October: Mayor’s message to the business community
It was fantastic to see our business community out in numbers at the Marquee Business Awards, another great opportunity to celebrate everything small to medium enterprise brings to our city.
A special thanks to Neil, Leila and the team at the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce for a wonderful event and everything you do to nurture and strengthen local businesses.
GSCC Marquee Business Awards
Congratulations to all the finalists and winners at the Awards! The diversity and breadth of the winners are testament to the resilience of Springfield businesses and the strength of our community. A special congratulations to The Studio of Performing Arts who took out the Ipswich City Council Outstanding Small Business Award. When COVID-19 virtually shut down their business, The Studio got creative and established themselves as an outside-of-school-hours-care (OSHC) service, securing funding and ensuring the business was able to both re-employ staff who had been stood-down due to the pandemic and celebrate their 15th year of operations in style. An exemplar of perseverance, customer service, community-mindedness and innovation, The Studio are deserving winners and Council is proud to sponsor their award.
Small Business Friendly anniversary
This month we celebrate one year since Ipswich City Council became Queensland’s first Small Business Friendly Council. It’s been a fantastic journey with the Queensland Small Business Commissioner and our chambers of commerce so far: in the past twelve months we have delivered a total of $275,000 in grants to approximately 190 small businesses and cut-red-tape in food truck location bookings. We have seen 263 small businesses attend 22 workshops in the first quarter of the financial year alone, many of which have been hosted in Springfield Central Library for free or at cost-price. Visit businessipswich.com.au to find out about upcoming events, workshops and new Small Business Friendly Council initiatives.
Supply chain opportunities for advanced manufacturing
In September, the Queensland Government announced that Boeing will establish a production facility for uncrewed aircraft in Toowoomba that could generate up to $1 billion for the State’s economy over ten years. This is fantastic news for Ipswich, as greater defence investment in South East Queensland only expands supply chain and capability opportunities for our local businesses.
In my discussions with Boeing, they have identified that the Loyal Wingman program will require the support of many supply partners from a range of locations. Ipswich has a strong defence and aerospace ecosystem, supported by programs like Operation Scale-Up and the City of Ipswich Industry Development and Attraction Committee. Around 70 per cent of the content of the new aircraft will be Australian made, so this presents a great opportunity for our local manufacturers and defence suppliers.
The Ipswich economy is going from strength to strength during a challenging period, thanks in large part to the resilience of our small business community. I wish you every success in the month ahead!