High-achieving SMEs celebrated at Telstra Best of Business Awards

National winners of the SME-focussed Telstra Best of Business Awards were named in Sydney on Wednesday night, with manufacturers Pakko, Sea Forest and Complete Home Filtration winning their categories.

According to Telstra, over 24,000 companies nominated in the inaugural awards program. Telstra’s Consumer and Small Business Group Executive, Michael Ackland, said in a statement that winners demonstrated leadership and a positive impact in their industries and the communities they operated in.

Custom packaging and box business Pakko won the Progressing Australia category. Pakko manufactures locally using Australian-sourced suppliers. 

Judges said that Pakko “recognised a lack of local manufacturing in its industry in Australia was making it difficult for businesses to grow. Refusing to accept the status quo, Pakko is on a mission to lead a manufacturing renaissance in Australia that embraces innovation and sustainability.”

Environmental technology business Sea Forest won the Promoting Sustainability and Embracing Innovation awards. The company cultivates asparagopsis seaweed (pictured) and processes it into a feedstock supplement for livestock, reducing their methane emissions.

Judges noted Sea Forest’s “world class innovation in science, manufacturing and supply-chain management” and their action against “an unassailable and intractable problem – being the impact methane has on global warming”.

Designer, manufacturer and installer of in-home water filtration systems Complete Home Filtration took out the Outstanding Growth Award. Judges praised the “founder’s commitment to ongoing improvement and innovation, which has seen it develop world-first product innovations tailored to the needs of its customers both locally and abroad.”

Picture: Wikimedia commons

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A full list of winners is reproduced below.

Progressing Australia: Pakko

Accelerating Women: She’s A Crowd

Building Communities: West Australian Shalom Group

Championing Health: Ear Science Institute Australia

Embracing Innovation: Sea Forest

Indigenous Excellence: Killara Services

Outstanding Growth: Complete Home Filtration

Promoting Sustainability: Sea Forest