Winners – Australian Manufacturing Awards 2026

It was a fabulous night celebrating Australian Manufacturing. We didn’t win either the Advanced Manufacturing or Innovation categories where we were finalists, but it was still a great night celebrating Australian manufacturing.

And the winners are:

• Manufacturer of the Year Award – Integra Systems
• Excellence in Manufacturing – Male – Matthew Dow – Composite Stands
• Excellence in Manufacturing – Female – Erika Hughes – Integra Systems
• Lifetime Achievement – Hall of Fame – Dr. Jane Oppenheim & Dr. Alan Oppenheim AM – ego pharmaceuticals
• Australian Made Manufacturer of the Year – Integra Systems
• Innovation Award – Perfect Windows & Doors
• Safety Award – Wire Aid
• Best Medium Business Award – bowhill engineering
• Best Small Business Award – Multipanel
• Best Start-Up Award – Pure Solutions Australia
• Exporter of the Year Award – Siemens
• Apprentice of the Year Award – Tara Vella
• Food & Beverage Award – Edlyn Foods
• Food & Beverage Innovation Award – Allied Pinacle
• Environmental, Social and Governance ESG – Apollo Engineering
• MaXXflow Supply Chain Award – Volgren
• Advanced Manufacturing Award – Tindo Solar
• Defence Award – Stahl Metall Engineering
• Digital Transformation Award – Integra Systems
• Best Regional Manufacturer Award – paarhammer
• Renewable Energy Manufacturer Award – Solidity
• Manufacturing Worker of the Year Award – Ivana Dutton
• Medical Device Manufacturing – Care Essentials

The keynote address was given by Bernie Quinn, cofounder of Premcar. And for me, it all boiled down to 2 statements.

“A country rich in applied transferable skills, and a country that makes its own stuff, is a country in control of its future.”

and paraphrased by me

We can make stuff here but it needs the right environment. Other countries are successful because they create those environments on purpose.

My take on this is that if we want Australia’s future to be in our control, we need to stop tinkering around the edges of economic policy with tweaks to the R&D Tax Incentive and grant schemes; and now is the time for an economic value creation system redesign. This is what Bernie Quinn is also saying. The environment for economic success is designed, not accidental. And certainly not hoping to get lucky. There are principles already established for how to do this. You will see some more from us on this topic because the biggest innovation Australia needs right now is in governance and economic value creation system design, not technology.

Speaking of which, the Innovation category was particularly competitive with 11 finalists:

• Process Evolution
• All Table Sports Australia Pty Ltd
• Multipanel
• Decon Corporation Pty Ltd
• Custom Denning
• BioNTech Australia Pty Ltd
• Successful Endeavours Pty Ltd
• Perfect Windows and Doors
• IMRA Surgical
• Apollo Engineering

We were very pleased to make this shortlist of Australia’s most innovative manufacturers.

On the night we sat at the same table as the paarhammer team who won the Best Regional Manufacturer Award and a big shout out to them. It did not take much of a discussion to understand just how good they are at modern window manufacturing including fire rated wooden framed windows in the European style.

Another bit shout out to Integra Systems who picked up 3 category awards and Erika Hughes who received the Gold Award for Excellence in Manufacturing – Female for her work in the industry.

Again, it is such a pleasure to be celebrating one of the highest value and jobs creating industries in Australia. Congratualtions to the winners and well done to all the entrants for chosing to make Australian Manufacturing more visible and to showcase what we already do as a nation.

Successful Endeavours specialise in Electronics Product Development and Embedded Software and IoT, focusing on products that are intended to be profitably Made In Australia. Ray Keefe has developed market leading electronics products in Australia for more than 40 years.

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