Dynamic Business

Simon Crowe, Grill’d
www.grilld.com.au

Healthy burger franchise Grill’d recently opened its first Sydney restaurant, marking the company’s 24th store opening and with plans well underway to operate 40 stores in VIC, QLD and NSW by year end.

Unfazed by the economic downturn, founder and MD Simon Crowe instead points recent sales growth as an indicator of the company’s recession proof appeal.  “Summer 08/09 was a record trading period for us in both Victoria and Queensland, with the majority of restaurants smashing their individual sales records. Grill’d is well placed to benefit from tighter economic conditions in 2009, as consumers trade down from full service to convenient restaurants with a strong value proposition. We are well regarded in this space, particularly amongst young families looking for convenient, quality and nutritious meal solutions. “

The franchise model that Crowe adopted within months of opening the first Grill’d restaurant in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn has undoubtedly enabled the company to expand.  “The decision to franchise the business allowed me to take Grill’d to the next stage of development by entering into new markets at a faster rate. This move has ultimately led to Grill’d being established as Australia’s number one premium, healthy burger chain,” says Crowe.

David Stevens, Brennan
www.brennanit.com.au

David is founder and MD of business technology solutions provider, Brennan.

Having started his career as an IT consultant working with a range of clients both locally and internationally on large scale infrastructure projects, he recognised the opportunity for a technology business specialising in the needs of SMEs. This lead him to found Brennan in 1997.

Today, Brennan is recognised as one of the fastest growing technology businesses in Australia. The company has expanded from its IT services origins to now offer a complete range of managed and secure IT and telecommunication solutions, virtualisation, consulting and project services, technology sourcing, infrastructure integration, software development and tailored financing packages.

His commercial background includes working with companies such as Novell, Microsoft, Digital Equipment and Bay Networks. He was also a professional cyclist for a number of years and still maintains a strong interest in that sport, as well as car racing.

Grace Chu, FirstClick Consulting
www.firstclickconsulting.com

Grace is the founder and MD of FirstClick Consulting, a strategic search marketing agency that provides SEM (search engine marketing) and SEO (search engine optimisation) services to companies including Foxtel, RaboPlus and Fairfax Digital.

With 18 years’ industry experience in internet marketing, management consulting and people management, most recently Grace was employed in a number of senior roles with eBay Australia, where she led internet marketing and seller marketing aimed at buyer and seller acquisition, activation and retention. Prior to this Grace was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company where she worked with international clients to develop and implement strategies spanning sales and marketing and operational improvement.
She is married with a two-year-old son, Jamie.

Maureen Houssein-Mustafa, Australasian College Broadway
www.australasiancollege.com.au

Maureen Houssein-Mustafa grew up in a first generation Cypriot Turkish migrant family when times were hard in the 60s, particularly for an ambitious young woman.

She found her niche in sales when she joined Joyce Mayne, proving herself quickly. Maureen was invited to establish and head up the furniture division of the company, which later become the retail giant Domayne.

Ready for a new challenge, Maureen opened her first beauty salon in Sydney’s Inner West. Within a short period of time she grew her business to five locations across the area. After selling the business and with a renewed sense of direction, Maureen became the general manager of Fuss Salons in the Eastern Suburbs. Although she tripled the turnover in just a few years, Maureen saw firsthand that staff training and high standards were severely lacking in the beauty industry.

This became her motivation behind starting the Australasian College Broadway in 1994, with a paltry $1,600 and tiny leased premises. With 47 staff today, the College now turns over $8.8 million per annum and is a major exporter of education. Over 450 international and domestic students study annually in the state of the art premises in Broadway, and the recent expansion of the property will take this number to an excess of 750.

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