OzKleen has taken home the Family Business prize at September's Gold Coast Business Excellence awards for the second consecutive year, as announced at a luncheon presentation on Thursday, September 28 at Conrad Jupiters.
OzKleen had also previously won the manufacturing category and the overall prize at the 2003 Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards.
Managing Director Tom Quinn said OzKleen was quite unusual because it was owned and operated by two families, the Herons and the Quinns, each with two generations working within the business.
"We are very happy that we are being recognised for our achievements as a family business, Mr Quinn said.
"When we started out just over 10 years ago, we didn't emphasise that our business was family-run because we were trying to break into markets that were dominated by large multi-national conglomerates, and we thought it might not provide us with a strong enough image.
"But now that we've become a household name in supermarkets both here and overseas, particularly after the success of Shower Power, we can celebrate our achievement as a family business and we thank the judges of the Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards for their support."
Mr Quinn said there were many benefits in working with family, including occasionally mixing business with pleasure.
"In June this year, my wife, my daughter, four sons, three daughter-in-laws and one son-in-law travelled to France where we all did a 200 kilometre trek through rural France staying in monasteries along the way'" He said.
"Often we were just having a laugh, but it also gave us the chance to have some serious brainstorming sessions without the daily pressures we all have at home.
"At the end of the trek, the whole family came along to a dinner with our agent in Paris where we workshopped some of our ideas."
Last year, OzKleen completed the construction of a new $5 million production facility at Ormeau, representing the first phase of a two-stage expansion.
The new 3,600 square-metre floor premises has enabled OzKleen to increase its production capacity fourfold from 840,000 bottles per week to 3 million bottles per week, while also allowing it to add new products to its range. Plans are already underway for stage two, which will add a further 2,550 square-metres to the floor and further increase production capacity.
OzKleen became a global player after the launch of its flagship product, Shower Power, which has been the number-one selling product in Australian supermarkets in the household cleaner category since 1997.
The company has since gone on to produce other successful products, Shower Power Pine, Kitchen Power, Carpet Power, Flushies, Prewash Power, Grease Monkey and more recently Power Wipes.
All OzKleen products are free from caustic soda, chlorine, phosphates and ammonia.
About OzKleen
From humble beginnings at a shop in Beenleigh, OzKleen's rise to the top has been both challenging and rapid. In 1995, OzKleen opened a shop in Beenleigh to gain a better understanding of the market and to sell directly to the public. Within six months of opening the shop, it was clear that Shower Power was a winning formula when it outsold the other 100 products combined that they were then producing. Customers were driving 50 kilometres to buy a 750 ml bottle of the product. On the strength of this phenomenon, Shower Power gained national supermarket distribution and within since months took the number-one spot in Australia's household cleaner category. It has retained this position since September 1997. Today OzKleen manufactures just a handful of products, all of which are deemed market leaders; Shower Power Citrus, Shower Power Pine, Kitchen
Power, Carpet Power, Flushies, Prewash Power and Grease Monkey.
