Brisbane tradies the best in the business, win industry awards including Best Trade Business of the Year

Five Brisbane trades businesses have been crowned winners at the annual PROTRADE United Gala Event on Friday, with one taking out the top gong of Business of the Year, a remarkable achievement with 207 businesses from around Australia and New Zealand eligible for the prestigious award.

AH Fencing won Business of the Year, Howzat Plumbing won the Service Award, Edge Industries won the Kathy Ashe Coach’s Award, Panelfab won the Team Leadership Award and McAuliffe Painting won the Innovation Award. 

PROTRADE United CEO and Co-Founder Jon Mailer said that Brisbane is a hotspot for successful trade and construction businesses, and despite the economic climate, rising cost of materials and construction industry challenges, it’s great to see local businesses going from strength to strength.  

“We started PROTRADE United to empower and provide speciality advisory support to businesses in the trades and construction sector and help good tradies become great business owners.” 

“To see five Brisbane-based businesses take home an award and come out on top goes to show that local trade and construction businesses can thrive when they commit to constantly improving, investing in their people and contributing to a community that continues to raise the bar for the entire industry,” he said. 

AH Fencing Co-Founder and Managing Director Adam Hall said winning Business of the Year is a credit to the company’s unique focus on workplace culture, its people-first approach to business and expert advisory support. 

“When Matt and I started AH Fencing 6 years ago, we were good tradies, but we weren’t good business people, so we have focussed on our own personal development with PROTRADE United and it helped us transform ourselves and the business.”  

“Our recipe for success is creating a great workplace culture and delivering a superior end-to-end experience, and in doing so, we have increased our revenue by 54% and increased our net profit by 385% in the last 12 months. We wouldn’t have done that without the support and guidance from PROTRADE United” he said. 

PROTRADE United, founded by mates Jon Mailer and Jason Loft, has advised over 3,900 trades and construction businesses and provides extensive coaching and mentoring programs to equip businesses with the tools, resources, information and connections they need to build and maintain sustainable and profitable trade businesses.

The full list of 2023 winners is below: 

• AH Fencing (Kangaroo Point, QLD)  - Business of the Year
• Howzat Plumbing (Albany Creek, QLD) - Service Award
• Edge Industries (Banyo, QLD) - Kathy Ashe Coach’s Award 
• Panelfab (Wacol, QLD) - Team Leadership Award 
• McAuliffe Painting (West End, QLD) - Innovation Award
• RPE QLD (Yatala, QLD) - Resilience Award 
• ODIN Constructions (Cronulla, NSW) - Fast Starter Award
• Chichu Constructions (Darling Point, NSW) - Most Improved Business
• MV Tiling & Stone (Capel Sound, VIC) - Outstanding Workplace
• Awarua Synergy (Invercargrill, Southland, NZ) - Community Award 

The PROTRADE United Gala Event was held in Brisbane at City Hall on Friday August 25th with 300 trades and construction business owners and operators from around Australia and New Zealand in attendance for the awards ceremony.