By Casey Neill
Jurgen’s Swiss Bread is passing “the squeeze test” and building a fan base.
The Dandenong South business was among three nominees for this year’s Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce Business Awards which were announced at a breakfast at Sandhurst Club on Wednesday 9 August.
Buildsafe and Skillinvest also entered the running for the awards, to be presented in November.
The Rato and Sousa families started Jurgen’s in a small bakery in Cheltenham in 1995.
It now employs close to 100 people and its clients include Goodman Fielder, Nando’s, Etihad Stadium and the ALH Group.
Business development manager Kon Bangtragoulas said Jurgen’s recently added an organic burger bun to its product offering and received the “best milk bun” title from Goodman Fielder following a sample of 50 bakeries.
“A lot of factors contribute to good bread,” he said, providing climate as an example.
“Our facility allows us to control that.
“Our bread passes the squeeze test, it pops back.”
Back in 2001, the Buildsafe team was calling 10 builders a day, staying up all night building equipment, and delivering it to sites the following day.
Its founders wanted to bring professionalism to the scaffolding industry, and to increase both safety and productivity.
The Keysborough-headquartered company also has a focus on mental health after losing a worker a few years ago.
Builder Peter Horton was among the Buildsafe founders.
“We’ve designed most of our products if not all of them,” he said.
“One of the key factors has been the ability of our staff to put it up safely.”
He said builders from across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland came to the company for solutions.
Skillinvest is a non-profit group training organisation (GTO) and registered training organising (RTO) and has its head office in Thomas Street, Dandenong.
It also has a training facility on Cheltenham Road, Dandenong, and a hairdressing salon on Thomas Street.
It employs more than 110 people, trains more than 1300 people across Victoria annually, and recruits more than 450 apprentices and trainees for businesses.
Skillinvest also provides ongoing pastoral care and support to the trainees.
Operations manager Paul Konig said the company had rebranded from Link Employment and Trading.
He said there’d been a downturn in the uptake of apprenticeships and traineeships over past five years of about 30 per cent.
“We’ve had to look outside the box and diversify to keep going,” he said.
Skillinvest works particularly with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) workers and mature-aged workers from the car industry.
It’s also placing Aboriginal students in police stations to complete a certificate three in business administration, and delivering a young parents education program with the South East Local Learning and Employment Network (SELLEN).
