Before Princeton, Fortune 500 clients and a Maroochydore butcher shop, there was a seven-year-old girl leaving Seoul in South Korea with her family.
Sunshine Coast Business Woman of the Year Agnes Pennay grew up between different cultures and continents, learning early that life could change direction in an instant.
She moved to the United States with her family when she was seven, but by Year 9, Agnes was back in Korea, before returning to the US once again to attend university.
“I experienced a lot of change growing up,” she says.
“I enjoyed my high school years, social groups and academics in general and writing in particular.
“My parents were quite liberal in how they raised my brother and me. So, we had a lot of freedom.”
Her academic journey eventually took her to Princeton University, where she completed a Bachelor of Economics before beginning a career that would take her from New York to Singapore and Tokyo.
“My first job was with the management consulting firm Kearney in New York. It gave me eye opening exposure to Fortune 500 clients, and those formative years of long, intense hours honed my understanding of business and work ethic,” Agnes says.
During the dot.com boom, a senior consultant recruited Agnes and several colleagues to join a B2B startup, taking her to Singapore.
It was there that she met the love of her life, Martin, who would become her husband.
When the couple later moved to Tokyo, Agnes switched directions again, into luxury marketing.
“The whole journey felt so natural and normal at the time as a fearless young person. Looking back, I realise that it was such an adventure,” she says.
Eventually, family brought Agnes and Martin back to Australia.
“After having three children in three different countries, Martin and I wanted stability and nearby grandparents, who lived on the Sunshine Coast,” she says.
Their years in Asia had shown them the value placed on fresh Australian produce overseas, while Martin’s background in commodity sales had fuelled his interest in the beef industry.
In 2016, they bought a local butcher shop in Maroochydore. For Agnes, it was a huge departure from the corporate world.
“I felt quite out of place in the early stages as I transitioned from a corporate world of ideas to a manufacturing environment of the real economy, especially after 10 years out of the paid workforce raising young children,” she says.
“The only way to really earn the trust and respect of employees was to just keep learning, contributing what I could and relying on their expertise.
“There was no ‘fast track’ way to do this, and only the passage of time and proof of steady success can turn sceptics into believers.”
The small business they bought has since become Fresh Meats: a Sunshine Coast-owned butcher, producer and food service provider employing more than 140 local people.
In 10 years, sales have grown 20-fold, while the business has become the Coast’s largest retail butcher and now makes about 800 wholesale deliveries each week across Queensland.
Fresh Meats supplies customers across hospitality, retail, education, healthcare, aged care and other institutional sectors. Its Butcher & Chef ready-meal range is stocked through a growing network of independent retailers, while Butcher & Bark produces natural pet food.
But building that success has come at a cost.
“We have made a massive financial commitment to this business but also of our time and energy and literal blood, sweat and tears,” Agnes says.
Business ownership, she says, does not come with a neat finish line at the end of Friday afternoon.
“Every business owner understands viscerally that there is no 9-5, Monday to Friday, clock-in-and-out nature of business ownership, unless it is very established, and even then, one cannot take anything for granted,” she says.
While business keeps Agnes busy, teaching weekly yoga at Bloomhill Cancer Care remains an important and meaningful part of her life.
“Yoga has been a part of my life for 30 years and the continuity of commitment and practice matters to me greatly,” she says.
“I can see the impact of my short but valued sessions on the clients, and that time nourishes all of us with hope and gratitude as well.
“Bloomhill is such an oasis, both physically and energetically, and the Sunshine Coast community is fortunate to have it.
“I started teaching there in 2015, but when we experienced cancer in the family just after Covid, it meant that much more.”
Bloomhill general manager Mervat Quirke says Agnes’s contribution has a lasting impact on people who come through its doors.
“The best measure of leadership isn’t just what someone achieves, it’s how they show up along the way,” Mervat says.
“Agnes creates an hour where our clients can simply focus on themselves and provides ready-made meals that our nurses can quietly place into the hands of clients when that extra bit of care is needed most.”
Agnes’s sense of family and community extends into another major project she is close to completing: a memoir about her grandparents and their experiences during the Korean War.
“My paternal grandmother was an exceptional businesswoman who established the Korean fashion industry, but I realised that my children would never fully know her story because her autobiography is in Korean,” she says.
“My maternal grandfather also played an important role during the Korean War, but there was only an oral history that would inevitably fade over time.
“I felt compelled to share their legacy with our girls and also realised that intergenerational experiences of war, strong women and family history have universal appeal.”
Her grandparents’ experiences have also influenced how Agnes measures her own life.
She grew up seeing the effects of too much focus on work, even when that commitment came from necessity or a sense of calling.
“I have always prioritised building a rewarding personal life as the firm foundation for any professional success,” she says.
“I also try to remember that, for the most part, my problems are of the ‘first world’ kind and that I am not living through war trauma while dealing with the general challenges of life.”
That perspective was evident when Agnes was recently named Outstanding Business Woman of the Year at the Sunshine Coast Business Women’s Network (SCBWN) awards at Venue 114, Bokarina.
Her parents were there to watch their 50-year-old daughter receive the honour after they had immigrated to Australia themselves in their seventies.
“There are times even now when I feel that I am not spending enough time with them as they transition to a totally different way of living in a new country,” Agnes says.
“They know all too well about family business from their own experiences.
“But still, they worry that we are working too much.
“The award is a celebration and vindication of the sacrifices we have made and continue to make.”
SCBWN judge Kaitlyn Akers says the recognition reflects the grit behind what Fresh Meats has become.
“Your work, your team, your determination and incredible drive shine every day in the business Fresh Meats has become,” Kaitlyn says.
Agnes’s definition of business success goes well beyond sales figures.
“Business success is not just about financial outcomes. True success lives in the relationships we build with our staff, our customers, our suppliers and our communities,” she says.
Fresh Meats has always supported local schools, sporting clubs and other community causes across the Coast.
“This award belongs to the whole Fresh Meats team and I hope it shows all our daughters what women are capable of,” she says.
