What a year it has been for WestNet managing director Peter Brown.
In February he was recognised as one of WA Business News 40under40 winners and now he has been named Young Entrepreneur in the Western Region Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.
He joins Clayton Hyder, Robert Moltoni, Harold Clough, Steve Birkbeck and Fiona Stanley as Western Region winners.
Mr Brown’s company, one of Australia’s top 10 Internet service providers, has also taken a step into the telephony market with the launch of its home phone rebilling service.
He said the new service would offer alternate rates to what is available now from phone companies such as Telstra, Optus and Primus.
Mr Brown said moving into the telephony market was a natural progression for a company involved in the Internet business.
Taking on organisations such as Telstra in their traditional heartland is a big move for a business that began in Geraldton in the days of Internet infancy.
WestNet was started by Chris Thomas in 1994. Two years later Mr Thomas sold the business to Mr Brown’s family company, Mitchell and Brown, one of the major electrical retailers in the Mid-West town.
“At the time we knew it was going to be something. It sounded exciting,” Mr Brown said.
“I think we had about 300 customers when we first bought it.”
A little bit of country town determination took hold and the customer numbers were trending upwards strongly.
“In small towns, if the city has it, they want it,” Mr Brown said.
“That sort of thinking pushed us to install a lot of points of presence around the State.”
WestNet has 40 POPs covering WA from Esperance to Kununurra.
Mr Brown said that small-town-overcoming-remoteness attitude also worked for WA ISPs in general.
“I think the more remote you are the harder you have to work to provide a service,” he said.
“That’s why iiNet and ourselves are in the top 10 ISPs in Australia.”
WestNet has since moved from Geraldton to Perth and is in the process of finding yet more space. The company already has two buildings in the city. Mr Brown said the growth the company was experiencing was causing it possibly one of its greatest problems – finding and housing new staff.
“We’re putting on 5,000 to 6,000 new customers each month,” he said.
“I think ADSL expansion is driving that growth along with our expansion over east.”
Among the other Western Region Entrepreneur of the Year winners is Harold Clough, who helped create listed WA engineering dynasty Clough Engineering, was named master entrepreneur.
Mr Hyder, who joined his father’s business Geographe as an apprentice, was named winner in the retail, consumer and industrial products category.
He realised, soon after joining the company, that it had potential as a worldwide manufacturing business.
The company has 15 years of growth under his leadership with margins increasing to 35 per cent.
Mr Moltoni, who founded the precursor to his Moltoni Group in 1981, won the services – including financial, business and property category.’
His company has pioneered a number of various recycling methods in WA and its turnover has nearly tripled since 2001.
Mr Birkbeck, who founded emu and sandalwood oil products business Mt Romance in 1990, won the technology, communications, e-commerce and life sciences category. He plans to lift annual takings 10-fold over the next five years.
Professor Stanley won the entrepreneurship in a social enterprise category.
She heads two major organisations – Telethon Institute for Child Health Research and the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth – and has also had a career in child health research spanning more than 30 years.
