130

BOYD BLUE

WALKING into a Boyd Blue showroom is akin to entering an exotic wonderland of eclectic furniture and accessories.

From the grass weave wallpaper, a Boyd Blue inspiration featured in an episode of The Block, every piece has been hand-picked by Shelley Boyd.

The passionate entrepreneur is the founder of Gold Coast interiors wholesale and manufacturing business Boyd Blue.

With showrooms across the country and plans to expand to New Zealand, the business has more than 30 staff and turnover has doubled in the past three years.

A business which has become a national design empire began 15 years ago. A move to London honed Boyd’s fashion sensibility and after relocating to the Gold Coast she began selling fabrics to interior designers. Her office was her car.

When she outgrew the showroom she moved to the current head office and warehouse in Ashmore.

Boyd Blue products have featured at the Etihad Towers, Dubai; Jupiters and Treasury casinos; the Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort, Sea Temple Palm Cove and Gold Coast restaurants, resorts and luxury homes.

Boyd Blue has showrooms in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley but the Gold Coast will remain HQ.

129

OPMANTEK

GOLD Coast IT company Opmantek is so successful it was awarded the Oscar of the US business world.

The Surfers Paradise-based software firm was voted America’s favourite systems management product in the 13th Annual American Business Awards in August.

Opmantek, with a small team of 40, clinched the award ahead of runner-up, computer giant Dell.

Chief executive Danny Maher said the gong was testament to the growing popularity of the firm’s network management solutions.

“We have an enormous community of users who love our software,” Mr Maher said.

“They tweet about us, blog about us and it is incredibly flattering to think they have taken time to vote for us in the most prestigious IT awards in the US.”

More than 20 per cent of Opmantek’s customer base is now in the US.

Mr Maher last April was named Australian Executive of the Year in the American Business awards, beating Qantas chief Alan Joyce and former Telstra boss David Thodey.

Opmantek’s open-source software is deployed in more than 60,000 organisations in 130 countries. Every six minutes, somewhere in the world, an organisation is downloading an Opmantek product.

128

SKUDO

IT is designed to house more than 13,000 employees, the equivalent of 35 fully-filled Boeing 747s, and Gold Coast company Skudo has secured a multimillion-dollar contract to ensure it is completed with painstaking precision.

Known as the ‘’Spaceship”, Apple’s new $5 billion headquarters in Silicon Valley was one of the final design visions of Apple co-founder, the late Steve Jobs, who fronted the local council in Cupertino to defend his futuristic design.

Arundel-headquartered Skudo, a family business run by the Bone family which specialises in temporary construction coatings, won the contract to protect every substrate, including the carparks, while the flying saucer-shaped California colossus is under construction.

“Apple approached us because we had worked and developed a relationship with major builders in the US on projects ranging from airports across the country to large commercial projects,” Skudo director Hayden Bone said.

“We had to provide several prototypes over a number of years before finally receiving our first order.

“Apple are perfectionists and extremely fastidious about every aspect of the project.

“With the carpark alone, we have to protect every centimetre and it is made of brushed concrete, 1km long and cannot have one scratch mark on handover.”

Jobs wanted no seam, gap or paintbrush stroke showing; every wall, floor and even ceiling is to be polished to a supernatural smoothness. The Skudo team’s job is to ensure every piece of Apple HQ is protected during construction, ranging from glass and brushed concrete to terrazzo and stone.

A small family business of builders founded by the three Bone brothers and their dad in 1987, Skudo began manufacturing its own range of peelable protective coatings. The company has picked up a string of international accolades and is now working in more than 10 countries.

127

PLUSS FITNESS

“No honey, you’re thinner than me, not prettier.”

That sassy slogan emblazoned on an activewear crop top she designed sums up Wanda Sullivan’s attitude to life and the launch of an inspirational Gold Coast business.

Frustrated with brand-name fitness shops not stocking fitness wear in large enough sizes and the plus-size stores offering “clothing designed for a size 8, only bigger”, Wanda decided she just had to do it herself.

She has launched her Pluss range of high-performance activewear designed at her Coomera Waters home.

“I was 110kg and sent on a course, which involved working out in the high-altitude room, cardio, running and the full bootcamp deal,” Wanda said.

