CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 7 November 2025

Luggage

"Today, even as fuel prices fluctuate and inflation stabilises, baggage fees continue to climb at double-digit rates, far outpacing inflation or cost-of-living adjustments." Adam Ewart, CEO, Send My Bag [international luggage shipping company]

Gold Coast & Theme Parks

“International visitation is continuing to slowly recover but remains below pre-COVID levels, with overseas inbound visitation to the Gold Coast region in FY25 down 41% compared to FY19, and China visitation down 80%. This presents significant upside for the business as international markets continue to recover.” Greg Yong, CEO, Coast Entertainment Holdings Ltd [formerly Ardent Leisure/owner of Dreamworld]

Bottle Shops

"Promotional intensity across the retail liquor market is expected to continue to be elevated through the second half." Market Statement, Endeavour Group Ltd

Smash Repairers & Car Brands

"However, we are seeing a trend to lower volumes as we exited 1Q26." Ray Smith-Roberts, CEO, AMA Group Ltd

“We are very concerned about the sheer number of brands entering what is an already crowded marketplace. Our members are particularly concerned that not all brands will survive, be that new or legacy.” James Voortman, CEO, Australian Automotive Dealer Association

Collectables, Wealth & Insurance

"While real estate continues to be a cornerstone of Australian wealth, we are seeing growing interest in a different kind of asset: personal collections. Collections are evolving from hobbies into legacy assets. They are being passed down through generations as expressions of identity and enduring value, and they require unique and flexible protection options." Market Statement, Chubb Insurance Australia

Building Activity, Olympics & Labour Shortages

“We’re back to normal business. It’s not too crazy. But everybody’s being careful about how much they take on…When the Olympics hit, it’s going to be a different matter. We see the biggest risk is trades going to Queensland to work in that boom.” Scott Hutchinson, Chairman, J Hutchinson [Queensland’s biggest builder]

Childcare

"Since the H1 2025 results announcement, the operating environment has remained challenging, with families continuing to face cost of living pressures, lower enquiry levels compared to last year and ongoing sector-wide challenges. As a result, the expected seasonal increase in occupancy in October did not occur." Market Statement, G8 Education Ltd

Autonomous Vehicles & Southeast Asia

“While AVs are already a reality in parts of the world, we expect a longer ramp-up to mainstream adoption in Southeast Asia for a few reasons. One, Southeast Asia is still behind in the cost curve. Labor costs in Southeast Asia are significantly lower compared to the U.S. with Singapore being an exception. Now we believe, therefore, it will require considerable time for the unit economics to reach parity with human drivers.” Anthony Tan, CEO, Grab Holdings Ltd [the ‘Uber of Southeast Asia’]

Shopping Centres

“Pleasingly, the momentum in retail sales growth in the second half of FY25 has continued, with the total portfolio delivering +4.4% sales growth in Q1 FY26. Despite supermarkets and discount department stores cycling particularly strong comparative periods, we are pleased to report that all segments delivered sales growth. Our speciality and mini-major retailers continue to provide much of the heavy lifting in terms of growth.” Peter Huddle, CEO, Vicinity Centres Ltd

Consumer Spending

"The premium consumer is proving reasonably resilient." Jim Clayton, CEO, Breville Group Ltd

"In the U.S., we continue to see a bifurcated consumer base with QSR traffic from lower income consumers declining nearly double digits in the third quarter, a trend that's persisted for nearly 2 years. In contrast, QSR traffic growth among higher income consumers remained strong, increasing by nearly double digits in the quarter." Christopher Kempczinski, CEO, McDonald's Corp.

Jewellery

“Australia has gone from having a quite weak macro in the last few years. That's turned a little bit more positive. I think we are playing to a better tune there.” Alexander Lacik, CEO, Pandora A/S

Geopolitics

“China is going to win the AI race.” Jensen Huang, CEO, Nvidia Corp

Social Media Restrictions

“[We] continue to experience the effects of regulation and government policy actions. Recent examples include Australia's social media minimum age bill, which takes effect in December and government restrictions on access to Internet services in certain countries, we anticipate that similar regulations in other jurisdictions may take effect or be passed in the near future. These policy developments combined with potential platform level age verification are likely to have negative impacts on user engagement metrics that we cannot currently predict.”  Evan Spiegel, CEO, Snap Inc.

Influenza

“[Influenza] is not the common cold. It's far from it. This is especially true for the most vulnerable of our populations, for whom the consequences could be devastating. It's the high cost of this disease that fundamentally underpins the long-term value and viability of the influenza vaccine market, and it's also the reason there are well-structured immunisation programs in all major markets…Since then [COVID], the [immunisation] rates in all of these markets have returned to and stabilised at pre-pandemic levels of between 40% and 70%.” Dave Ross, General Manager, CSL Seqirus