Logic Services provides consulting to assist others in their businesses. Depending on client needs, this could be Business Consulting; Mentoring for Sales, Marketing & Business Development teams; or technical work in food safety. Logic Services previously owned Logic Hospitality, which conducted Beverage and Food Stocktakes & Audits. There were completed at the most economical frequency e.g. weekly, monthly, quarterly. The service enabled clients to identify wastage and shrinkage levels with possible sources of each and see trends in data which saved businesses $100,000’s each year. During the audits, the team physically counts stock, investigates variances, completes recounts and liaises with the site and management team to ensure the procedures are being followed.

Having sold out of a business after 22 years, I'm now pursuing consulting work where I can utilise the skills, knowledge and experiences gained to assist others in their businesses. Depending on client needs, this could support for Business Consulting & Support; Mentoring Sales, Marketing & Business Development teams; or technical work in Meat Science and food safety.

Symbio's core business is laboratory testing for food, agricultural and environmental organisations. Symbio has laboratories located in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and regional laboratories or offices in Wagga Wagga, Townsville and Hobart. The company head office is the Brisbane lab in the Brisbane Technology Park at Eight Mile Plains, Brisbane, Qld. Symbio employs ~220 scientists, technicians and support personnel to do the 11,000+ samples tested each week.

The Symbio group previously had a consulting & training division which assisted clients with technical advice, formal and informal training (RTO for food, meat and laboratory packages) and some general consulting. At its peak there were ~20 personnel in this division.

Alliance was started by David Phillips and Peter Horchner in 1996 as an agribusiness consulting company. We specialised initially in the meat and livestock industries before broadening our base to other agrifood sectors. We bought into Symbio Alliance in partnership with Bruce Chen in 1997 and in 2004 moved across to focus on growing Symbio Alliance. We wound down the activities of Alliance Consulting & Management in 2005.

AACM International (since been acquired by Dames & Moore and then URS), was an agribusiness consulting firm. During the period with the company, I conducted dozens of consulting projects, research projects and developed and delivered training programs. I met and worked with David Phillips at AACM until we then left to start our own business, Alliance Consulting & Management in April 1996.

After 4.5 years in Rockhampton, Qld, I moved back to Brisbane to join the extension services arm of AUS-MEAT Ltd. AUS-MEAT is the industry body that is responsible for product description and standards for the meat processing industry. AUS-MEAT commenced in 1987 and there was a need to improve uptake and compliance by establish an extension service. The role involved training programs for livestock and meat processing sectors all over Australia, and some trading partner countries.