The Queensland government has announced nearly $2 million in grants for 41 local businesses to boost their growth initiatives.
The latest grant is part of the $2.5 billion investment the government has made to support businesses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The funding also marks the fourth round of the Business Growth Fund grant and is expected to support established businesses from Far North Queensland to the Gold Coast and west to Julia Creek, according to Minister for Employment and Small Business Di Farmer.
“Grants of up to $50,000 help these businesses boost their productivity and their confidence to scale up, so they can go from small to medium-sized businesses,” the minister said.
Farmer said several of the grants will be used to create more sustainable products and boost local manufacturing.
The 42 successful businesses were selected from a pool of 300 applicants, with the final stage requiring the businesses to pitch their proposed expansion projects to a panel last month.
Sunshine Coast-based Diablo Co will use the funding to purchase a cutting-edge bottling machine that will help increase the production capacity of its alcoholic ginger beer.
Diablo Co’s general manager Charlene Dellaway said the new machine will give the Woombye distillery the capacity to establish core ranging with major retailers to stock the Diablo Alcoholic ginger Beer in all their stores.
“The grant will enable us to approach the banner groups with confidence that we can supply their needs and increase our sales dramatically and rapidly,” Dellaway added.
Global Fruit Protection in Cairns will receive a grant to purchase a fully automated assembly machine for recyclable fruit bags. The solution will be housed in a production centre in El Arish near Tully.
“The machine will ultrasonically seal the non-woven polyethylene inner and polypropylene outer, making the bags 100 per cent recyclable, creating local jobs and ensuring North Queensland banana growers have a consistent supply of customised and personalised protective bags,” Minister Farmer said.
The Queensland government has awarded more than $6.2 million in Business Growth Fund grants to Queensland businesses since 2018.
