Cobar Quilt Shop was named Cobar’s Most Outstanding Business at the 2015 Great Cobar Business Awards on Saturday night at Cobar Bowling & Golf Club.
The business was a favourite with this year’s judges and picked up three awards on the night, including being a joint winner of the Retail category and a clear winner of the Marketing award.
The judges were impressed with the Cobar Quilt Shop which they described as an inviting local business which is not only a favourite with the locals, but is also highly regarded by their numerous customers around the state.
The judges commended the shop’s marketing tactics as they continuously aim to increase their brand awareness through attending craft shows and are active in promoting the business via mass market in speciality magazines, Facebook and Australia-wide quilting communities.
The Kidz Boutique was another big winner on the night to collect the best New Business trophy and share the best Retail award.
Other major award winners this year were: Professional Services—AWI Consulting (Winner), Cobar Primary Health Care Centre (Highly Commended); Personal Services—Cobar Complete Laundry (Winner), JKM Dynamic Fitness (Highly Commended); Tourism & Hospitality—Great Western Hotel (Winner), BP Inland Petroleum (Highly Commended); Large Industrial—Cobar Mining Contractors (Winner), KML Industries (Highly Commended); Small Industrial—Cobar Signs (Winner), IKAM (Highly Commended); Apprentice of the Year—Max Smith (Superior Diesel Solutions).
From the 23 nominations for Customer Service category, the judges chose five for Highly Commended awards including James Degn (J&K Butchery), Cathy Dwyer and Laura Barnes (from Great Western Hotel), John Collins (Great Cobar Heritage Centre) and Kim Bellotti (Gumnut Gifts & Homewares).
James Degn was then awarded the Outstanding Customer Service title.
In a new category this year, Tara Arnold from Stationery Essentials was named the inaugural Invaluable Employee and Cobar Shire Council’s Angela Shepherd was runner-up.
Josh Crook (JCAus Plumbing) was voted as Cobar’s Favourite Tradie with Stuart Wharton (Stuart’s Maintenance Services) the runner-up.
As part of this year’s awards, the association called for nominations for businesses for Community Spirit recognition and more than 30 certificates of appreciation were handed out to businesses to recognise their support of local charities and sporting organisations.
In her opening address at Saturday’s awards, Cobar Business Association president Sharon Harland toasted Cobar’s newest businesses and said she welcomed their input to the local economy. She also paid tribute to the contributions of a number of long serving businesses, some of whom had been around for more than 30 years.
Guest speaker John Walkom from Regional Development Australia (RDA) Orana (and a Dubbo businessman for 39 years) imparted some of his wisdom about how to do well in business and gave a brief outline of his role with the RDA.
In closing, Mrs Harland congratulated all of the award winners along with everyone who had been nominated this year.
“It means someone out there thinks you are doing a good job,” she said.
