Pierce Cody was formerly a successful media executive who owned an outdoor signage company. He has since become passionate about organic and whole foods, opening the large organic food store Macro Wholefoods. What began as two stores in Sydney has grown significantly, with plans to open 40 stores across Australia, New Zealand and Asia in the coming years. Cody aims to make organic foods more mainstream and affordable by dealing directly with growers and increasing production through larger orders. However, some in the organic industry initially distrusted his large-scale approach to marketing organic foods.

1. 20 | VOYEUR
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PIERCE CODY’S SURNAME IS ONE
that appears countless times below
gigantic billboards on highways all over
Australia. Three years ago, when he was
manning his internationally successful
outdoor signage company Cody Outdoor,
this media entrepreneur may well have
shared the stereotype that organic food
was the mainstay of Birkenstock-clad
lentil aficionados.
But today, 45-year-old Cody is happily
extolling the virtues of today’s special
– organic carrot soup – while customers
stream through the huge glass doors of
his Macro Wholefoods store on Sydney’s
North Shore. His clientele are a colourful
bunch, ranging from sharp-suited execs
to yummy mummies, pensioner couples
and stiletto-heeled fashionistas.
Sydney-based Cody is the first to
admit he’s a “Johnny-come-lately” to
the organic and wholefood movement.
But in terms of his no-nonsense, ‘think
big’ approach, he’s one of the pioneers.
And the key to his business model?
Making macro (macrobiotics, or ‘whole’,
chemically untainted foods) mainstream.
“No mainstream, no Macro. No
converts, no Macro,” Cody says. “There
are plenty of people out there providing
okay products and services to existing
devotees. We have between 8,500 and
9,000 customers here a week – paying
customers. I’d say about a third of them
had never been into an organic store
before we opened. It’s amazing.”
The takings at Macro’s Crows Nest
store for fruit and vegetables alone are
$60,000 per week, according to Cody
– and growing by the month. According
to a report by Inside Business, his two
Sydney stores turn over a combined
$20 million a year, with a larger profit
margin than the major supermarkets
manage to achieve.
“I want to develop and realise what
I think is the future of food in this
country – go back to the future,” says
Cody. “I want to spread the word that
it is okay to challenge one of your most
basic activities.”
The potential for Australia to be a
leader in organic food production is
enormous. Figures show that organic
food retail sales are rising by 30 per
cent a year, with supply lagging behind
demand. Remarkably, almost half
(45 per cent) of the world’s organically
farmed land (12.5 million hectares) is
in Australia – but that’s only a mere
two per cent of the country’s total
available farming area.
Yet organic agriculture has been
one of Australia’s most fragmented
industries, with a complex certification
bureaucracy, an inability to market itself
effectively and an exclusive ideology that
means farmers and retailers prefer to
plug away in cottage-style operations.
Enter Pierce Cody. In 1993, Cody
demonstrated his ability to spot an
untapped market with his success in
another cottagey, fragmented industry:
outdoor media. He founded the outdoor
signage company Cody Outdoor and
in just five years grew its 70 billboard
sites and $5 million first-year revenue
to a whopping 500 sites and an annual
revenue of between $60 and $70 million.
In 2001, Cody sold the now-multi-
national company, capitalising on the
MACRO
MACRO
MANNEVER ONE TO THINK SMALL, PIERCE CODY HAS GONE FROM MEDIA MAN
TO MACRO MAN, BLAZING NEW TRAILS IN A SAGGY RETAIL CLIMATE WITH HIS
CHAIN OF ORGANIC FOOD STORES. EWA JAREMKIEWICZ REPORTS.
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2. VOYEUR | 21
photography:martinmischkulnig
pierce cody’s five
tips for success
1. Find a niche, back yourself
and passionately pursue your
goal with focus.
2. Always treat your customer
as king – they’re the boss!
3. Encourage customer and staff
feedback – listen and act.
4. Establish a culture that
accommodates a sense of
humour and humility.
5. Avoid a ‘Ready, Fire, Aim’
scenario (also known as
going off ‘half-cocked’).
success:profile
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3. 22 | VOYEUR
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photography:martinmischkulnig
peak of his incredible success. His
radar tuned for the ‘next big thing’, he
began to notice the success of large
retail chains in the UK and US selling
‘health’ food. The philosophy of organic
food – growing food naturally with the
seasons and with no chemical pesticides
or accelerants – inspired him on both a
business and personal level.
As serendipity would have it,
about this time the 13-year-old Macro
Wholefoods store in Bondi Junction
– the then hub of organic retail in
Australia – was up for sale. Cody
enlisted the opportunity-spotting advice
of his Sydneysider friend, Brett Blundy,
who is the owner of Brazin and the
successful retail chains Bras N Things
(now BNT) and Sanity Entertainment.
In 2003, the pair went into
partnership and bought Macro’s Bondi
store. The establishment in Crows Nest
quickly followed. At 1,100 square metres,
it is the largest one-stop organic food
store in the Southern Hemisphere. It
sells over 12,000 organic product lines
– everything from curry paste, seventh-
generation garbage bags, to dog food,
breakfast cereal and fresh produce.
Macro Wholefoods is intent on
taking organics to a serious level in the
marketplace. It is already Australia’s
biggest independent organics retailer.
As the executive chairman of Macro,
Cody, (along with Blundy, who takes
a silent investor role) has injected a
speculated $10 million to $20 million
into the company. They’ve recently
opened another similar-sized store in the
upwardly mobile suburb of Richmond,
Melbourne, and are planning on
opening another two outlets on Sydney’s
Northern Beaches in early 2006.
Their spectacular vision is to open
some 40 Macro stores across Australia,
New Zealand, and possibly Asia, within
the next few years.
