About PIA Group

The Company

PIA, an acronym for property, investments and agribusiness, is an aggregation of strategic investments in operating businesses and development projects.

The three areas of specialisation for PIA are property ownership and development, operating Agribusiness entities and other key investments in non-agribusiness activities.

These companies either operate as 100% owned subsidiaries of PIA or are companies that PIA is involved with in conjunction with key strategic partners.



The PIA Group Australia strategy is built around holding a position of market leadership in selected product niches or geographic niches. In particular, this strategy is focused on rural and regional Australia.

Company History

PIA Group Australia commenced operations in Australia in 1989. Its initial investments were in industrial and commercial property. PIA has acquired and developed land & buildings across the three eastern states of Australia via several subsidiary entities and joint ventures, including Red Hen Properties, Seashift Properties, Keltar Properties and Storage One Self Storage.

Over a 20 year period, PIA developed a strong presence in the Self Storage industry. PIA originally acquired a stake in The Space Place Self Storage in 1989, later fully acquiring this business and merging it into Storage One. In 2004 PIA coordinated the sale of 13% of the Melbourne Storage market to the ASX listed National Storage Property REIT.

Seashift Properties and its associated companies commenced operations in regional Queensland in 1995. Larger projects have included the Hervey Bay airport and its adjacent 48 HA Industrial estate, a 550 lot housing development in Dundowran and a range of commercial properties in the Fraser Coast region of Queensland.

On the Agribusiness side of the business, PIA established leading Agribusiness advisory firm Kronos Corporate in 1997 with specialisation in M&A, Risk Management, Supply Chain & Infrastructure and Strategy. Kronos Corporate was acquired by Emerald Grain in 2006 and became the Corporate Advisory Division of Emerald Grain.

In 2003 PIA Group Australia founded, and incubated in its office, a soft commodity trading company originally known as Emerald Group but now known as Emerald Grain. PIA recruited key partners and staff to this company as it evolved from a start-up to grow to a position where it acquired around 12% (4.5 million tonnes) of Australia’s grain production and had a turnover of A$1.5 billion. The Emerald shareholders (of which PIA was the largest) sold this business to Sumitomo Corporation of Japan in early 2014.

PIA Group Australia Investments over the last 10 years include full ownership of Yarra Psychology, an operating business providing counselling services to private clients as well as psychometric testing, EAP programs and a range of support services to corporate clients.

In 2014 PIA Group Australia invested as a significant shareholder/noteholder backing the acquisition of Busselton Civil and Plant Hire (BCP), a sand mining and civil engineering business in the South West region of Western Australia.

In 2015 PIA Group Australia as the majority shareholder launched a start-up in the bookkeeping and business services space under the name of Fore Edge Bookkeeping. This business is focused on a range of services to SME clients and at the present time is operating within Melbourne and regional Victoria.