Join the crewAbout Retail Savvy Group
Owner-operators.
Since day one.
A Melbourne hospitality group built by people who run their own rooms.
Who we answer to
Family-run. Operator-led.
No one else at the table.
We have no investors, no venture capital and no board of outsiders. We answer to each other, and to our guests. That’s it.
Think of the great migrant family businesses of 1960s Melbourne: the owners on the floor, their names over the door and a handshake that meant something. That’s what we’re building, nothing more and nothing less.
While much of our industry is backed by funds and shareholders chasing the next return, every decision we make starts with operations: the guest in front of us, the team behind the bar and the venue running right tonight.
And our people stay. Our managers average more than 7 years with us, and over a third of our management team have been here for 10 years or more.
It runs in the family. When they’re not manning their own Sunday market stalls, our kids are pitching in, washing dishes in the kitchen and running food on the floor. They’re learning to take orders, building confidence and working as part of the team when it’s at its busiest. We eat, sleep and breathe hospitality, and one day the kids will take over the reins.
Retail Savvy Group is owner-operated, full stop. Its founders bring 90 years combined as owner-operators and entrepreneurs and 110 years combined in retail.
Stewart Koziora has spent 40+ years building and scaling high-performing venues. He started at McDonald’s, went on to become CEO of Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloons, and brought Wagamama to Australia.
Anna Carosa, the group’s Managing Director, is a serial entrepreneur with 25 years in business. She is in the Business Women’s Hall of Fame, won a Young Hero’s Award, and was a Young Australian of the Year finalist and a Telstra Business Women’s Award finalist in two categories.
The group has been named in the BRW Fast 100 and Smart50. Asian Beer Cafe opened at Melbourne Central in 2007, Father’s Office QV followed in September 2012, and Father’s Office Downtown, with Follies Bar in the basement, opened on Flinders Lane in October 2022. The group sold Bank on Collins, The Shaw Davey Slum and Fitzroy Social before lockdown.
Today Eltham Social and Mitcham Social are community local pubs first, and the group is growing into Ringwood with three new venues on Maroondah Highway.