‘I loved it but I didn’t realise how unfit I was. When the course came to an end, I decided I wanted to keep working out.”

Wanda joined a bootcamp program but was irritated having to wear three bras, spandex nanna knickers, leggings one size too small and T-shirts to hide her stretch marks.

Wanda found a local patternmaker, sourced manufacturers in China and Fiji, researched the best-quality Australian high-performance Lycra and took feedback from plus-sized women.

Sizes range from 14 to 26. But when it comes to size labels, Wanda flipped things on their head. Her labels include the taglines Too Hot, Smokin, Foxy, Sexy, Fabulous, Bootilicious and Gorgeous.

126

FROSTY BOY

FROSTY Boy is serving up a sweet success story and growing a major export market from its Gold Coast base.

And an Asian market hungry for a taste of its famous product is helping drive healthy sales growth.

Frosty Boy, which has been manufacturing since 1976, is pouring out two million serves of its famous soft-serve ice cream daily from a factory in Yatala. The company moved to the 6000sq m purpose-built facility after outgrowing its previous premises in Loganholme.

Chief executive Dirk Pretorius said: “With capacity sitting at 60 per cent, there is still plenty of room to grow.

“We have had 18 per cent year-on-year average growth a year for the past 15 years.

“We export to 48 countries and about 75 per cent of the business is export.” Mr Pretorius said Frosty Boy had just launched into China and plans a major push into India.

125

EJETTY

GOT an empty boat jetty sitting unused out the back?

Want to make a few bucks? Gold Coast man Chris O’Halloran has come up with the perfect way to turn your empty jetty into a nice little earner.

Mr O’Halloran had his “light bulb” moment on a morning walk near his Coomera Waters home.

“I just thought, there has to be a way to turn all those empty boat jetties into a moneymaker,” he said.

Mr O’Halloran started Ejetty, an online marketplace which connects people who have an empty boat berth with boat owners looking to rent them.

The average berth rents for about $150 a week — it’s essentially the Airbnb of the boating industry. Since launching Ejetty 12 months ago, Mr O’Halloran has been swamped with inquiries from boaties and berth owners around Australia.

And the potential for growth of his business is huge.

“There are more than 10,000 registered boats over 6m that don’t have a berth in Queensland alone and that number is growing by 1000 a year,” he said.

“The Gold Coast has more canals than Venice, the largest registered recreational boat fleet in the state and many commercial marinas are full — there’s definitely a market for us.”

124

PRISMA LED

MIKAEL Nygren’s first LED product, a fitting for the marine industry, didn’t sell in huge numbers.

But his inventiveness and electronic wizardry saw him take the technology way beyond the realms of LED’s humble beginnings.

Mr Nygren and wife Carmen have since transformed their Helensvale-based Prisma LED into the country’s leading LED superstore and a worldwide import-export business.

It was a chance introduction to LED lighting that had the electronics addict hooked.

LED lights are super energy-efficient, using about 85 per cent less energy than halogen or incandescent lighting and delivering big savings on power bills.

Mr Nygren’s first LED product was a boat bunker-light with stainless-steel fitting, “It was out of the box, no one had designed anything like it before and, while it came at a cost, it showed what I could do,” he said.

He founded Prisma LED in 2005 in Southport and moved to the present Helensvale premises as the business grew.

Primarily a wholesaler, Prisma LED is regarded as Australia’s leading LED superstore and has developed relationships with some of the world’s biggest manufacturers.

Prisma LED installed the floodlights at the Gold Coast Arts Centre six years ago. It also provided strip-lighting for the costumes worn in Australian Outback Spectacular, and lighting for Dreamworld rides and the Big Brother house.

123

TABU VODKA CO

A PAIR of Gold Coast stockbroking brothers are stirring interest with their boutique vodka brand.

Tabu Vodka Co is the brainchild of Jason and Hilton Pohl — and Gold Coasters are loving their product.

With the rest of the country starting to catch on, the pair are on the way to switching from stockbrokers to vodka barons.

The brothers moved to the Coast with their family from South Africa in 1994, studying at TSS and Bond University.

Hilton heads his own Coast broking firm, Super Network Financial Services. Jason initially went into law before also following the stockbroking footsteps of their father.

