How ex-NRL player Wes Maas built a billion-dollar business from the bush
Some 400km from the nearest capital city in the rural outpost of Dubbo, Wes Maas has built an emerging industrial powerhouse he describes as an “infant Seven Group".
Dubbo is an unlikely spot to build a $1.2 billion company, with Maas Group less of an outlier on the ASX than a complete aberration.
Home to 43,000 people and sitting on the edge of the New South Wales’ Western Plains, the country town is four hundred kilometres from the nearest major city. Yet looking back, Wes Maas says it’s improbable he could have built his eponymous industrial empire anywhere else.
“In the early stages, being in Dubbo was actually an advantage because there’s only so much trouble you can get into here,” Maas says, recounting his 2002 homecoming.
Back then, the former South Sydney Rabbitohs player didn’t need trouble or temptation. He had returned to Dubbo feeling dejected. His dreams of professional rugby league had been shattered after a shoulder reconstruction prematurely ended his playing career.
