OSBORNE Park-based magnet wholesaler Aust-mag has become the first WA company to be named Australia’s best micro-business.
Austmag won the micro-business with fewer than five employees category in the National Small Business Awards.
The family business, owned and run by Bruce and Wendy Inglis, also won the WA Small Business Award for a business with fewer than five employees.
In addition, Austmag won the micro-business category in the 1999 BankWest/West Coast College Stirling Region Small Business Awards.
The majority of the company’s products are used for promotional purposes and it also supplies heavy duty magnets for industrial use.
The third largest supplier of magnetic materials in Australia, Austmag will supply over one million fridge
magnets a week for promotional use between now and Christmas.
Mr and Mrs Inglis formed the company ten years ago after realising there were no speciality magnet suppliers in WA.
Mr Inglis said the increasing use of promotional products by businesses had helped the company grow.
“Three years ago, there was a 33 per cent increase in our sales, two years ago there was a 44 per cent increase and a year ago there was a 30 per cent increase,” Mr Inglis said.