History
Costa was the eldest of five sons born to Sicilian immigrants that moved to Australia in the 1880s. His great-uncle established the Geelong Covent Garden in 1888 — a produce grocery which he ran until the 1920s, at which time he turned it over to Costa's father.
When Costa was 21, he (along with his brother Adrian) convinced his father to sell the business to them. Costa successfully grew the business with help from his brother, as they made forays into wholesaling. Although Adrian died in 1972 as a result of an automobile accident, and there were a few business blunders along the way — including the failed development of a state-of-the-art warehouse — the remaining Costa brothers were able to keep the business afloat. By the 1980s, the company had an annual turnover to the tune of A$100 million.
In the early 1990s, Costa's fruit operation; Costa Logistics, was forced to cooperate with the Melbourne underworld.
As of 2006, the company has 800 employees, and a turnover in excess of 800 million. Its head office is an ex-church purchased by the Costa Group and converted into modern offices, located in Myers Street, Geelong.
Costa is the subject of a recent biography, with a foreword by eminent historian Geoffrey Blainey and references to Geelong identities, the Geelong Football Club, and Italian immigrants in Geelong.
Read more about this topic: Frank Costa
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