DGL Group chief executive Simon Henry at his Parnell home. Photo / Michael Craig
He watched his personal share price tumble by $140 million five days after calling My Food Bag co-founder Nadia Lim “a bit of Eurasian fluff”. But who is Simon Henry? In his first interview since the controversy, the businessman talks to Carolyne Meng-yee about life, love and loss.
Breakfast is a spinach omelette and, for lunch, the millionaire brings a cheese and lettuce sandwich to the office from home.
Home is enormous. Monochrome minimalist. It contains a lift he has never used, a television he doesn’t know how to operate and there is no art on the walls.
Simon Henry’s life is a blank page.
“This is my personality,” says the businessman, who made his fortune with a chemical storage company and watched his share price tumble, after he called My Food Bag co-founder Nadia Lim “a bit of Eurasian fluff”.
He lets us open his fridge (three packs of Olivani, milk and not much else). A butler’s pantry with a second fridge/freezer is full of frozen vegetables.
The 57-year-old reveals he did, recently, try to buy a Colin McCahon painting to hang in his five-bedroom, 600sqm Parnell home - but his limit was $600,000 and he was outbid. His walls remain white.
“Some people are troubled I don’t have art; it offends them and they get anxious about it. I like to buy stuff that makes money, trucks, forklifts and factories - art doesn’t produce anything.
“Someone said if the GCSB came to investigate my house while I was away, they would be bamboozled. They wouldn’t be able to find any evidence of how I think. There are no tell-tale signs. I don’t keep my books; I read them and then give them away.”
How does the man who was born Simon Henry Whimp think?
The first time I speak to him, he is hiding behind a palm tree. I press the intercom and Henry replies: “I would love to talk to you, but the board asked me not to.”
Six months later, he agrees to an interview - with conditions: “I don’t want to talk about Nadia Lim.”
Two phone conversations and now, finally, we’re in his house talking about Nadia Lim.
This interview is his first since the controversy died down. It’s November, and Henry’s dressed in jeans, a crisp white T-shirt and bare feet. He’s pumped after a naked swim in his pool and smashing tennis balls.
Before the interview begins, Henry hands over documentation of his two-sentence apology to Lim, track and trace details from Paramatta - where he was at the time things kicked off - that the apology was couriered and delivered, and a phone log where he tried phoning Lim three times in Queenstown - just to prove how apologetic he was. Lim said in the days after the controversy she hadn’t received an apology.
Herald on Sunday: Do you feel like you were a victim in the debacle?
“No. I found it completely fascinating that a country could stop and have a hissy fit . . . I got significant correspondence saying ‘thanks for calling it out’.”
At the start of this year, Henry was mostly only known in business circles. By May, he was, arguably, the most contentious man in the country. In an interview published by NBR, Henry, chief executive and founder of DGL group, described Lim - a degree-qualified dietitian who won television cooking competition MasterChef New Zealand - as “a TV celebrity showing off her sensuality”, referring to the My Food Bag’s disappointing entry into the public market.
He added: “When you’ve got Nadia Lim, when you’ve got a little bit of Eurasian fluff in the middle of your prospectus with a blouse unbuttoned showing some cleavage, and that’s what it takes to sell your scrip, then you know you’re in trouble.”
The comments were prompted by a photograph of Lim barbecuing a chicken while wearing jeans and a cream top with no buttons and no cleavage. The image ran in a prospectus for My Food Bag (the meal kit delivery business Lim co-founded in 2013). Henry’s comments prompted days of indignation.
DGL, formerly known as Dangerous Goods Logistics, is an Australian registered company, whose Headquarters is in Melbourne. It has an all-Australian board with the exception of Henry, who is an executive director as well as chief executive. Henry owns 54 per cent of DGL Group.
Before Henry’s attack on Lim, his personal shares were worth $700 million. But his comments drew widespread criticism from the public, including the prime minister and the board of DGL- and more than $140m had been wiped off Henry’s personal share value as DGL’s share price plummeted.
At the end of June DGL was delisted from NZX and commentators went to town dissecting the potential “isms” behind his quotes.
The Herald on Sunday: are you a misogynist?
“I don’t think so.”
A racist?
“I don’t think so.”
A sexist?
