Gerry Harvey began stockpiling rapid antigen tests as early as September, in a bid to make sure his workforce had access to them.
Harvey won’t reveal his suppliers of the tests, nor how much he spent, but he crowed: “We are probably doing this as well as or better than anyone.”
Alas, he has still not been able to avoid the Omicron variant, with both he and his wife testing positive for COVID-19.
“We have a world vision on it that is probably not quite as apparent to other people. We might have something happening in Ireland or Malaysia, [and] we think maybe that can happen in Australia,” he says.
“We saw that Omicron virus was kicking off really strongly overseas … and we figured it was going to here.”
This comes as frontline workers are forced to pay for their own tests, and the country has a massive shortage.
“You could argue we have an advantage, but in fairness we’ve got to take a few risks in business.
“Whereas governments are probably in a different position to that.”