$207,000 Sunshine Coast business boost

Minister for Employment and Small Business and Minister for Training and Skills Development The Honourable Lance McCallum

Minister for Employment and Small Business, Lance McCallum with the Member for Nicklin, Rob Skelton at GeoDrill Australia's headquarters at Chevallum

  • Three businesses on the Sunshine Coast are set to share $207,294 in funding under Round 5 of the Miles Labor Government’s Business Growth Fund.
  • Cooroy’s Studio Steel, Telge Fisheries of Minyama and Chevallum-based GeoDrill Australia will receive funding in the latest round of the program.
  • Through the fund, eligible Queensland small businesses can access grants of up to $75,000 to purchase specialised equipment to accelerate growth, increase production and expand their workforce.

From the Gold Coast to Cairns, 28 businesses will share in $1.9 million to help them grow.

That includes three businesses based on the Sunshine Coast – Studio Steel, Telge Fisheries and GeoDrill Australia.

With grant funding, Business Growth Fund recipients are expected to improve confidence for growth and diversification, while increasing productivity, profit and possibly their workforce, catering for their transition from small to medium-sized businesses.

GeoDrill Australia, a family-owned business specialising in mineral and coal exploration, as well as geotechnical and water drilling services, will use a $75,000 grant to enhance capabilities of its fleet of three Hydrapower HP850 drilling rigs.

The business will engage a Toowoomba-based engineering firm to design, engineer and implement rig enhancements, which will upgrade depth capacity beyond 3000m and allow the business to remain competitive with interstate drilling rivals.

Minyama-based Telge Fisheries, which provides trawler-caught seafood to restaurants and retail outlets in Australia and abroad, will use a $75,000 grant to purchase and install a high-tech weighing and packaging machine.

Installed on-board Telge Fisheries’ FV Kelvana trawler, the machinery is expected to improve product quality and prolong shelf life, significantly increase outputs and reduce wasted catch on-board and along the supply chain.

Cooroy based Studio Steel is a full-service structural steel fabrication business that offers advanced modelling using 3D LiDAR scanning of existing buildings to establish accurate-as-constructed building models.

A $57,000 grant will support the purchase of a Trimble X9 scanning package to expand scanning capabilities and access new customers, in new markets.

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