By their very nature, organic foods are
more labour intensive, requiring more
man-hours, a longer growing time, and
are more susceptible to the seasons. The
result is a higher shelf price – something
that Macro promises will shift as more
demand is created.
Rather than “do a Woolies”, Cody
is bypassing wholesalers and dealing
directly with growers, figuring that
with the establishment of more organic
farms and an increase in reliable large-
scale orders, the product will ultimately
become cheaper.
But the thought of readily available,
affordable clean food didn’t get everyone
excited at first. In the early stages, Cody
found himself at odds with some old
hands in the organic industry who were
distrustful of his large-scale marketing
approach. It’s an issue that still sits
fresh with Cody.
“This ‘keep it small, keep it exclusive,
keep it cottagey’ attitude – it’s wrong, it
is so, so wrong,” he says. “If it’s good for
a mother and her child, for the pregnant
ladies who come in, the cancer sufferers
who we get, to want to be careful about
what they eat and what chemicals they
put into their body, why would you want
to minimise that and keep it small?”
Maintaining the integrity of the
products, is something he’s also palpably
passionate about. He says his “worst
imagineable nightmare” would be if
conventional produce ever made it onto
his shelves in the guise of ‘organic’.
For Cody, slicking up the image
of wholefoods is not easy. In a
consumer society where bigger, faster
and unblemished is better, cosmetic
chemical engineering with food still
reigns supreme. Conventional retailers
rely on the fact that customers won’t
question how their apples reach
grapefruit-size (growth accelerants), why
their gargantuan strawberries do not rot
(irradiation) or how chickens grow to full
size in just six weeks (growth hormone).
at a glance
Who he is: Pierce Cody, 45, media
executive turned organic retailer.
Founder and former owner of
international signage company,
Cody Outdoor. While Cody is
currently spending most of his time
as the executive chairman of Macro
Wholefoods, he also has his fingers in
a fair few other pies. He’s a non-
executive director for APN News &
Media; trustee of the Art Gallery of New
South Wales, and a director of Adcorp
and Tower Estate.
Where he’s based: Lives in Sydney’s
eastern suburbs and works between
Melbourne and Sydney.
What Macro Wholefoods is worth:
While Cody is reluctant to disclose
his personal net worth, independent
sources confirm Macro Wholefoods is
valued well in excess of $40 million.
The colour is real, the flavour
is real – no chemicals means
no worries at Macro.
success:profile
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4. photography:martinmischkulnig
VOYEUR | 25
The goodies are always piled high in Macro stores.
“The big thing that makes us
different to Coles, Woolworths, Jones
The Grocer or David Jones Foodhall,
is engagement,” says Cody. “Our
customers really engage with [their
shopping], they question the menus,
they read the labels, they interrogate the
staff. They’re well-read, well-educated
and they don’t take [processed] crap.”
Many may indeed scoff over their low-
carb, protein-supplemented lunches and
fortified-milk lattes, but word is quickly
spreading that organic, minimally
processed food is the intelligent way to
health. Macro’s marketing tools have
included the internet, moving signage,
local press, appearances on ABC Radio
and even Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes
program. There is also readily accessible
in-store information, such as pamphlets
telling growers’ stories. And of course,
there’s word of mouth.
“You can’t beat our audience over
the head,” says Cody. “They will not
sit down and watch a 30-second TV ad
saying, ‘Shop at Macro, because we care’.
That’s just rubbish. Our customers will
not truck with an ad like Woolworths is
using at the moment, with the Woolies
guy hugging the pineapple grower.”
He interrupts himself to nod towards
a ‘shopper’ he recognises from a nearby
supermarket chain, masquerading as a
customer. It’s one of many regular visits
from these “retail cyborgs” (as Cody calls
them) who surreptitiously check out
what Macro is doing right.
And well they should. Not only is
Macro winning over savvy white-collar
consumers, the business has got the
attention of leading business press as
‘one to watch’. Amid reports of a general
retail downturn, Macro Wholefoods’
sales are only rising – thanks to a
growing market sector that the larger
retail chains have failed to tap into.
“We call it a ‘brag brand’. People like
to brag that they shop at Macro – it’s
actually a badge of honour. It means you
are a conscious consumer.”
And the consumer, he says, is king.
Macro Wholefoods is committed to
providing an extraordinary level of
customer service and follow-up. It is
perhaps a neat irony that Cody’s staff
development manager previously worked
for fast food behemoth McDonald’s – a
company known for image reinvention
and outstanding service. And service
doesn’t stop with the floor staff.
Remarkably, each week Cody personally
answers every single customer feedback
complaint by telephone. “You get training,
tips and feedback. It puts your feet back
on the ground and makes you think,
‘Wow, I’ve got so much to learn.’ And I’m
not saying that to be some sanctimonious
wanker – you really are humbled by that.”
The store’s aesthetic – wooden floors,
recycled timber benches, plump vases
of flowers, natural soft lighting – retains
the rustic appeal one would wish to
associate with wholefood. But the stacks
of cascading vibrant vegetables and neat
aisles of groceries are a far cry from the
small health food stores offering rugged,
speckled fruit and “death by tofu” before
Cody came on the scene. Macro is also in
the process of opening adjoining centres
offering Pilates, yoga and naturopathy.
“I want to have sufficient Macro outlets
that people can take advantage of what
this industry has to offer wherever they
are,” says Cody. “Yes – surprise surprise
– I want them to shop at Macro.”
He pauses as the aforementioned
retail cyborg passes through the door
and back to fluoro-lit supermarket land.
“Don’t forget, we’re only 0.2, 0.3 per
cent of the Australian retail pie. It’s not
like we’re going to ruin these people’s
days,” he says, “but we’ll give them some
sleepless nights.” ■
Our customers read the labels... They are well-read,
well-educated and they don’t take crap.“
“
success:profile
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