Pie Face wants slice of sharemarket

BrisConnections chairman and Rothschild bigwig Trevor Rowe is eyeing another sharemarket listing. This time in the takeaway coffee and meat pie business.

Rowe is a key shareholder in the Surry Hills-based franchisor Pie Face, which has started putting the feelers out for a potential initial public offer later this year.

It is unclear if it will be listed in three instalments, as BrisConnections was.

Pie Face was established by the former Citigroup operative Wayne Homschek and his partner, Betty Fong, in 2003.

Other people to have a piece of the pie company include Pacific Equity's managing director, Paul McCullagh, Fat Prophets' founder, Angus Geddes, the retailing, bridge-climbing and bra expert Brett Blundy, investment banker Matthew Howison, former ABN Amro Rothschild investment banking boss and Corpac founder Robert Crossman, Japanese-speaking fund manager Warwick Johnson and a former Citigroup media analyst, George Colman.

Homschek has also recruited Ben Macpherson (brother of Elle) as a shareholder and his chief marketing officer. The two were ousted from the board of the loss-making listed talent agency Artist & Entertainment Group, of which Macpherson used to be chief executive.

Shares in the talent agency, which has since shifted its focus to coalmining, have been diluted more than 10 times since their 2004 listing. They have also fallen more than 90 per cent. But the buzz from the Pie Face camp is all positive.

''Feedback from potential franchisees has been extremely encouraging. They like our business model and excellent economics. They like the way we operate in a very transparent way. But most of all they believe in our food, product and service offering,'' Pie Face's chief executive, Homschek, said in a recent statement.

The pie firm also seems to be positioning itself in the metrosexual pie-eating segment, noting it already has a ''cult reputation'' for its ''cool'' and ''edgy'' brand.

It will be interesting to see how the market responds to a US-born entrepreneur's attempts to crack into a traditional Australian food segment.