The past year has been a whirlwind for businesses that have featured in the Rising Stars awards, with some rising to greater heights while others have faced major challenges.
Last year’s winner, Velocious, is continuing to pursue its goal of becoming a leader in innovative subsea engineering solutions for the oil and gas sector.
With clients including Chevron and ExxonMobil, it has grown from three founding directors in 2008 to more than 45 staff and has recently moved to larger premises to support further expansion.
Paul Newbound’s pressure testing business APTS had a big year. As well as being named a 2011 Rising Star, APTS was selected as the Telstra Australian Business of the Year and Mr Newbound is a finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards.
Two of the 2011 Rising Stars had a change of ownership.
Training and employment services business Skill Hire secured a strategic shareholder in private equity group Banksia Capital, while Ocean to Outback Contracting completed a backdoor listing on the Australian Securities Exchange.
The listing process proved challenging, primarily because of the poor performance of the listed entity, Emerson Stewart Ltd.
Instead of bringing together two complementary businesses, the listing process lumbered OTOC Ltd (as the listed company is known) with an underperforming division (Emerson Stewart Consulting), which it is trying to sell.
Despite this, the contracting business, now known as OTOC Group, is continuing to expand. The company said it had work-on-hand of $70 million at the end of the March quarter, with $36 million to be delivered during the June quarter.
Of all the companies to have won a Rising Stars award, arguably the brightest star is engineering and project delivery business Calibre Global, which celebrated 10 years of growth in April.
Helped by the backing of two private equity investors, it has completed five acquisitions, boasts 2,100 staff across the country and is aiming for annual revenue of $500 million.
The biggest driver of Calibre’s growth has been the Pilbara iron ore boom. Its major clients include BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group.
It is working with these and other companies on a range of mining, rail and port infrastructure developments.
