Making do with fraction of the crew

THE executive chairman of Consolidated Media Holdings, John Alexander, has proved a deft (and humane) hand in responding to the pressures of the depressed economy.

The Spanish anchovy, cashmere sock and antique collector boasted yesterday that he ran perhaps the leanest tub in the media industry.

With his crew of 3.5 hands, Captain Alexander noted how the part Foxtel owner and former Seek shareholder was "cutting back on discretionary expenses, including people". This has included reducing the size of the group's board, on which the former Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon and the shipping container dynamo Chris Corrigan still sit.

Alexander hopes to get costs of his 4.5-man operation to

$5.5 million this financial year, which should cover the costs of operating the entire company, including catering costs. He did not disclose who the half person was in his operation.

It also seems the $50 million sale of the Packer family's former Park Street headquarters this week was a good thing. Alexander noted the "well publicised financial pressures" of the some of the building's tenants. It is unclear if he was referring to PBL Media Limited, which is 99 per cent-owned by the private equity mob CVC Asia Pacific. Consolidated still holds an influential 0.1 per cent stake. The company also gained, ahem, $23.6 million from closing its executive share plan.

Hedge funding

The former Consolidated Media director and discretionary expense Ashok Jacob, meanwhile, appears to have embarked on some form of spiritual journey.

The low-profile chief executive of James Packer's private investment company Consolidated Press Holdings has engaged the landscaping firm Good Manors to do a makeover of his Bellevue Hill garden.

The holistic gardening philosophy motto behind Good Manors is: "Your garden is your closest reference to nature, and therefore to yourself." Jacob and his wife, Mariam, bought their modest 1790-square-metre holding in 2000 for $6.5 million.

A lot for Little

The chief freight forwarder with Toll Holdings, Paul "Teflon" Little, has offered more messages of emotional support for his former comrade the Asciano chief executive Mark Rowsthorn.

After presenting a 14 per cent rise in full-year profits and a very bullish outlook yesterday, Little said he could not understand why his former chief financial officer was so negative after Asciano presented a $244 million loss on Wednesday.

"I was somewhat surprised to see the comments out of Asciano yesterday, and I can only assume they are tied to our competition and not to us."

Little also ruled out more Toll spin-offs. When asked about the issue yesterday, he said: "I assume they are referring to what we did with Asciano. There were many reasons for doing that and they were unique."

It is unclear whether Little was referring to Asciano's disastrous listing or something else.

Little also did a little better than Rowsthorn in the pay stakes. On top of his $2.3 million base pay he scored an extra $2.8 million in short-term and long-term bonuses. Little is also set to score a final dividend cheque of $5 million. Rowsthorn, while miraculously managing a $741,678 short-term bonus, failed to get a dividend from his company. It is also unlikely that Rowsthorn will compete against Toll in any second takeover attempt for Brambles.

Wine whine

The peak winemaking lobby group lashed out at suggestions yesterday that roaming hordes of juveniles were bingeing on cask wine. In the aptly titled media release: "Winemakers deny link to drinking problems", the Winemakers' Federation expressed disgust that the Victorian Premier, John Brumby, had linked goon bags to problem drinking.

Apparently drinkers of cask wine are a discerning bunch more interested in characteristics of varietals such as fruity lexia rather than quantity.

The vast majority of cask wine consumers are older and poorer and enjoy cask wine responsibly," said the federation's chief executive, Stephen Strachan, whose recollection of his university days appears to have faded. "Most have less than two glasses per drinking occasion  well within the Federal Government's healthy drinking guidelines."

This column awaits a similar statement from the Methylated Spirits Association of Australia.

Frank to Frank

The taxi kingpin Reg Kermode has taken a swipe at the media's coverage of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's Federal Court proceedings against his Cabcharge business.

"This has resulted in a somewhat irresponsible campaign about Cabcharge being played out in limited sections of the media and by some analysts," Kermode said in a letter to shareholders.

"We favour the reality of the matter being dealt with in a balanced legal forum where we have the opportunity to test the credibility of the complainants and their evidence."

On June 26 the ACCC issued a statement in which it noted it started legal action where it alleged the company had breached the Trade Practices Act.

A Herald article quoted the statement of claim lodged by the ACCC with the court, which contained an alleged conversation between Kermode and the owner of a Melbourne taxi meter company, Frank Hart.

Hart: "And Reg, what do you think you're doing giving away

54 new Cabcharge taxi meters to Frankston Taxis, replacing all our meters and saving yourself the conversion cost at the same time? Are you trying to run us out of business?"

Kermode: "No. I didn't know they were your meters in Frankston. [Another Cabcharge executive] handled all that. Frank, I am not trying to put you out of business. I'm trying to put Gary Schmidt out of business."

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