Andrew Forrest visits the Akubra factory in Kempsey, which he and his wife and fellow billionaire Nicola Forrest, have acquired through their private company, Tattarang.
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00:00 Thank you for your genuine interest obviously now in the Coobera.
00:07 I'd like to wish you a happy birthday for yesterday as well.
00:10 And yeah, it's been 147 years in the making with us here.
00:16 And yeah, we just hope and know that you'll take this to bigger and better heights.
00:21 And we've done our bit and we look forward to seeing the results of you and your family in the future and what you do.
00:29 Congratulations.
00:30 Thank you, big fella.
00:31 Thank you.
00:32 No worries.
00:33 Yeah.
00:34 Look, as Stephen said, it's really emotional.
00:36 I mean, I grew up under an Okoobara.
00:39 If you go to Minneroo Station, you'll see Okoobara hats piled up.
00:46 I've just come from the Slim Dusty Memorial.
00:49 I understand that got taken over by the Shire.
00:53 Thank God it did because that is so much part of what else I grew up with, Slim Dusty in and Okoobara hat.
01:00 So yes, like everyone in the Shire, we would really look for value for money for our services.
01:07 But this is a day for Okoobara, a day for Kempsey, a day for Australia to keep a fantastic brand at home.
01:15 I think in the 80s when Crocodile Dundee, Greg Norman, Manfred Snow River, all those things, our hat became the world stage.
01:25 And that's where we're in front of everyone.
01:28 And as a family, we have provided military hats for the Army for generations.
01:36 And we couldn't be prouder of what this company has achieved in this town and with the help of the town.
01:41 And now it's time for it to go further and I can see nothing but positives.
01:49 The Forests have done a great job with R&Williams and I know that's our benchmark, but we've been dealing with R&Williams forever.
01:58 It's tough, I'm not lying, it's a tough decision.
02:01 But when you've got someone like this gentleman behind it, it's going to go, it's going to fly.
02:09 Stephen, you're Stephen Kier the fourth, what is Stephen Kier the fifth going to do?
02:14 He's staying. Tattering have been pretty passionate about trying to keep as many family involved in the business.
02:23 And there's four of the children who are staying in their roles and they'll see how they go and where they go with the business.
02:31 There's been a lot of tears from everyone, but they understand and they can see the potential.
02:37 We can get it to a point and it needs more.
02:40 The world is out there, most of our sales are in Australia, so Tattering will take that further and do that.
02:47 We would like to see it as the premier hat of its type in the world.
02:51 I think Thursday night Andrew and Nicola Forrest and their family business must have been in the highest Google search in Kempsey.
02:58 To Wendy, Steve, Stacey and Nikki and your families, we wish you all the best for your future away from the helm of a Cobra.
03:07 And we want to say a huge thank you for all that you have done for us, your employees over the years.
03:13 We also thank you for placing the ownership and the future of a Cobra hat into the family business that can take a Cobra hat forward into the company's future business journey.
03:23 To Andrew, Nicola and family, we say welcome to the Cobra hat family.
03:28 And thank you for adding a Cobra hat to your Tattering family business interests.
03:31 [BLANK_AUDIO]