Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers 2025 — LESS THAN TWO WEEKS TO NOMINATE

After a series of profiles, some featuring companies that seem a sure thing to transform the industries they operate in, our always-enjoyable Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers campaign is heading down the proverbial home straight.

We’ve had the privilege of talking to some incredible manufacturing leaders so far, featuring them in stories on this website and interviews on the @AuManufacturing Conversations podcast. These include:

• Laronix’s Dr Farzaneh Ahmadi, who left academia to commercialise a world-first voice for the voiceless;
• Smith’s BBQs founder John Smith, who is obsessed with building the perfect Aussie barbie at Temora in regional NSW
• Element Engineering’s Ayrton Sue, whose company is focussed on the challenges of high-tech innovation and sovereign manufacturing;
• Jonathon Wolfe, founder and CEO of Optera Solutions, which is taking dragonfly-inspired neuromorphic sensors out of Western Sydney University to solve problems from satellite monitoring to the efficient use of CNC tools in workshops;
• Professor Mark Kendall, CEO and founder of WearOptimo, a third-time inventor/entrepreneur developing flexible microelectrodes;
• And another medtech technical founder based in Brisbane, Dr Chris Jeffery, whose company Convergence Medical is on the way to making life easier for orthopaedic surgeons with the world’s first arthroscopic robot.

Though some our nominees so far have been on the very high-technology side, and at the startup phase, any kind of manufacturer is welcome to enter the 50 Most Innovative.

We celebrate innovations of any kind from businesses at any stage of their lifecycle. Marketing campaigns, safety programs, production processes for existing products etc. — if you’ve created value by changing how it’s done, then tell us about it.

The only caveat is that you have until March 15 to nominate.

Apply to be recognised in this exclusive group here.

As always, it’s completely free to enter. And all finalists get free tickets to the awards event at Crown Melbourne on May 7 (during Australian Manufacturing Week.)

We will continue to profile this year’s nominees all the way up until the big day.

Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers is an annual campaign by @AuManufacturing. The current version has been made possible through the generous support of Australia Wide Engineering Recruitment, TXM Lean Solutions, the Industry Capability Network, Bonfiglioli Australia, the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre and the SmartCrete CRC.