On 29 October 2021, the 42nd Governor of Victoria Export Awards (GOVEA) acknowledged and celebrated the State's most accomplished and outstanding exporters.
Victorian Exporter of the Year
The Victorian Exporter of the Year Award is selected by the state judges from the winners of the 13 national categories.
Invetech
For over 30 years, Invetech has partnered with global health and life science leaders to co-create breakthrough solutions that millions of people rely on daily.
They assist therapeutic and diagnostic companies to commercialise diagnostic devices and cell and gene therapy manufacturing by providing design and development consulting, engineering, manufacturing services, and cell and gene therapy platforms.
Their mission is to expand the reach of next-generation healthcare by accelerating the design, engineering and manufacture of commercial-scale diagnostic products and vital therapies.
As an end-to-end partner, Invetech combines agile development, proven technology platforms and expert insights to bring clarity and speed to commercialisation. Their integrated approach resolves complexity and informs better decisions, ensuring high-quality products and therapies get
to market with greater certainty, reliability and efficiency.
With development,and manufacturing centres in Australia and North America, Invetech exports to over 14 countries, including the USA, Canada, Japan, Korea, France, Germany, and Switzerland.
Victorian Women in International Business
For outstanding success by a Victorian woman involved in international business.
Gabriela Safrankova - Coolon Pty Ltd
Coolon, an advanced electronics manufacturer, established a Chilean entity in 2013. After four unsuccessful years of enormous challenges and losses due to lack of appropriate local representation, Coolon appointed Gabriela Safrankova to manage their Chilean efforts.
Fluent in Spanish, Gabriela travelled to Chile and participated in numerous government trade missions, establishing a solid network within Chile and Australia. For three months, Gabriela lived in Antofagasta and visited sites including BHP Escondida and Chuquicamata.
Within the male-dominated mining industry, Gabriela challenged gender norms by visiting hazardous plant facilities, demonstrating heavy industrial light fittings and providing technical product training to mine engineers.
With Coolon’s internal team, Gabriela diligently managed projects end-to-end, liaising with Coolon’s engineers and support to provide fast responsiveness to customers.
Gabriela took enormous personal initiative, passion and drive, and paid off in significant sales growth. Her insurmountable efforts resulted in establishing the Coolon brand in Chile.
Learn more about Gabriela Safrankova
Advanced Technologies Award
For outstanding international success in the field of information technology (IT), digital technologies, software, hardware or digital services, including solutions utilising cloud based platforms, artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, augmented /virtual reality and/or blockchain.
OMC International
OMC International is the inventor of the industry leading Dynamic Under Keel Clearance System (DUKC®).
DUKC® is a comprehensive digital solution for UKC management, underpinned by detailed modelling of port operations,numerical analysis of ship motions, hydro-dynamic models, channel survey data, and the AI assisted assimilation of real-time and forecast environmental conditions.
Connecting advanced calculation engines with the port’s available IoT devices and digital data sources, DUKC® allows the sailing draft of every vessel to be safely maximised.
The DUKC® functionality allows the port and its customers to evaluate what the maximum sailing drafts will be for future tides. With approximately 12,000 transits per year, DUKC® is used by ports globally to enhance safety, optimis eport efficiency, minimise dredging, and reduce shipping related CO2
and greenhouse gas emissions.
The technology is utilised at most Australian ports, and OMC currently has clients in NZ, Canada, Europe, UAE, and Brazil.
Learn more about OMC International
Agribusiness, Food and Beverages Award
For outstanding international success in the field of agricultural products, services or technology including farm production, manufactured foods and beverages, forestry, fisheries.
Hi Form Australia
Since 1990, Hi Form Australia have been producing a range of unique and ground-breaking supplements – backed by extensive R&D – for horses and ponies. Hi Form recognised a significant gap in the marketplace for true natural therapies.
Widely available traditional equine supplements adopt industrial tech-grade and feed grade vitamins and minerals. Hi Form’s point of difference is in the utilisation of mineral tissue salts, certified organic herb extracts, specific amino acids, specific vitamins and trace elements, which constitute true natural therapy formulas. The company have also developed a software program to assist horse owners in balancing the nutritional requirements for each individual horse.
Hi Form sources ingredients that enhance their synergistic formulas, and ensure that dose rates are low, costs are low, and success is high. Exporting their supplements to the UK, France, Denmark and the UAE, the majority of customers come from competitive equestrian sports, as well as breeders and adult riders.
