Bargain of the decade?

Jan Cameron could lay claim to the title of Australia’s most mysterious entrepreneur.

She lives in a remote area of Tasmania, she has spent most of her career in New Zealand, and she never talks to the media. There seems to be only a handful of photos of her on file anywhere.

Yet Cameron is one of Australia’s best retailers. She founded outdoor clothing and equipment retailer Kathmandu in the 1970s and built the chain into the market leader in Australia and New Zealand.

In 2006, she cannily sold out at the height of the private equity boom, netting over $200 million in the process. Her fortune is valued at $505 million by BRW.

Cameron has since made a series of small investments in the retail space, buying stakes in baby goods retailer Postie Plus and children’s clothing company Pumpkin Patch. She’s also the woman behind Dog’s Breakfast Trading Company (which has 20 stores in Melbourne and Tasmania) and a small chain called NOOD (New Objects Of Desire), which trades in Canada and New Zealand.

But now Cameron has stepped out into the spotlight with the purchase of collapsed retail group Australian Discount Retail, owner of the Crazy Clark’s and Go-Lo discount chains. Cameron, along with Harris Scarfe chief executive Robert Atkins, paid a bit over $100 million for the company, which has 350 stores around Australia.

A big purchase like this represents something of a gamble in the current economic environment. While a downturn usually helps discount chains, ADR was in such a mess that it could not even turn a profit.

But Cameron – with the help of Atkins, who helped turn Harris Scarfe around – will back her ability to lift ADR out of the mire.

The company has a good network of stores in good locations. With almost $900 million in sales, Cameron doesn’t need to worry about building scale. The worsening economic climate should also make it relatively easy to attract customers looking for discount goods.

Perhaps most importantly, Cameron has managed to get it without the $200 million in debt that the previous owners, private equity firm CHAMP, were saddled with.

The building blocks are there. If Cameron can move quickly, ADR will be perfectly placed to cash in on the downturn.

And Cameron just might have got the bargain of the decade.