13 Lismore businesses pick up awards

NORCO, one of Lismore’s oldest businesses, is the 2024 Northern Rivers Business of the Year, recognised for its commitment to business excellence, dedication to continuous improvement, and approaches to sustainable business practices.

It is one of 13 businesses or organisations in the Lismore area celebrated at the Northern Rivers 2024 Regional Business Awards ceremony held at the Ballina RSL Club on Saturday night.

Norco’s South Lismore site was destroyed by the 2022 floods, but the business showed confidence in Lismore by reopening its operations at the site, guaranteeing that hundreds of jobs stayed in Lismore.

The dairy company is 100 per cent Australian farmer-owned, with 326 active members on 190 dairy farms in northern NSW and south-east Queensland.

Norco won two other category awards – Excellence in Sustainability and Outstanding Business Leader (21 employees and over) for CEO Michael Hampson.

Jane Laverty, Regional Director Northern Rivers, Business NSW said the Northern Rivers Business Awards celebrated and showcased the diverse talent within the Northern Rivers business community.

“Norco Cooperative was a well deserving winner of individual categories and recognised as a business that is dedicated to achieving results for their farming partners and has achieved outstanding results for business performance and demonstrating all-round excellence in business,” Mrs Laverty said.

“It’s been a tough few years for many businesses, so these awards are a wonderful opportunity to shine a spotlight on the ingenuity, strength and resilience of all the finalists who also represented over 30,000 businesses now in the Northern Rivers.”

Other Lismore LGA winners and highly commended recipients:

Joel Jensen Constructions won awards for Excellence in Trade, Construction and Manufacturing, and for Excellence in Small Business.

Social Futures won the Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion award, and Women Up North was the Outstanding Community Organisation.

Terania Consulting was the Outstanding New Business of the Year.

Southern Cross Credit Union’s regional offices won the Employer of Choice (21 employees or over) award, and Newton Denny Chapelle was highly commended in the same category.

Also receiving highly commended awards were: Five Sixty Farms for Excellence in Agriculture & Primary Industries; the Lismore Lantern Parade for Excellence in Tourism, Recreational and Visitor Services; Grant Sinclair from Northern Rivers Health in the Outstanding Young Business Leader category; Local Sounds Radio for Excellence in Innovation; and Summerland Bank, Regional for Excellence in Sustainability.

For the full list of winners, go to businessnsw.com/events/business-awards/northern-rivers.

Winners of state-aligned categories will now represent the region at the State Business Awards to be held in Sydney on October 30.