CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 9 October 2026

Denim

“I would say that the denim category remains healthy, robust.” Michelle Gass, CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.

Catering

“Catering is a big business and can be a huge revenue stream for restaurants.” Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Uber Technologies Inc.

Residential Builders & Buyers

“New supply remains highly constrained and expensive, and building industry bankruptcies are at all-time highs. Cotality estimates average rental growth was 5.5% for the 12 months to September 2026.” Market Statement, Aspen Group Ltd

“As interest rates stabilise in the coming months, we expect consumer confidence to improve and buyer activity to also pick up.” Cameron McIntyre, CEO, REA Group Ltd

Credit Cards Surcharge Ban

“Removing that option may force firms to draw down working capital needed for wages, suppliers and inventory, seek more expensive or less accessible finance, or approach the ATO for a payment arrangement.” Innes Willox, CEO, Australian Industry Group

“The government is bonkers if it thinks this won’t be inflationary. The RBA has woefully underestimated the flow-through. It won’t disappear. It will be baked permanently into higher menu prices.” Wes Lambert, CEO, Australian Restaurant & Cafe Association

Productivity

“I can see very few other levers [outside of AI and data centres] that are going to have an impact on shifting the productivity frontier and potentially boosting living standards and real incomes over the medium and long term.” Matt Comyn, CEO, Commonwealth Bank of Australia

GLP-1 Drugs & Healthy Eating

“There’s definitely a very large need already, and we expect this to keep growing for quite some time.” Rolf Weber, CEO, Marley Spoon Australia

Would You Like Fries With That?

“When we look at the fry attachment rate, it remains elevated since pre-pandemic levels. And so when people are going out to restaurants to eat, they’re ordering fries.” Mike Smith, CEO, Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc.

Food & Beverage Inflation

“There hasn’t been any reprieve on inflation as we think about this over the last several years. The consumer has been more pressured and also hasn’t seen relief.” Brendan Foley, CEO, McCormick & Co., Inc.

“I’m not sure there’s been a year in my career that I can remember where there hasn’t been some inflation…So what great companies do is get ahead of that and run a cost agenda to offset the inflation to sustain their margins and drive growth.” Nicholas Fink, CEO, Constellation Brands, Inc. [parent co. of Corona & other alcohol brands]

AI Token Cost

“So, the way we think about the dynamic is the more that tokens go down over the next couple of years, the more it’s going to enable companies to use AI in more places and at scale.” Julie Sweet, CEO, Accenture plc

Animal Health

“So, at the moment, the plastics business for Redox, quite frankly, is not doing too great because a lot of our supply was out of the Middle East. But luckily, the animal health industry is doing really well.” Raimond Coneliano, CEO, Redox Ltd

Private Equity & Industrials

“So, you’re seeing multiples in the M&A environment down by 2 or 3 points, in my opinion, principally because PE is not the competitive factor in M&A activity today that they were, let’s say, 5 years ago.” Frank Sullivan, CEO, RPM International Inc. [leading global speciality coatings & sealants company]