By CASEY NEILL
HILTON Manufacturing was the people’s choice for this year’s Premier Regional Business Award.
“This is a huge surprise,” managing director Todd Hartley said.
“We’re so fortunate to have set up a manufacturing site in this region.”
The Dandenong South company and 11 other previous winners were profiled throughout the Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce gala dinner at Sandown Greyhounds in Springvale on Wednesday 13 April.
Guests ranked each business out of five using their mobile phones and a real-time online voting system.
Hilton Manufacturing, Jayco, SteriHealth and HM GEM Engines received the most votes and spruiked their worthiness for the honour.
“I feel like we need a violin playing in the background,” Mr Hartley said.
“We’re a family business that started in Hilton Street, Dandenong.
“We’re proud to see trucks and buses and caravans going past with our products on them.
“We just love manufacturing.”
Another crowd vote then selected Hilton as the night’s big winner.
Mr Hartley’s dad Tom started the company in 1976.
By 2006 it had expanded to 125 staff and took home the Premier Regional Business Award.
Since then its staff has more than doubled to 230 and its turnover has grown two and a half times.
“So solid profits?” MC Jamie Sturgess asked.
Mr Hartley laughed and quickly replied: “There are customers in the room, so reasonable profits.”
He said most of Hilton’s suppliers and customers were in the region and that had helped the company to grow.
“We’ve got a long way to go,” he said.
“We want to go through 20 per cent growth over the next three years.”
Mr Hartley said Hilton had invested heavily in systems, equipment and people during tough times.
It has a manufacturing plant in Queensland and has now been supplying the Japanese truck market for just over 20 years.
Hilton is a preferred supplier to the truck, bus, caravan, defence, healthcare and traffic management industries.
It harnessed skills developed for the local truck industry to gain export orders to Tata/Daewoo in Korea; Hino, Nissan and Isuzu in Japan; Scania in Sweden; and Westport in Canada.
The company recently launched IT project Hilton Digital and appointed an external CEO.
“We needed some external expert and qualified people to take us to the next level,” Mr Hartley said.
