Long-term Alpine Value Investments
“The holding company has been named Col Ferret Holdings as this location represents, challenge, adventure, awe, achievement, beauty, success, long-term commitment and ultimately, freedom. All qualities Col Ferret Holdings aims to emulate throughout its future history.”
Col Ferret Holdings provides significant investment in attractive owner-operator sellers, management buy-outs and/or self-funded management acquisitions. We have a long-term horizon, and look to benefit from sustainable compounding growth for our subsidiary companies and investors alike, through enduring values-driven leadership.
What we do
What we offer
Shared Partnership
We partner with managers who love their companies, who think like owners and who we like, admire and trust. We won’t tell you how to run your business, ensuring you have on-going autonomy to lead. We are flexible with minority or majority shareholdings depending on the company.
Long term thinking
We invest with an indefinite time horizon, to increase the likelihood of subsidiary company managers and investors alike enjoying sustainable, compounding growth.
Our advantage
When we invest in your company, you become part of Col Ferret Holdings, and its extensive network. We commit to building relationships that endure from generation to generation, strengthening operational discipline and management excellence for the benefit of subsidiary company managers and investors alike.
Meet the Founder
My name is John Williamson and my business experience and skillset lies at the intersection of operational discipline, investment and entrepreneurship.
Having 22 years of experience operating and owing businesses, I have obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Physiotherapy, a Masters in Ergonomics and an MBA, (University of Queensland) and have completed executive education courses at MIT Sloan School and Columbia Business School.
I enjoy studying holding companies from around the world and aim to take these learnings and emulate their successes through Col Ferret Holdings over the long-term horizon.
A husband and father of three, with a keen personal interest in the adventure and longevity fields, I enjoy physical challenges that mentally push my current limits.
My Business Experiences
Worked in healthcare in Australia and the UK
Founded core healthcare business (2008) – and grew it to a team of 40 at its peak
Have been through fast growth as well as business survival times (2010-2020)
Sold a majority share of the business to a national healthcare provider (2021)
National healthcare provider subsequently acquired by an ASX-listed company (2022)
About Col Ferret
Col Ferret (or Gran Col Ferret) is an Alpine pass between the canton of Valais (Switzerland) and the Aosta Valley (Italy). It is crossed by the route of the Tour du Mont Blanc. Close to it stands the Petit Col Ferret, at an elevation of 2,490 metres, which separates the Mont Blanc Massif from the Pennine Alps.
The Holding Company has been named Col Ferret Holdings as this location represents challenge, adventure, beauty, awe, achievement, success, freedom, and long-term commitment. All qualities Col Ferret Holdings aims to create throughout its history. I have been over Col Ferret twice in ultra trail running races.
I first got into more extreme adventure challenges like ultra trail running in 2018. I did this because I was going through significant challenge in my own business at the time and wanted to mentally train myself to a higher level, and go to ‘dark places’ to see how I would handle that mentally and to take that experience back to my business for when it was going through challenging times, knowing I had the mental capacity to be able to handle more.
Since 2018, I have completed:
5 x 100km ultra trail runs in Australia and abroad with the highlight of these being the UTMB CCC across Italy, Switzerland and France (2018-2023)
3 x 100mile ultra trail runs in Australia and abroad with the highlight of these being Trail Verbier-St Bernard in Switzerland (2022-2023)
1 x boxing match in front of 1,000 people (2019)
1 x cold-water immersion course (2022)
Contact us.
You can reach John either via email john@colferretholdings.com or by calling +61 422 181 187.