From K-beauty to French baking to low-emissions steel production, the national finalists in the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ program’s Industry category show the true diversity and innovation of Australian manufacturing today.
Ahead of the 25th annual awards, the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year program has given Startup Daily a glimpse at the Australians whose bold brands and smart leadership have earned them a spot in the finals.
The prestigious awards, held on October 15, recognise entrepreneurship across five categories: Social Impact, Emerging, Services, Technology and Industry.
Today, we meet the six Industry finalists whose products are breaking the mould (in one case, quite literally – you’ll see).
Kulani Kinis
What started as a side hustle in a garage in 2014 has become a global success story for Sydney couple Alex Babich and Dani Atkins (pictured above).
Their designer bikini brand, Kulani Kinis, which makes everything from Brazilian thongs to matching couples’ swimwear, is such a hit in the US that you’ll now find it on the shelves of the country’s biggest department store, Nordstrom.
Despite challenges along the way – a wholesaler going bankrupt, a major Aussie retailer copying their designs, balancing life with a baby and a business – they’ve built a brand that continues to grow and innovate.
“The legacy for the brand is to make an amazing product and to use the resources of the brand to make impacts to people lives,” Babich says.
Kulani Kinis walks the talk: they use 100% recycled fabric in their designs and collaborate with ocean cleanup organisations including Seabin in Australia and Surfrider Foundation in Hawaii.
Laurent Bakery
French-born baker Laurent Boillon (pictured) first opened his South Yarra artisan bakery in Melbourne in 1993. His specialty has always been levain, a sourdough that rises naturally and is made without added yeast or any shortcuts.
“I changed the culture of bread of Australia,” says Boillon.
Bold claim, but he has the receipts to back it up.
Today, you can buy Laurent’s breads at your local Coles or from one of the bakery’s 18 outlets across Melbourne. Or if you prefer a croissant, his new Croissant Bar by Laurent has you covered.
The rise from pastry chef to market-leading Australian bread manufacturer has been slow, steady and carefully crafted (like his bread).
“Innovation is very hard to get, especially when you talk about the food industry,” Boillon says.
“You need to think outside the box… I created and developed a new way to supply top-quality sourdough products to supermarkets in a frozen form. Nobody in the world was doing fully baked frozen bread.”
Now, on the back of a partnership with Woolworths in New Zealand, Laurent’s eyes are on growth in Asia and beyond.
LSKD
“Can we create a global brand from Logan, Queensland, but not losing our mission of inspiring our community to be 1% better every day?” asks Jason Daniel (pictured), founder and CEO of sportswear brand LSKD.
The answer is an emphatic yes. Over the past three years, LSKD has exploded from one to 20 stores – but it’s been a long road to get here.
Across various iterations since 2002, LSKD made the transition from wholesale to direct-to-consumer.
“It was such a pinnacle moment in our journey and make or break,” Daniel says.
“There were times when I couldn’t pay myself some weeks because we were waiting to be paid by retailers.”
With plans afoot for at least nine new stores in Australia and New Zealand this year, LSKD has also opened an office in the US as global interest continues to grow.
Nudie Glow
In 2016, Ruby Wang (pictured) went to Seoul and fell in love with K-beauty. After returning to Melbourne, she realised she couldn’t get the products she wanted in Australia – so she quit her corporate job and started Nudie Glow.
Nine years later, it’s Australia’s go-to destination for all things K-beauty.
But COVID nearly derailed the business altogether. Significant logistics issues with overseas suppliers and a local distribution partner that couldn’t fulfill their online orders for up to a month put the business “in a dangerous situation”, Wang says.
“We had a lot of customer complaints coming through…losing customers, faith and trust,” she recalls.
“That’s when I decided to bring our warehousing in house. Ever since then we’ve always delivered within one business day and never get complaints about delays.”
While popular with TikTok skinfluencers, Nudie Glow recently ventured into physical retail with its flagship store in Chadstone, Melbourne. The first of many, says Wang.
Westview Group
Perth family-owned company Westview Group is a large steel, construction and technology business made up of other businesses: Unipod for polystyrene; Bestbar for reinforcing steel; and Bit Berry for IT.
Executive chairman Grant Johnson (pictured) founded Bestbar in 1995, which now employs 500 people.
“A pivotal moment for our success was winning the Graham Farmer Freeway Project,” Johnston says.
“We were very under resourced to take it on. We bit off more than we could chew and we chewed like hell.”
The next major initiative Johnston is leading is the building of Alter Steel’s Pinkenba Mill in Queensland.
“What we’re looking to put into Queensland is the most modern steel mill you could find. It’s a very clean and green steel mill. We take scrap, we melt that down and turn that back into reinforcing steel products,” he explains.
“It delivers low-CO2 emitted steel and also producing steel in Australia for our own sovereignty.”
PPC Moulding Services
Medical device manufacturing veteran Grahame Aston (pictured) says the best move he’s ever made was to purchase a business back in 2007.
That business became PPC Moulding Services Pty Ltd (PPCMS) – a precision-based plastic injection moulding company creating products primarily, but not exclusively, for medical purposes.
Today, PPCMS employs more than 800 people globally.
“A big moment that helped our success was the decision to expand into Malaysia,” Aston recalls.
“It’s enabled us to actually sustain the business here in Australia because we were able to offer up, and especially during COVID, a risk-mitigating opportunity there for our customers.”
Technology is a big investment for the business. “We’ve just actually taken delivery of the only machine in Australia that can produce protoypes using injection moulding material, and the same with the silicon prototype printing machine,” he says.
This enables customers to test or take products to market “way before they need to go into expensive tooling”, says Aston.
More about EY Entrepreneur Of The Year
The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Program honours Australian entrepreneurs who are disrupting traditional ways of doing things and building a better working world.
Run by global professional services organisation EY, the EOY program spans 60 countries and jurisdictions and provides exclusive networking and learning opportunities to participants. EY Australia will host a gala event in October where winners across five categories will be awarded (Emerging, Industry, Services, Social Impact and Technology).
One winner will be chosen to represent Australia at the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ global competition in 2026.
For more info, visit the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year website.
Startup Daily is a media partner for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year program.