Learn more about Hi Form Australia
Creative Industries Award
For outstanding international success across all creative industries including music and performing arts, film, television and radio, software & interactive content such as VR and AR, writing, publishing & print media, architecture and design & visual arts, including fashion design.
Cobalt Design
Cobalt is a creative design and engineering group, consulting in new product development services across a range of industry sectors and technologies, including scientific and medical instrumentation, consumer products, capital equipment, transport, and packaging design. Based in inner-Melbourne, Cobalt Design is one of Australia’s largest and best-resourced product design groups.
The Cobalt team includes industrial designers and engineers in mechanical and product design, electronics and mechatronics. Built on a passion for making ideas come to life, they work with a range of organisations – from startups to multinationals with technology, or a vision requiring tangible
or physical elements. Cobalt’s point of difference is integration of design throughout the new product development process, from insights into the user’s real needs, to rigorous engineering, testing and production know-how.
Cobalt’s recent growth and ongoing direction has been in the expansion of their international customer base, with a focus on medical and analytical device design.
Learn more about Cobalt Design
eCommerce Award
Deliciou
Deliciou is a leading Victorian and Australian company with a mission to make plant-based food easy, fun and delicious for everyone. Deliciou was founded
by Kjetil (KJ) Hansen whose obsession with the taste of bacon led to the creation of a plant-based bacon flavoured seasoning to make anything taste like his favourite meat. Hansen and Deliciou gained further fame through participating in Shark Tank Australia, which ended in a deal with one of the show’s investors.
Since 2015, Deliciou has developed a winning range of all natural, GMO free, plant-based seasonings and in early 2020, launched the world’s first shelf-stable plant-based meat products. Now one of Australia’s fastest growing companies, Deliciou has expanded rapidly to the US, Europe and China, deriving over 90% of its revenue from overseas customers through direct-to-consumer business, and engagement with key overseas retailers, such as Whole Foods in the USA.
Emerging Exporter Award
For outstanding export achievement by an enterprise in any industry sector which has been exporting goods or services for three years or less.
Packform
Co-founded by entrepreneurs Philip Weinman, Preston Geeting and Peter Williams, Packform is the world’s first managed marketplace for buying and selling both stock and custom packaging. They solve the current challenge of traditional packaging distributors dictating the market by removing them from the workflow.
Packform’s customers tender their purchase requirements to a dealer, who then sources a supplier based on price, quality, and lead time to fulfil the order. Often experienced sales executives with strong customer relationships and technical expertise, Packform’s dealers are attracted to the platform’s low overheads resulting in a higher percentage of commission and freedom from time consuming administration.
Customers receive exceptional customer service and the best supplier for their needs, whilst suppliers access a steady stream of orders via the platform. Packform has seen exponential growth since its US launch in 2018, and will continue to scale by expanding into new markets, starting with the Asia-Pacific region.
International Education and Training Award
For outstanding international success or learner/student experience in the field of education and training services, expertise and curriculum including vocational training.
Typsy Group
Launched in 2016, Melbourne-based company Typsy Group provides online hospitality education to individuals, businesses, schools, associations, and governments globally. Simple to use, Typsy aims to engage and inspire learners by providing short, bite-sized video lessons from leading industry experts worldwide, and help them develop their skills and build their credentials.
Now a global company with users in over 120 countries, Typsy provides over 1000 expert-led lessons, courses, quizzes, and certificates earned online, anywhere, anytime.
The Typsy team continue to launch new courses every month, and their videos provide closed-caption subtitles in over 20 languages including French, Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, and English. They have expanded their local, in-market support where teams are now located in MEA, the Americas, UK, Europe, and APAC.
Manufacturing and Advanced Materials Award
AW Bell
AW Bell is an advanced manufacturer of precision metal parts and assemblies for numerous industries. They specialise in investment casting and sand casting, but also offer engineering and design for manufacture support, metallurgical services, precision machining, inspection, painting and finishing, and assembly.
AW Bell provides other Australian manufacturers with a local advanced manufacturing capability in a niche process, whilst providing international customers with a solution to challenges they face with local supply.
AW Bell’s key customers are in the aerospace, defence, and biomedical industries, and they are developing their rolling stock customer base.
The company’s high level of vertical integration drives up efficiency and reduces lead time, ensuring reduced effort and costs for its customers in North America, Germany, New Zealand, Canada, China.
Minerals, Energy and Related Services Award
For outstanding international success in the production, processing, value adding of extractive resources or provision of equipment, services or solutions related to the mining, oil and gas and renewables industries.
