you may be right Gadge, i was to young to really understand what happened, but your right about the distain the name Mr Zion brought from Dad and his colleges.....the thing that ticks me off most i've read about what happened is the idea that Mobilco was going bad at the time, and would not had servived if he hadn't stepped in. i don't know what your take on that is mate?
Mobilco wasn't going bad at all, as a company!
In fact it was the star of the Pizzey Limited empire, I believe, in terms of return on investment [aka ROI], and profits.
The other Pizzey operations - some listed in an old post of mine
HERE - were another story; in particular some import/distribution businesses that the Pizzey family had started up.
This was in a desperate attempt to diversify their business risks, after the import tariff barriers were dropped, by the Whitlam Government in the early 1970's.
Mr Zion did make a decent try to keep the Group running, and then to facilitate a management buyout of Mobilco, before selling it all up, I think. But the Mobilco managers couldn't get the financial backing for a buyout - the value of the Mobilco head office and branch property holdings may have had a big influence there.
I do know for a fact, that Tom Burke, the Mobilco Shepparton Branch Manager [and one of the Ariens Echo Aust foundation partners], did buy the Shepparton Branch premises. He leased it out for some years afterwards, and sold it on eventually.
