Pandemic pivoting pays off
Resilience celebrated at gala business event
A WOMAN who had to change her whole business model with no warning has been awarded the Emerging Leadership Award at the 2022 JCU Business Excellence Awards hosted by Cairns Chamber of Commerce.
North Marine owner Courtney Hansen said during Covid she had to diversify her business with coowners Scott Rae, Lucy Davies and Ben Hales.
“We, like a lot of businesses had to pivot through Covid and when my business partners and I bought the business we thought we were buying a maintenance business that supported the tourism industry,” she said.
“When tourism died we had a look at what skills we had within the business and what else we might be able to target in NQ and so we realised we had the capabilities to do a lot of commercial dive work for other sectors, government, council and all sorts of inland water work.”
Ms Hansen (below) bought the business with her partners about three years ago and it has since gained momentum.
“I think our main focus is to just continue to provide this marine service support to
Northern Australia and we want to maintain the traineeship and the training programs we started,” she said.
“To give young people in the region another career pathway.
“We are interested in supporting the growth of the Cairns Marine Precinct and to hopefully play a key role in supporting that.”
While emerging talents were awarded, economist Bill Cummings was given the 2022 Legacy Award for his work in the region over the years. He was a founding member of the JCU Cairns Campus and has worked closely with the Cairns Chamber of Commerce and Australian Chamber of Commerce.
OMG Decadent Donuts won the Customer Service Excellence Award for their unique doughnuts and service. Co-owner Cassie Nicholls said her business partners Ray and Sharyn Burton were over the moon.
“We’ve taken a side hustle and turned it into something great,” she said. “So many people can eat our doughnuts, people with food allergies such as coeliacs disease, gluten intolerants, egg and dairy intolerants can actually eat our product knowing full well they won’t get sick from it, plus they are an amazing tasting doughnuts that everyone can enjoy.”