EY Entrepreneur Of The Year
UPDATE 26/08/2016
Congratulations to Andrew Young and Tony Smith, National Finalists 2016. The Plum Grove Team is very proud.
24/06/2016
Plum Grove's Andrew Young (Executive Chairman and Managing Director) and Tony Smith (Chief Operating Officer and Director) named regional finalist in the 2016 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year awards
Plum Grove is pleased to announce that Andrew Young and Tony Smith have been named a regional finalist in the 2016 Entrepreneur Of The Year awards. Andrew and Tony join other outstanding entrepreneurs from across Australia who will compete for the ultimate prize of being named 2016 Australian EY Entrepreneur Of The Year.
Tony and Andrew have always set high standards of integrity and professionalism in everything they do. They have always placed high expectations on themselves as leaders of the business, ensuring this permeates a professional, positive and fun culture in Plum Grove.
They both grew up on farms, have a strong passion and understanding of the agriculture sector and more intimately with the grain industry, built over many years this has enabled them to make informed strategic decisions ahead of major change.
Their skill sets complement each other perfectly. Tony is widely considered one of Australia’s leading grain traders whilst Andrew, with many years of experience in corporate strategy, was able to attract critical strategic investment from Australia’s largest wheat customer into the business.
Tony founded the business in 2003 after identifying an opportunity in the West Australian grain market to provide growers, restricted by a regulated market, to price their wheat outside of a monopolised wheat exporting market system.
The business started with Tony’s home used as equity to back the business and a small car to get around a massive grain growing area of WA. He had 12 months to get it right, or more to the point, he had 12 months before the money ran out. So successful was the concept by 2008, Plum Grove’s wheat pool product accumulated more than one million tonnes (~15% wheat grown in WA).
Wheat deregulated in 2009 setting off massive change. Plum Grove had a great name with growers but a limited balance sheet and no customer base to sell its wheat to, as historically all wheat had to be delivered to the single desk seller in AWB.
Andrew, after also borrowing against his home, became a shareholder in Plum Grove and proceeded to attract capital from some of Australia’s and the world’s largest wheat millers.
The model is simple, local management expertise and a great brand amongst WA growers combined with some of the largest buyers of grain from Australia.
Instead of “buy low, sell high” grain trading Plum Grove became a service provider for its shareholders and growers. Which ensured transparency and a focus on value chain and service performance.
In 2009 Plum Grove did not export wheat from Australia. Today it is WA’s second largest wheat exporter and Australia’s fifth largest wheat exporter.
Andrew and Tony will join their fellow national finalists representing Western Australia at the regional awards on 25th August 2016 in Perth where regional finalist category winners will be announced.
Rikki Foss
Marketing Manager
+61 8 9435 1022
About EY Entrepreneur Of The Year
EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ is the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs.
The program makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential, and recognises the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global award of its kind, Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognising them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 145 cities in over 60 countries.
The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year program, launched in Australia in 2001, is one of the country’s leading business awards programs. It has so far recognised over 1,400 leading Australians for their entrepreneurial business success and each year, through its global program, acknowledges thousands of entrepreneurs worldwide. Founded and produced by EY, the program in Australia is sponsored by Commonwealth Bank (Principal sponsor), Qantas (Sponsor) and Austrade (Supporter).
Further information about the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year program can be found at ey.com/au/eoy.