“I don’t think so. Anyone who knows me has never suggested I am any of these things.”
How does he view himself?
“As a dedicated CEO of a successful listed company and a dedicated father.”
Henry has a son with his ex-wife, who he met when she was in her late teens and he was in his early 40s.
Among the rumours about the businessman is that he would never go out with anyone who weighed more than 48kg.
When asked about this, Henry turns to the Herald on Sunday photographer, saying that if it were true, “We wouldn’t be dating much in New Zealand, would you? That’s why I am living on my own? That is urban myth.”
Henry’s nose for business began at the age of 6 after a conversation with a farm contractor who was harvesting rye grass seeds on his father’s farm. He was curious about how his father would pay the contractor.
“I was really fascinated that two people could do business based on trust and I’ve built DGL into a significant business. Of course, we have contracts but it basically it works with good people working in the business servicing customers that’s ultimately based on trust. This goes right back to my sensitivity about what’s gone on in New Zealand. My view of the world is based on trust and when I see someone abusing trust it does wind me up.”
Could he have worded things differently in May without referring to Lim’s race, sex or cleavage? “I got my words wrong and I’ve apologised for that reason. I wish I had drawn attention to the matter without mentioning race or gender. I wanted to make a point; I am not going to bother with it again. Fast-talking Aucklanders can do what they like to New Zealand investors; I had a go at it but I am out.”
Henry says he regrets he hurt his staff, clients and board. “Regret is a fair word to use. The board was disappointed and I apologised to them for causing hurt, it was a distraction to us running the company.
“I apologise to all the good women that work at DGL, I apologised to all my staff, I didn’t want to cause them any distress. My female staff got hammered and abused.”
The comments were in relation to My Food Bag’s entry into the public market in March 2021, hailed at the time as the biggest IPO to hit the NZX in seven years.
The founders had sold a 70 per cent stake in the company to private equity firm Waterman Capital in 2016.
Theresa Gattung and Cecilia Robinson had resigned as directors two months prior while Lim had not been on the board since 2016 but remains an ambassador.
Robinson returned as a director in August this year.
The company sold shares to new investors at $1.85 each, raising $342 million.
But its share price has been on a downward trend since and as of Thursday was 45 cents.
In the latest fiscal year, the company posted a $20 million net profit after tax and revenue of $194m. My Food Bag’s net profit for the six months ended Sept 30 fell 37 per cent and revenue dropped 4 per cent in its weakest half-year result since 2020.
Henry’s behaviour towards women came under public scrutiny days after his attack on Lim. He says his sense of humour often gets him into trouble.
A woman alleged to the NBR she was being harassed by him; an accusation Henry denies. In 2018, he met a young intern who worked at the Four Seasons Hotel in London. He says he was intrigued by the 21-year-old Taiwanese/American woman who spoke fluent Russian.
Henry, then 52, says the pair struck up a friendship that later soured when the woman found out Henry was not divorced. She accused him of harassment and gaslighting and leaked personal emails from Henry to the media before making a complaint to the Metropolitan police.
“When she discovered I was still married she sent emails to everyone. It was a faux romance; a joke. We were going to have one date and get married the next day. It was two people joking, it was fake.”
Henry says the emails were harmless and he admired the woman’s “beauty, brains and quirkiness”.
Herald on Sunday: Were you mortified your emails were leaked?
“I wasn’t mortified, I was fascinated anyone would think they were worth printing.”
Why did he keep pursuing her when she had no interest in him?
“I didn’t. When she said, ‘Don’t contact me again or I’ll send your emails to the media,’ I said, ‘obviously you are a troubled person’.”
The woman has not responded to the Herald on Sunday’s request for comment. It is understood the police are no longer looking into the case.
Henry grew up in the Canterbury town of Rangiora and is from humble beginnings. His father Terry was an electrician, and his mother Ava a lab technician at Rangiroa High school. Henry, the middle child, has four siblings, Bernard, Athol (who died in a climbing accident in 2012), Rachel and Tristram.
Henry says he wasn’t an academic but liked maths, science, geography and history. He spent lunchtimes in the school lab with his mother.
“I found chemistry and science easy, to be blunt. I always had a curiosity and I have always enjoyed industrial settings.”
Henry left Christchurch when he turned 16 and worked as a beekeeper in North America.
