoe.

“I think everyone has that dream floating around in there.”

Prestoe also maintains a link to AGSM through the mentoring program, where he thinks his “entrepreneurial approach” can be of value to alumni as they enter that period of transition following the completion of their MBA.