Jason, who works with his dad in Sydney, came across a high-proof liqueur-based spirit he loved on a trip overseas. He brought Hilton on board, the pair tossed around ideas, and eventually hit on high-proof vodka.

In addition to a pure vodka, the pair added two flavoured vodka liqueurs, caramel and chocolate, and launched Tabu Vodka Co in 2013.

Tabu Vodka garnered early international attention, winning a silver medal at the San Francisco World Spirit Competition in 2014.

122

EVOLVE SKATEBOARDS

THE team from Evolve Skateboards is carving it up with cutting-edge designs. The Gold Coast electric skateboard company won a Good Design Gold for Product Design at the Good Design Awards in 2015.

The Good Design Awards, managed by Good Design Australia, is one of the most prestigious design awards in the world.

Evolve’s win continues a cracking period for the company. It has also scored a global coup, securing a deal to partner with New York-based Bustin Longboards. Its boards will be sold under the Bustin brand across North America and other markets.

Evolve Skateboards founders, husband-and-wife team Jeff and Fleur Anning, have come a long way since they sold their home and put everything they had on the line to produce the first batch of 55 motorised skateboards in 2012.

The punt paid off, with the first batch selling out within two weeks.

The boards have a top speed of 38km/h and a range of 45km and have been designed with ABS and regenerative braking.

Evolve skateboards are sold in 30 countries.

121

ALPHA-H

FROM humble beginnings in a Hope Island garage, Michelle and Dean Doherty now head a global cosmetics empire.

Their iconic Liquid Gold Alpha-H skincare range is regarded as a cult product. And when Alpha-H marked its 15th anniversary this year, it sparked global celebrations.

Despite international acclaim, the Dohertys are most proud they have produced a homegrown Gold Coast success story that remains a family-run business and operates from a factory tucked away in a Helensvale industrial estate. Alpha-H grew out of Ms Doherty’s search to find a cure for chronic acne. She tried the product and it was so successful, she bought the company.

The hero ingredient in Alpha-H and its Liquid Gold formula is glycolic acid, a fruit acid occurring naturally in sugarcane which exfoliates and speeds up cellular renewal.

The company started with just three products but has expanded to more than 60, targeting skincare issues ranging from ageing to sun damage, acne and pigmentation.

Alpha-H has become a thriving international brand with 70 per cent of its sales generated globally.

Alpha-H products are available in more than 1000 salons in the UK, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, South Africa, Poland, Holland, France, South-East Asia, Hong Kong and New Zealand.

120

FSP AUSTRALIA

YATALA-based plastic products manufacturer FSP Australia, which has plants in New Zealand and China as well as Australia, is planning to tap the North American market with the establishment of a facility in Canada.

The company, which has annual sales of $18 million, has applied to the Ontario Government for a grant to help establish the plant at Thunder Bay.

The town’s mainstay industry has been the production of newsprint and the Government is looking to broaden the community’s manufacturing base.

FSP has a product range of more than 300 items that include battery carriers, chocks, pontoons, water tanks, machinery guards, cabinets, lockers, toolboxes, signage, safety barriers, cones, speed humps, lightweight boats and solar lights.

119

RY.COM.AU

JAMES Patten was a child actor in his native UK who went on to be cast in cult British cop show The Bill.

Bradley Carr is a Griffith University dropout who started his own web design company and digital agency.

The unlikely business partners now head Australia’s largest online hair and beauty products store.

The duo built the business from the back room of a Burleigh Heads hair salon using a tumble dryer as a desk.

“We started with a handshake agreement. A rented laptop was our only expense in year one,” James said.

Ry.com.au is now a multimillion-dollar online company with more than 30 employees.

The business the pair started from scratch in 2005 today has a customer database of more than 220,000, and stocks 120 brands and 80 products.

118

FEHLBERGS

FEHLBERGS began life 35 years ago as an onion-pickling operation and is now seeking larger premises due to growing demand for its products.

The business was founded in 1985 in a Benowa garage by Glen and Valarie Fehlberg, who built a customer base on the back of a decades-old pickling recipe.

It has been on a solid growth trajectory since its purchase by Jan and Michelle Buchegger nine years ago, with pickled onion production rising from 100,000 jars a year to 600,000.