Safescape
Safescape’s primary vision is “to inspire through practical innovation, making all mine sites safer and more sustainable for future generations”. Their point of differentiation is its focus on developing, manufacturing, and supplying products that are born out of practical innovation. They work with clients and suppliers to challenge the status quo, and design solutions that provide safety, cost and production benefits.
One of their key products is the Safescape Laddertube, a unique escapeway ladder for underground mines which is safer to install, easier to climb, faster to manufacture and lasts considerably longer than conventional steel or timber ladderways.
The first Laddertube was installed in May 2010, and since then, over 47,000 metres of Laddertube has been installed across the globe. They service clients in 22 countries including the US, Canada, South America, Indonesia, India, New Zealand, Spain and Tanzania.
Professional Services Award
For outstanding international success in the professional business services including legal, accounting, administration and support services, business management, marketing services, franchising and licensing, engineering, financial and insurance, market research and translation services.
OET
The OET (Occupational English Test) is an Australian innovation and success story as the global leader in healthcare English language communication.
It is the world’s only global English language test developed specifically for healthcare professionals, designed to ensure that foreign-trained workers would have the communication skills to provide safe patient care.
Up until 2013, the OET operated in Australia only, but newly appointed CEO, Sujata Stead decided to take the company global after recognising the wider English-speaking world was suffering from acute shortages of healthcare professionals.
As a result, OET now has a global network of over 300 highly professional and secure test locations in close to 55 countries. The company is highly regarded world-wide by new healthcare regulators and leverages industry leaders, academics, and academic research to position themselves as experts in the field of healthcare communication, and connecting the world to better healthcare.
Regional Exporter Award
For outstanding international success by a business whose head office is based in a non-metropolitan location.
Care Essentials
Care Essentials is a Geelong-based medical device manufacturer that develops innovative technology to improve patient outcomes and keep healthcare workers safe. Their main product is the Cocoon Convective Warming System, used before, during, and after surgery to prevent hypothermia, accelerate patient recovery, and aid infection control.
Their PPE products have been used Australia-wide, and are exported to countries including Sri Lanka, the UAE and the USA to assist frontline healthcare workers during the ongoing pandemic. In 2021, and in response to the critical global shortage threatening to cause surgery cancellations worldwide, Care Essentials began manufacturing sterilisation wraps used for wrapping surgical instruments to maintain sterility prior to surgical use.
Their customer base includes disability support groups, aged-care facilities, correctional facilities, the meat industry and veterinary markets. Today, Care Essentials export to over 60 countries worldwide including USA, Japan, UK, Germany, Canada, New Zealand, Italy, Switzerland, China and the UAE.
Discover more about Care Essentials
Small Business Award
For outstanding international success by any business with total annual sales not exceeding $10 million.
iBuild Building Solutions
iBuild is a prefabricated building supplier with outstanding design, research and development, and manufacturing capabilities. Co-founders Jackson Yin and Michael Zeng established their business in a garage seven years ago with a mission to create housing and innovate workspaces that are stronger, smarter, faster and more affordable.
Their products include kit homes, granny flats, modular buildings, containers, and steel structures. At a compounding annual revenue growth rate of 816%, iBuild has become one of Australia’s leading kit home providers, delivering their products to customers Australia-wide.
The company exports to South Pacific nations and West African countries, such as Cook Islands, Tonga, and Senegal.
In partnership with leading builders such as John Holland and Lendlease, iBuild has successfully delivered major infrastructure projects including the rapid deployment of modular buildings for the Reservoir Train Station, Australia’s first train station to be awarded a 5 Star Green Star as Built Rating.
Sustainability Award
For outstanding international success in environmental solutions, clean energy innovation, materials and energy efficiency, renewable energy, waste and water management, green buildings, smart cities and R&D collaboration.
Sunpower Renewables
Sunpower Renewables are a Victorian renewable energy solutions company committed to creating a sustainable future by delivering an economical,
yet powerful suite of products. A global leader in energy storage, their wide range of portable lithium solar generators ensure energy independence anytime, anywhere.
Environmentally friendly and technically superior, Sunpower Renewables products are light years ahead of the current fossil fuel options, offering modern, efficient and smart solar energy products allowing consumers to achieve energy independence while being cost effective and long lasting. Their Australian made lithium solar generators range from hand-held to grid connected products that generate energy and reduce the total electricity costs for the user.
Sunpower Renewables products are an all-in-one solution, fully integrating the different components of a solar power plant into a single, compact, portable, plug and play product.
They currently export to India, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, and the UAE, and are a game changer for the renewable energy industry.