Western Australia's top businesses take aim at intrastate expansion

24 Jun 2010 Download Press Release

24 June 2010: Telstra today named the finalists in the 2010 Telstra Western Australian Business Awards, with 80 per cent of the businesses targeting expansion to other regions of WA as a key part of their growth plans.

A shortlist of 20 small and medium businesses have been chosen as finalists for this year’s Awards, which for the first time in their 18-year-history offered entrants the chance to get a free ‘Business Health Check’.

Telstra Business Group Managing Director and Telstra Business Awards Ambassador, Deena Shiff, said the detailed assessment, based on international benchmarking and developed in conjunction with the NSW Business Chamber, confirmed that Western Australia’s leading firms had solid business plans in place.

"Two-thirds of the businesses shortlisted also identified interstate expansion as part of their future growth, with 30 per cent having sights set on international expansion,” Ms Shiff said.

"The Health Check also showed that all of the companies selected as finalists had thorough plans looking as far as a decade ahead and were primed and ready to seek out future growth opportunities.

"This is well above the national average, where less than half of all small and medium businesses have business plans.

"The fact that the best businesses in the state are meeting global best practice in business planning is a very positive sign for Western Australia’s economy going forward.

"All these leading businesses are focused on improving their day-to-day processes and knowing their customers better while more than half have strategies to increase productivity and diversify their product base.”

Companies shortlisted for prizes this year include an ecotourism operator whose owner was inspired by showing off WA to international students billeted by his mother, a labour forecasting business whose expertise is sought by the resources, construction and engineering sectors and a Margaret River wine tour company targeting Generation X and Y customers who blend and taste their own red wine.

Other finalists include a company that replaced plasterboard wall office fit-out with its patented modular partitions which are reusable, portable and easily installed, a nine-branch real estate company that created an Australian first iPhone application to boost buyer interest and an online photobook and digital wedding album producer.

The finalists for the Telstra Western Australian Business Awards are:

businessowner Micro-Business Award

Aussie Wanderer Bentley
Business Solutions (WA) Pty Ltd Mandurah
KAPP Engineering Balcatta
Pit Crew Management Consulting Services Claremont
The Good Store Victoria Park
Wine for Dudes Gnarabup

 

MYOB Small Business Award

Bamboozle Osborne Park
Charisma The House of Beauty Hillarys
Electro Medical Group Belmont
For The Coffee Table Floreat
Intellect Systems Subiaco
Quicklock Partitions Malaga

 

Panasonic Australia Medium Business Award

Assetivity Como
Handley Surveys Pty Ltd Karratha
Peard Real Estate Hillarys
Traffic Management South West Bunbury

 

AMP Innovation Award

Bamboozle Osborne Park
Ecoscape (Australia) Pty Ltd North Fremantle
Fortix Maylands
My Reflections Photobooks Rockingham
Quicklock Partitions Malaga
The Bodhi Trees Mt Hawthorn

 

Sensis Social Responsibility Award

The Bodhi Trees Mt Hawthorn

 

The winners of the Western Australian Awards, which will be announced at the Hyatt Regency Grand Ballroom on 20 July, will receive a share of the $400,000 in cash and prizes, become part of an exclusive national business alumni, and proceed to the national Awards to be announced in Sydney on 20 August.

For further information on the Telstra Western Australian Business Awards Presentation Dinner visit telstrabusinessawards.com

 

Sources:
National average for business plans ex MYOB Business Monitor (March 2008)
Global best practice for business plans provided by NSW Business Chamber and incorporated in the methodology for the Business Health Check

Media contact:

Natasha Ciesieski
Lighthouse Communications
Ph: 02 9262 3868; M: 0428 480 710

Telstra:
Kathryn McFarlane
0419 850 201

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