Long-term alpine value investments
Col Ferret Holdings partners with exceptional owner-led businesses seeking a thoughtful, Long-Term Succession or Growth solution. We acquire and support companies with the intention to preserve their legacy, empower their leadership, and enable sustainable growth over decades, not cycles. Our name is inspired by Col Ferret, a storied alpine pass that symbolises endurance, challenge, and the freedom earned through commitment—values that guide how we invest, operate, and build for the future.
Col Ferret Holdings provides significant investment in attractive owner-operator sellers, management buy-outs and/or self-funded management acquisitions. We have a long-term horizon, and look to benefit from sustainable compounding growth for our portfolio companies and investors alike, through enduring values-driven leadership.
What we do
Themed around the ‘Family/Home’, we focus on:
Healthcare Infrastructure
Water Infrastructure
Financial Services
Who we invest in
Revenue
$5–60m
EBITDA
$1–8m
EBITDA Margins
20%+
What we offer
Shared partnership
We partner with managers who love their companies, who think like owners and who we like, admire and trust. Being advocates of decentralisation, we won’t tell you how to run your business, ensuring you have on-going autonomy to lead. Our preference is to take a majority shareholding in our portfolio companies.
Long-term thinking
We invest with an indefinite time horizon, to increase the likelihood of portfolio company managers and investors alike enjoying sustainable and aligned compounding growth.
Our advantage
When we invest in your company, you become part of Col Ferret Holdings, and its extensive network. We commit to building relationships that endure from generation to generation, strengthening operational discipline and management excellence for the benefit of portfolio company managers and investors alike.
Shared Trust and Integrity - in our relationships with investors and portfolio companies.
Delivering Value - to our investors and our portfolio companies.
Long Term Thinking - we value the long term approach over a short term mentality.
Disciplined Repetition - there are many distractions in a long term compounding journey. Maintaining a disciplined repetition on our approach is fundamental to our collective success.
Simplicity - we keep decisions, structures and operations as straightforward as possible.
Our Values
Meet the team
John Williamson | Founder
John brings 24 years’ experience owning and operating businesses across healthcare, investment and entrepreneurship. He founded a healthcare business in 2008 and grew it to a team of 40. He sold a majority stake to a national healthcare provider in 2021, before completing his exit in 2025 following the provider’s acquisition by an ASX-listed company. He holds degrees in physiotherapy and ergonomics, an MBA from the University of Queensland, and completed executive education at MIT Sloan and Columbia Business School. At Col Ferret Holdings, he applies his interest in long-term investment and holding companies.
Adam Brown | Director
Adam brings more than 20 years’ leadership and operational experience across construction, property development and infrastructure. Before joining Col Ferret Holdings, he was Managing Director of a privately owned construction and development company, leading strategy, operations, financial performance and growth. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Construction Management from Queensland University of Technology and an MBA from the University of Queensland. At Col Ferret Holdings, he identifies high-quality businesses and supports management teams to strengthen performance, build cultures that empower people, support good governance and create lasting value while preserving each business’s legacy.
About Col Ferret
Col Ferret (or Gran Col Ferret) is an Alpine pass between the canton of Valais (Switzerland) and the Aosta Valley (Italy). It is crossed by the route of the Tour du Mont Blanc. Close to it stands the Petit Col Ferret, at an elevation of 2,490 metres, which separates the Mont Blanc Massif from the Pennine Alps.
The Holding Company has been named Col Ferret Holdings as this location represents challenge, adventure, beauty, awe, achievement, success, freedom, and long-term commitment. All qualities Col Ferret Holdings aims to create throughout its history. John has been over Col Ferret three times in ultra trail running races.
John first got into more extreme adventure challenges like ultra trail running in 2018. He did this because he was going through significant challenge operating his own business at the time and wanted to mentally train himself to a higher level. To go to ‘dark places’ to see how he would handle that, taking this experience back to his business, knowing he had the mental capacity to be able to handle more.
Since 2018, John has completed:
5 x 100km ultra trail runs in Australia and abroad with the highlight of these being the UTMB CCC across Italy, Switzerland and France (2018-2023)
6 x 100mile ultra trail runs in Australia and abroad with the highlight of these being UTMB Mont Blanc across the French, Italian and Swiss Alps (2022-2026)
1 x boxing match in front of 1,000 people (2019)
1 x cold-water immersion course (2022)
Contact
You can reach John either via email john@colferretholdings.com or
by calling +61 422 181 187.