Footy hall of fame star makes a small fortune from the $450million sale of popular

AFL Hall of Fame star Garry Wilson’s decision to back his son’s fledgling business has made the former Fitzroy rover filthy rich, with the company selling for $450million to Japanese-owned multinational company Kao Group.

Wilson, nicknamed Flea, was regarded as one of the best players of his era after playing 14 seasons with the Lions from 1971-84.

Known for his courage and trademark headgear, Wilson played 268 games and kicked 452 goals averaging 25 possessions and 1.7 goals per game as a rover.

In retirement, he became a seed investor for his son’s business Bondi Sands – a decision that has now made him a multi-millionaire.

AFL Hall of Fame star Garry Wilson has every reason to smile after his decision to invest in his son’s business Bondi Sands resulted in a $450million windfall

Shaun Wilson (pictured right) is Garry Wilson’s son and co-founder of Bondi Sands, which sold to Japanese-owned multinational company Kao Group this week

No other tanning product comes to Bondi Sands in Australia and the company also has a hugely popular SPF range as well

It was a shaky start for the tanning product company when it launched 11 years ago, though, with an early batch turning customer’s skin green and necessitating a recall.

‘It was not the greatest start,’ his son and Bondi Sands CEO Shaun Wilson said in 2020. 

‘The quality control of one of the ingredients was not up to scratch and we had to do a recall. We faced up to it and were honest with our wholesaler Priceline and they gave us another chance.’

However the company quickly rebounded to become the most iconic tanning product in the country, recording growth of around 55 per cent year on year.

Bondi Sands is set to report annual revenue of $190million for 2023, is the leading self-tanning product in Australia and includes a hugely successful SPF product range available for sale locally and in the UK.

Wilson changed the way the game was played during his VFL career in the 1970s and 1980s and created the template of the modern goal-scoring rover

Wilson, pictured right, was known for his trademark headgear and earned the nickname Flea partially because of his diminutive stature

Shaun Wilson also became engaged to model girlfriend Tess Shanahan this week to cap off a huge week

Garry Wilson was one of three investors in those early days, including his son Shaun and co-founder and Melbourne businessmen Blair James.

Shaun said the deal with Kao will be transformational for the brand. 

We’ve really just scratched the surface in terms of our growth opportunities and myself and the leadership team, we are fully committed to that, and it’s exciting to partner up with Kao,’ Mr Wilson told The Australian Financial Review.

‘America is a big focus for the company, we just launched into Walmart so that’s 4000 doors next month. We also have strong distribution with Ulta, Walgreens, CVS and Target, and we are leaders on Amazon.’

‘We want to be a leader in the global skincare protection business,’ he said. ‘We’ve got the fastest growing SPF business in Australia, and in the UK.’

It caps off a huge week for Shaun, who also became engaged to model girlfriend Tess Shanahan in an elaborate beach proposal.