During the year we’ve met some inspirational business people from a variety of industries. Here are 15 of the most popular stories.
15. Jean Sutton concludes 50-year career at Tumut pharmacy as major award finalist
by Oliver Jacques
Jean Sutton (right) with her boss Kerrie Peacock and colleague Vikki Coulton. Together the trio have a combined 149 years working in a Tumut pharmacy. Photo: Russell Street Pharmacy.
A loyal customer service worker is ending a stellar 50-year career at a Tumut pharmacy as a finalist in the outstanding employee category at the Riverina Murray business awards.
Jean Sutton completed Year 10 in 1975 and immediately landed a job at Clifford Pharmacy, on the main street. While the name, ownership and location of the chemist has changed a few times, she has endured as the one constant.
14. To spend or save? Coastal tourism a market worth investing in, says council
by Claire Sams
Thinking of a coastal holiday? Eurobodalla Shire wants you to stay a while. Photo: Kim Treasure.
Solving the unequal “peaks and troughs” of coastal visitation is a key goal of Eurobodalla Shire Council.
The council’s visitor economy manager Andrew Sargant said a recent tourism forum shone a light on where the region’s tourism market could be supported in the coming years.
13. How a Bega father’s business plan is scaling new heights
by Claire Sams
Gravity House co-founder Marc D says the venue’s goal is to create a “healthy mind and healthy body within a healthy community”. Photo: Nathan Cima.
It was an outing with his kids to burn off some energy that gave Marc D the idea for his business.
“I’d done some climbing when I lived in Sydney, and I liked it … It’s very popular, when you live in Sydney, to do it as a team-building activity,” he says.
“I took my family and had a bit of an ah-ha moment. There are not many activities that are as inclusive as rock climbing.”
12. Entrepreneur who ditched big supermarkets to open permanent farmers’ market in Wagga
by Erin Hee
Zoe Lamont has stopped selling to supermarkets altogether. Photo: Supplied.
Zoe Lamont was sick of the big supermarkets raising their customer prices while paying farmers so little. She ditched them, and now she’s opening up a real farmers market in Central Wagga that cuts out the middleman.
11. ‘Provided it’s legal, we’ll do it!’ This funeral home knows how to think outside the box
by Jodie O’Sullivan
Judy Cole says the family business of William Cole Funerals will go to almost any length to help personalise a loved one’s send-off. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
This family funeral business has traded hearses for horse-drawn carts, the back of utes and log trucks. It’s overseen services in lounge rooms, backyards and even at sea. Founder Bill Cole says it’s all about adding a personal touch at a difficult time.
10. Capturing the essence of the Bega Valley in slow-distilled native plant oils
by Marion Williams
Jeff Allen conducting a distilling workshop at Four Winds. Photo: The Allen family.
It has been a 29-year journey that started in the Bega Valley and has come full circle.
All that time, Jeff Allen has been learning about plant-based essential oils and their medicinal and wellbeing properties while designing and manufacturing more than 300 stills from 25-litre capacity to 1500 litres.
9. Former Narooma Oyster Festival chair on the importance of regional events – and the challenges
by Marion Williams
Cath Peachey has stepped down as chair of Narooma Rocks after 13 years of voluntary involvement with Narooma Oyster Festival. Photo: Supplied.
Regional events such as the Narooma Oyster Festival are critical to regional economies but come with incredible challenges, as former Narooma Rocks chair Cath Peachey can attest.
8. The South Coast sea urchin diver at the coalface of climate change
by Marion Williams
Diving for sea urchins off the coast of Eden. Photo: Stefan Andrews.
Second-generation diver Ryan Morris has had to adapt his business as abalone numbers decline and a climate change-induced explosion in long-spined sea urchins pose an existential threat to NSW’s fishing industry.
His Pambula business, South Coast Sea Urchins, is helping to restore the kelp forests of the Great Southern Reef after they were destroyed by the urchins. To sustainably control urchin numbers, he must grow the consumer market for urchins to support a viable industry.
7. The Candy Man rained down lollies across 200 corner shops
by John Thistleton
Robyn and John Rawlinson accept their second successive shield for business excellence in 1998 at The Distributors annual conference in Melbourne. A national industry group representing confectionery wholesalers, The Distributors’ conference was held in different capital cities each year. Photo: Rawlinson family collection.
In corner stores, service stations and newsagents across southern NSW they called him The Candy Man.
John Rawlinson began earning his title when he and his wife Robyn bought their confectionery wholesale business in Goulburn in 1976.
6. Davydick’s legacy endures for three generations in Goulburn
by John Thistleton
Cameron Bell and Irrigear principal Charlie McDonald have plenty of shared history following their fathers David and Dick’s earlier successful partnership Davydick. Photo: John Thistleton.
How do you conceive a small business venture that keeps two families together over three generations? Open a bottle of Scotch.
5. Bermagui’s Honorbread sees Employee Ownership Trusts as a model for leaving a proud legacy
by Marion Williams
Honorbread’s Tim and Honor Northam (left and second from right) are looking at different models to run their business more equitably with employees. Photos: Supplied.
Honor Northam has been running the successful Bermagui business Honorbread for almost 10 years.
She is proud of what she has created with her husband, Tim Northam, and its 50 to 60 employees. She does not want that to be lost when the time comes to sell.
Mrs Northam has been thinking about succession and different business models that enable owners to run their enterprises more equitably with their employees.
4. Property near Tumut receives certification as Australia’s first ‘DarkSky’ lodging
by Nicholas Ward
Kestrel Nest Eco Hut at night with the Milky Way overhead. Photo: Grant Hardwick.
The Kestrel Nest EcoHut has become the first Australian accommodation to be internationally accredited as a “DarkSky lodging”. Here’s what it means and why it’s important for owners Louise and David.
3. Cost of business turns down the buzz in Goulburn’s main street
by John Thistleton
Goulburn Heritage Group members Adrian Beresford-Wylie (left) and Jane Reardon (right) discussing issues of mutual interest with Business2580 executive members Kelly McClelland, Ben Finlayson and president Josh Matthews. Photo: John Thistleton.
Main streets can be an inviting window into a town and its community, but on Sundays in Goulburn too few shops and cafes are open to give a true representation of what the heritage city has to offer visitors. So what can be done?
2. Another chapter for Narooma Kinema waits in the wings
by Marion Williams
John and Janette Griffiths (front) with Jade Griffiths, owner and manager of Narooma Kinema and Jenni Bourke, president of Narooma School of Arts. Photo: Narooma School of Arts.
Change is afoot for a 100-year-old cinema on the South Coast as its current owner Jade Griffiths departs. Ms Griffiths reflects on her family’s long involvement with the cinema and the type of person she would like to take over the operation.
1. Moruya nursery owner feels ‘trapped’ by council’s development application processes
by Marion Williams
Flynn, Joel, Monique, Robyn and Jaykob, staff members and members of family who rely on Mountain View Nursery. Photo: Robyn Lush.
Six years ago, Robyn Lush opened a plant nursery just south of Moruya. It has taken more than four years to get her development application approved.
The approval has now come with conditions that Ms Lush views as unduly onerous.
