Pratt Holdings

From Lobbyocracy.org.au

Pratt Holdings Proprietary Limited is a Proprietary company that is ranked number 73 out of the top 2000 companies in Australia. The company generates the majority of its income from the Paper and Paper Product Manufacturing in Australia industry.

For the 12 months to 2005 the company generated total revenue of $3,170,000,000 including sales and other revenue. In 2005 Pratt Holdings Proprietary Limited had 8000 employees in Australia including employees from all subsidiaries under the company's control.

The Chief Executive of Visy Industries is Mr Harry Debney. The Chairman of Visy Industries is Mr Richard Pratt.

Listed below is a general list of Visy Industries's direct and non-direct competitors.

• Amcor Ltd
• Carter Holt Harvey Limited
• Detmold Holdings Pty Ltd
• GM Holden Ltd
• Independent Print Media Group Pty Limited
• McPherson's Limited
• National Can Industries Limited
• Norske Skog Industries Australia Limited
• Nylex Limited
• Owens-Illinois (Australia) Pty Limited
• PaperlinX Limited
• Plaspak Group Limited
• PMP Limited
• Promentum Limited
• Tetra Pak Manufacturing Pty Limited
• Venture Asia Pacific Pty Ltd

Mr. Pratt's cardboard group Visy has been accused by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) of price fixing, and could be the biggest prosecution in corperate Australian history, resulting in fines in excess of $400 million. The cardboard box business is a hugely lucrative industry. In Australia it's worth $1.9 billion and more than 90 per cent of that is shared between just two players - Visy Industries and Amcor Ltd. On the 21st of December in the Federal Court, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission instituted proceedings against Visy Industries, alleging that between 2000 and 2004 representatives of the company entered into 14 anti-competitive agreements with Amcor Ltd aimed at maintaining that dominance of the corrugated cardboard market.

Graeme Samuel of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission states that

We will never know how big a problem cartels are because the very essence of a cartel is secrecy. They're enshrouded in secrecy. They are deliberate secret agreements entered into between competitive businesses to remove competition and, as a result, to charge higher prices. They result in the ripping off of governments, of taxpayers, of schools, of hospitals and of other businesses and of consumers broadly across the economy.

Richard Pratt when asked why Pratt Holdings made large donations to both the Liberal Party and the Australian Labor Party responded by saying that he believed that ‘it’s the done thing’.

Declared Donations

In 2004/05 Pratt Holdings donated

• $200,000 to the Liberal Party

In 2003/04 Pratt Holdings Pty Ltd donated

• $100,000 to the Australian Labor Party
• $200,000 to the Liberal Party

In 2002/03 Pratt Holdings Pty Ltd donated

• $150,000 to the Liberal Party

According to Crikey, Pratt Holdings was the largest declared contributer to the [Liberal Party] in the 2005/2006 financial year. ^[1]

References