By CASEY NEILL
RYE Crust Bakery owner Andrew Lipiszko joked that last week’s Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce breakfast was actually his lunch.
He’d already completed five hours’ work at the store in Foster Street, Dandenong, which was among the year’s first three Premier Regional Business Awards nominees.
“The hours aren’t great. You have to love what you do,” Mr Lipiszko said.
“But I get to go to work without any traffic.”
The awards entered their 24th year at the 7 May event, where guest speaker, journalist and author Andrew Rule spoke about crooked cops, swift shoplifters, hitmen and conspiracies.
Three nominees will be announced at four more breakfasts throughout the year, with the winners to be announced at a gala dinner next March.
Mr Lipiszko was studying electrical engineering at Monash University when he discovered his love for baking.
“Electricity kills and bread doesn’t,” he joked.
He started baking as a night job he could fit around his studies.
“I fell in love with the trade,” he said.
“I still graduated with honours.”
Mr Lipiszko and wife Hanna opened their own business, between two Polish butchers, in September 2009, when Dandenong’s revitalisation was just getting underway.
They initially concentrated on bread but soon added coffee, sandwiches, wholesale orders, sweets, deli products and a catering service.
Mr Lipiszko cares for and uses a 100-year-old sourdough starter, monitoring PH levels to avoid a strong aftertaste.
“It takes a lot of care to keep it alive so it doesn’t get mouldy,” he said.
“It’s alive. You use it, then you feed it. It regenerates.”
SRX Global is the Australian market leader in electronic manufacturing services, and partners with major innovators to make their visions a reality.
It has established manufacturing facilities in Malaysia and New Zealand to complement its headquarters on Kitchen Road in Dandenong South, where it has just under 200 employees.
General manager Jeff Malone said SRX Global exported to America and Europe, and could see 15 to 20 per cent growth year on year for the next few.
He said this would rely on the medical and defence industries.
Mr Malone said the company was developing a cheek swab system to replace blood tests and an ultrasound machine the size of a phone.
“The doctor walks around the hospital with an ultrasound like a stethoscope,” he said.
“Or forget the hospital – he can go out in the field.
“That’s the kind of design and manufacturing that’s happening in Melbourne right now.
“If we’re not continuously breaking new ground we’ll fall behind.”
Future Metals Recycling started in Shepparton in 2005 when two businessmen with no experience in the industry – Tom Garrett and Tyrone Landsman – purchased Fletcher Metals.
In 2008 they established a purpose-built facility in Ordish Road, Dandenong South, and bought National Metals in Hallam, consolidating the three sites under the Future Metals Recycling name.
Mr Landsman, the managing director, attributed the company’s growth to three key areas – culture, strategy and service.
He hires staff with a can-do attitude and empowers them to make decisions.
“We treat everyone in our business as a family member,” he said.
A long-term strategy geared toward a sustainable future for the business guides every decision at Future Metals Recycling.
It’s stuck strictly to ferrous and non-ferrous metals, not straying into plastics or paper, and has positioned itself in the market above the backyard operators but below the major players.
The business retained the small Hallam site to enable easy, quick access for small, one-off customers like tradesmen, and adjusts its prices on a monthly basis using the commodities index.
Chisholm human, health and business services director Paul Goudie introduced the morning’s Youth Enterprise Award nominee, Danielle Erickson.
The Frankston 18-year-old started a Diploma of Specialist Make-up at Chisholm last year.
“She’s a very dedicated and talented student. She strives to set high standards,” Mr Goudie said.
“She’s got a wonderful future ahead of herself.”
Danielle said she planned to make the most of her course, work hard and save money to explore her craft overseas.
She’s always been creative and gets a thrill from “transforming someone into something that they love”.
Danielle wants to work in film and television and one day establish her own make-up brand.
“I could one day be the face of the make-up industry. I am the future of the make-up industry in Australia,” she said.
