Supporting and helping scale up Indigenous businesses is the focus of the PwC MURRA Boost Initiative, now in its sixth year.
The purpose of the award is to support the growth of Indigenous businesses, towards the broader objective of advancing socio-economic opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, communities and businesses.
Director, April Lawrie, from Far West Coast Investments, which helped establish this year's MURRA Boost Initiative winner, Cedrent Enterprises
At PwC Australia, we're bringing together our community of solvers in unexpected ways. We work with each year’s winners to scale and increase impact, take hold of opportunity and develop business resilience in a sustainable way. The MURRA Boost Initiative is a collaboration between 33Creative and the MURRA Indigenous Business Program at Melbourne Business School, who work together to promote Indigenous Business Month and support the Indigenous economy.
Previous winners have included: Aboriginal clothing and arts store Kakadu Tiny Tots; and BlackCard, a cultural consultancy out of Queensland, demonstrating the variety of Indigenous-owned businesses.
BlackCard is a national cultural capability training provider and was one of two winners of the MURRA Boost Initiative in 2019.
Mundanara Bayles, founder and managing director of BlackCard said: “Working with PwC has created opportunities for us to scale and increase our impact both quickly and sustainably, developing our resilience as a business that has set us up so well for these unusual times. The mentoring and business development to ensure BlackCard was able to pivot our business model to a digital environment was beyond expectations and the dedication, authenticity and skills of the PwC team was absolutely amazing.”
“I truly love the PwC and the Kakadu team. The time that we have spent on my brand’s DNA has been remarkable. Pivoting to reflect and capture my customer segment is so exciting. I can’t wait to relaunch as KAKADU, the eco-friendly gift hamper site.”
The 2021 award winner, Cedrent Enterprises, will receive $30,000 in-kind support from a specialist PwC team to help strengthen their business practices and build capacity for future growth. Cedrent Enterprises is a vehicle-hire company with commercial utes, trucks, vans, buses, 4WD and passenger cars for hire in Adelaide, Alice Springs, Darwin Airport and City and a number of other locations.
“This year’s winner, Cedrent Enterprises, has been established with the support of the Far West Coast Aboriginal community in SA. They run a successful commercial operation as well as providing a valuable service to enable access to many regional and remote areas across SA and NT. PwC is really looking forward to working with Cedrent and contributing to the next stage of their growth journey.”
April Lawrie, Director, Far West Coast Investments says, “Cedrent Enterprises – with the help of the Far West Coast Aboriginal Corporation and Far West Coast Investments – has empowered the Indigenous economy by growing our Enterprise Rent-A-Car franchise throughout Australia, helping us to involve more Aboriginal communities and help us provide more opportunities for our mob. The profits generated from the franchise also go towards helping our Far West Coast youth with education programs and scholarships to help grow our future leaders.”