Mr Buchegger said the first four years were about keeping pace with demand for pickled onions, after which they began adding products to the Fehlberg production line: Pickled Onions with Chilli, Jalapeno Chillies, Pickled Slaw (cabbage), and more.

117

SKYLINE LANDSCAPE SERVICES

IT’S a landscape business with a multimillion-dollar turnover and operations in four capital cities as well as the Gold Coast.

Skyline Landscape Services, established by Colin and Chris Richardson, is based at Lawrence Drive, Nerang. It ranks among southeast Queensland’s largest landscape services providers and has clients in the local government, education, aged-care and development sectors.

Colin Richardson said the brothers launched Skyline Landscape Services in 1991 but it was 10 years before they set it on a growth trajectory. They studied horticulture management at night, added Australian Institute of Management courses and, to further boost prospects, took a study tour to the US in 2002.

Now with 300 staff, it also provides services to hospitals, shopping centres, hotels, resorts, office buildings, aged-care facilities, schools and universities.

116

M-TECH

Sounds technical but a Gold Coast company has found a way to minimise the threat of mosquito-borne and sandfly-borne infections in the wake of a jump in cases of Ross River Fever.

Andrew Coventry, an electronics engineer and principal of M-Tech, designs and builds science-based machines to kill the bloodsuckers.

M-Tech is perhaps the only Australian company taking a truly scientific approach to mosquito control.

“Our household unit, MosquitoSlayer, uses technology we developed for our industrial units, which are installed at mine sites and major infrastructure-construction projects,” he said.

“Different light wavelengths and sequences attract different types of mosquitoes.

“I designed a prism to split light into different waves and frequencies, a unit that constantly adjusts the heat it emits, and a device that emits CO2 at breath intervals — all of which are used to deter mozzies.”

115

FAST PROOF PRESS

WHO said print was dead?

Principals of Fast Proof Press, a Nerang business founded 35 years ago, are upbeat about the future for print — and so they should be with million-dollar sales. Fast Proof Press was established in 1979 by the late Bob Whitton but it is now run by Matthew and Daniel Whitton, two of his three sons.

The business purchased its first computerised press in 1996 and has invested $6 million in equipment over the past 16 years to stay abreast of change and now employs about 50 staff.

It turns over $8 million a year and has three presses.

Mr Whitton said there had been a rise in demand over the past 12 months from the development industry.

114

COFFEE ROASTERS AUSTRALIA

THE country’s No. 1 supplier of coffee roasting machines is based in Arundel.

Coffee Roasters Australia, which was taken over by Mark and Alana Beattie in 2009, has grown in just six years into a multimillion-dollar business.

It does everything from making coffee capsules to fixing old roasting machines to modifying and improving the technology that makes them tick.

Mr and Mrs Beattie met while working at Nestle in Sydney; she in marketing, he in sales.

They then moved to the Gold Coast where Coffee Roasters was offered for sale after the owner passed away and the Beatties seized the opportunity.

The Beatties now have a number of machines producing capsules, which run for 10 hours a day, pumping out specialty brands for various cafes.

And they’ve gone global, opening a roastery in Hong Kong with a 50-50 partner.

113

YOUR INSPIRATION AT HOME

MOLENDINAR-based international spice company Your Inspiration At Home is showing it has the recipe for success.

The company now sells its range of 168 food products through 4000 consultants in Australia, the UK and the US.

Your Inspiration At Home chief executive and founder Colleen Walters said the company was now looking to expand further.

Ms Walters said in 2013, in its third year of operation, revenue grew to $4 million. Your Inspiration at Home manufactures 168 gourmet food products ranging from herb and spice blends to seasonings, dukkahs, oils, vinegars, teas and coffees.

Ms Walters said the company was focused on time-poor users who wanted convenience in the kitchen but still wanted gourmet meal options.

112

ICON SOFTWARE

THREE partners who started out in a converted Bonogin garage are now doing business around the world.

The Varsity Lakes-based business, which specialises in software for local government across Australasia, has opened a US office in South Carolina.

Icon has also signed a deal with the WA Local Government Association to provide an online lodgement system that saves time and money for councils. Since 2012, more than 11,000 building approvals have been issued.