He became interested in property after the 1987 share market crash. He moved back to New Zealand in the mid-1990s and bought commercial properties in Christchurch and Wellington, including a purpose-built chemical storage facility large site in Seaview, Wellington that would later become DGL.
“It dawned upon me someone could specialise in that and it’s a business that has grown in 20 years.”
He splits his time between Sydney and Auckland, which he describes as “much warmer and more colourful” than his hometown.
“Christchurch is conservative and judgmental.
“I will get shot here but what does that matter? Christchurch has a narrow white provincial attitude that comes through a tragic habit of speaking with a British accent, wearing polo shirts with the collar turned up and moleskins. Christchurch is all about what school you went to, in Auckland you get asked, ‘how long is your boat?”
For the record, his $4m boat, named C Crew, is 20 metres.
Henry says starting his own company was a lonely experience; he was plagued by self-doubt and detractors telling him he would fail.
Henry’s birth name is Whimp but he changed it to his middle name, Henry, in the 1980s.
The rich-lister says he doesn’t know how much he is worth and says he doesn’t give a “rat’s bottom” about money.
What does concern him is the widening gap between the rich and the poor and bullies.
Every year he donates $100,000 to charity; $35,000 goes to Hohepa Canterbury, a trust supporting adults with intellectual disabilities.
“I grew up with a friend at school who had Down Syndrome but as a kid you couldn’t quite figure out why he was different. At high school, the kids told him to turn on the fire extinguisher and he was caned. I was so shocked. I believe money is there to help people. I don’t have money sitting in the bank gathering dust like Uncle Scrooge. I am aware my son is privileged and life isn’t fair.”
Henry met his ex-wife in the mid-1990s when she had a holiday job in a building he owned. The couple recently divorced after a 10-year marriage but have been separated for several years. His ex, who he doesn’t want to name, was born in mainland China and immigrated to New Zealand with her family as a child. Henry’s greatest love is for their 10-year-old son, who attends King’s School in Remuera.
“I would prefer you don’t mention my ex-wife or son’s name. It was me who started this engagement with the media. Being a father to a child is the most fulfilling event in my life. I travel a lot so I spend a lot of time with him when I am here, he’s a good kid.
“My ex-wife is a highly accomplished barrister and solicitor. Both of us worked too hard and marriage and home life takes time and I didn’t put enough time into it. I accept full responsibility for the breakdown of our relationship. Getting divorced is not a nice thing for anyone to go through and we simply grew apart, but we have a perfectly good working relationship with our son.”
When Henry is not overseas on business, he likes fishing with his son around Waiheke Island- even though he hates killing fish, rarely catches one and his son doesn’t enjoy eating it.
He is comfortable in his own company and likes being off the grid.
“I went to Turkey while I was working in Bulgaria with no cell phone, no watch, no map. I got lost and it was fantastic, there is some solace to that. I can walk down a street in Turkey and nobody knows who I am. I don’t wear a Rolex and I have a backpack I bought 20 years ago.”
Like his favourite artist, Lucian Freud, Henry wants to keep working until he dies. Like many people with more money than they can spend in a few lifetimes, Henry, who loves architecture and buildings, is about to add more houses to his “modest” property portfolio.
He has just signed off the plans to build a “modest” architecturally designed holiday home at Closeburn station in Queenstown.
After 20 years as a guest at the Four Seasons hotel when in Sydney on business, Henry wants to treat himself to a “modest” home in Pott’s Point, Sydney with a view of the harbour.
He is also eyeing up his next section to build an even bigger home in Parnell which he hopes to fill with “screaming kids”.
“There is a distinct possibility I will have more children. I love children. You asked me why I have five bedrooms? Well, I want to fill them up with screaming kids in due course but I need to find a like-minded partner.”
The Herald on Sunday: Have you found love?
“Plenty try to find me. Bloody hell, it’s like having a target on your back. I told my little brother Tristram I have to hide under my bed at the weekends.”
Is it because he is wealthy?
“I thought it was my looks.”
Who is the perfect woman for Simon Henry?
“Someone who is intelligent and tolerates me for who I am. It’s a big ask isn’t it?”
The 19-year-old disappeared without her wallet or mobile phone.