AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net
The Salvation Army knows how to strike a good business deal (see yesterday’s posting on Kettering Textiles). The Chairman of the trading company of the organisation in the U.K., “Lt-Col” Ivor Telfer, popped up as the Chairman of the Salvation Army’s Olympic Task Force. He got a good deal out of the London Olympics Committee.
The Salvation Army owns the 900 acre Hadleigh Farm, which is used to provide employment training and life skills for youth under various government programs. Somehow, Telfer convinced Olympics officials to make the farm the venue for the mountain bike events, over several other applicants. Normally, Olympic events sites remain in the hands of government bodies of one form or another.
In this case, the Salvation Army acquired a $1.2 million facility, at taxpayer expense, which it gets to keep, and make money from. The main income from the farm prior to the Olympics was selling the malt used to manufacture the popular confectionary, “Maltesers”.
The farm had also run a shop, café and tea-room before, relying on local tourism. As part of the deal, the government paid for highway and local road up-grades to Hadleigh Farm, enabling it, in future, to handle larger numbers of tourists.
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