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WA Rich List 2018: Geoff Prosser’s Bunbury property empire keeps cash rolling in

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Neale PriorThe West Australian
VideoFinance News Presenter Meilin Chew looks at the life and career of Geoff Prosser, who came in at No.39 in this year's Rich List.

In one day they fixed my car, I sing their praises in the shower

All my business came at once, When I found Prosser Power.

Although you may not know the man, tens of thousands of Sandgropers around the 1970s would remember the advertising jingle of the car reconditioning business founded by Geoff Prosser.

All of his fortune did not come at once for Mr Prosser. He had a break of sorts, spending 20 years as WA’s Forrest MHR before retiring from politics at the end of the Howard-Costello era in 2007.

He had bought, built and redeveloped South West commercial property for most of his working life.

He went back to building a property empire centred on Bunbury and embarked on a massive expansion of his flagship Eaton Fair shopping centre that sees it now rival metropolitan centres in size and style.

And along the way he’s kept his place on WA’s Rich List, this year coming in at No.39 with a cash pile of $238 million, a slight drop from last year’s $251 million.

WA’s Rich List: Who else do you know on this year’s top-50 list?

Mr Prosser’s secret of commercial success is to reassure the customer that all is well in the world.

“Whatever we do in life, we do on the basis on confidence,” he said.

“People, when they spend, have to feel safe, secure and good in themselves.

“Always keep the buildings looking bright, always flatten them when they are old. It’s like a shop that doesn’t do a refit — you walk in and a premises looks down-in-the-mouth and daggy. You have to have excitement.

“You need to make retail look current for the client and the customer base of the day.”

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