By CASEY NEILL
HAIRHOUSE Warehouse Parkmore, Iveco Trucks Australia and Burbank Group of Companies are now in the running for the Premier Regional Business Award.
Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce announced the nominees at its breakfast at Sandown Greyhounds on Wednesday 9 October.
The awards are now in their third year and were designed to profile and highlight successful small and large businesses in the region.
The winners will be announced and presented at a gala dinner in March next year.
Hairhouse Warehouse Parkmore owner Tony Margaritis and wife Sophie took over the store in August 2010 when its franchiser noticed opportunity for growth going untapped.
In three years, its turnover has increased by 50 per cent and now employs 10 people.
The Margaritis entered the business through a chance meeting with the company co-founder, establishing the Cranbourne store soon after.
They also ran, improved and sold the Dandenong store.
“We’re pretty happy with our lot at the moment,” Mr Margaritis said.
“But if an opportunity comes along we’d look at it.”
IVECO Trucks Australia has been in Dandenong since the early 1950s.
“I hope the facility will remain in Dandenong another 60 years at least,” spokesman Ron Grasso said.
It became part of the Fiat group in 1992 and is now part of CNH Industrial following a Fiat-Case New Holland merger.
The deal will create new opportunities for the group in Australia, particularly in research and development.
The business expects to grow in the coming years through opportunities in bus and coach manufacturing and its capabilities in defence force products and emergency services vehicles.
The Burbank Group of Companies in Dandenong is family-owned and operated.
It’s been involved in the Metro 3175 project in Dandenong – Places Victoria’s project to change the stockyard site into a residential development.
Spokesman Frank Perconte said the next major project locally was Mosaic Apartments on Cheltenham Road, which prompted an “I am Dandenong” campaign on social media.
“When you walk through the CBD, you see the smiles and energy,” he said.
“We wanted to capture that somehow and connect it back to what we do.”
Over the past year, Burbank has injected about $63 million into local business through building 358 homes in the region. It also works with local students to encourage them to join the industry.
Guest speaker Graham Winter from Think One Team International was the chief psychologist for the record-breaking Australian Olympic Team in Sydney 2000.
He provides advice on leadership and teamwork to leading Australian and international organisations.
Mr Winter told the audience to understand their conditions and their leverage – what they’ve got to work with.
“Create the environment in which success is inevitable,” he said.
He noted this was the second best mission statement he’d ever seen, with the best from a quarry in New Zealand.
“To be the number one rock group in New Zealand,” he said.
Mr Winter urged businesses to share the big picture, the load, the wins and losses and the reality – have difficult conversations and debrief regularly.
He said business success was about co-creating.
“Teamwork is not just getting your own team to work,” he said.
