LEADING blood plasma manufacturer, Plasvacc, was presented with the 2022 Queensland Premier’s Small Business Export Award on Wednesday night.
The Kalbar headquartered company is led by Andrew Macarthur, his wife Felicity and sons Alistair, Fergus and Callum.
There were two things which enabled Plasvacc to stand out from the crowd.
“The Scenic Rim plays a big part in our success,” said Callum Macarthur.
“Where we are and the people we employ and the sort of economy we have here makes a difference.
“People like to hear of successful growing industries.
“I think people are inspired by the business and development we have [in the Scenic Rim] because it’s seen as a non-metropolitan area that is growing.
“Another thing is we are in the science game, veterinary science particularly ... what we do is unique.
“We are the only company in Australia that does what we do and many of our products are registered only to us.”
He said the reason the company decided to nominate for the export awards was because it had already moved into selling its products through South America, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong.
“We’d managed to push ourselves into the UK and have had a business in America for a while now,” he said.
“People see that we are growing and not just talking the talk, we’re walking the walk.”                                                                                                                                                      Callum explained that the company learned about the awards though Trade and Investment Queensland, which assisted the firm in exploring new export markets.
“When we heard about the awards we decided to nominate ourselves and see what happened,” he said.
“We had to describe our business and its achievements when it comes to exporting and how that pertains to Queensland especially.”
The nomination was shortlisted and the Macarthurs and 10 of their staff attended the award ceremony at the RNA Showgrounds.
He said they had “no idea” Plasvacc had won the Small Business category until the name was read out from the podium.
“There were about 30 to 40 different nominees from the various categories there,” he said.
Five companies were shortlisted for the Small Business Export award.
“We were so happy when our name was announced, there was a lot of hand shaking and happy smiles all around,” he said.
“It took us completely by surprise, not that we didn’t back ourselves, we just didn’t realise we’d win.
“We’re a small business down in Kalbar that is head down, bum up most of the time and we don’t have much time to think about things like taking out awards.
“We were just happy being nominated and thought that was a bloody good crack, so to win on top of that was really great.”
On congratulating the winners across all the categories, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the judges were always challenged by the high standard of nominations.                         “This year I’m struck by the increasing mix of established and newly developed Queensland goods and services with successful export outcomes.”
Sharing the podium with the Premier, Minister for Trade and Investment, Cameron Dick told the audience that in the year to July 2022, Queensland exports totalled a record $123 billion.
“The total value of our exports exceeded that of New South Wales and Victoria combined, with Queensland also contributing over 40% of the nation’s goods export growth.
“The impact that Queensland exporters have on our economy and our state’s future is tremendous.”
• Plasvacc’s win means the company qualifies as finalists representing Queensland in the national Australian Export Awards to be held on November 24.