Thomas Bros won the Golden Crow for 2024. Photo: Chris Roe.
Iconic local car dealership Thomas Bros has been honoured with the Wagga Wagga Business Chamber’s Golden Crow Award for 2024.
Community leaders, business owners and entrepreneurs gathered at the Country Club for the cocktail event on Friday night (9 August) with awards handed out across 14 categories.
Thomas Bros made it a hat-trick, also collecting gongs for Excellence in Large Business and Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion.
Thomas Bros dealer principal Steven Wait said it was a great way to celebrate their 80th birthday as one of the city’s longest running businesses.
“In the last couple of years, we’ve worked pretty hard at celebrating the Thomas family culture,” Steve said.
“They’ve been in business a long time and have done things pretty well in the community for a long time, so we’ve been focussed on getting back to the values set out by the Thomas family and we’re very clear with our team what the expectations are.”
The Thomas Bros team won three awards. Photo: Chris Roe.
He said they were surprised by the triple win but enjoyed celebrating with other local businesses.
“It is challenging having a business at any time with heaps of things to consider and lots of different pressures, so it’s just nice to get together as a group where we all understand what each other is going through,” he said.
“I’m just so proud of the team and it’s a nice recognition of all the work that they’ve done.”
Josh Dent and Bret Power from Protech Personnel picked up two awards at the Golden Crows. Photo: Chris Roe.
Sally Manning from the Wagga Wagga Business Chamber said it was more important than ever to celebrate community success in a challenging economy.
“We had 196 people there at the Country Club for the cocktail evening with representation from all different industries on the night,” she said.
“While it was purely coincidental, it was fitting for Thomas Bros to win it while they are celebrating the 80th year of business.”
Looking ahead, most of this year’s winners will have the chance to progress to the regional and state business awards.
“Last year, we had about 17 businesses go to regional and then we had two businesses go through to the state awards and Charles Sturt Campus Services actually won at that state level,” Sally said.
“It’s a really great platform to showcase your business.”
Rachael and Ryan Quarmby from New Directions Disability Services, which won the people’s choice award. Photo: Chris Roe.
Here’s the full list of the 2024 Optus Golden Crow Awards winners:
2024 Golden Crow Award
Thomas Bros
Outstanding Employee
Michael Peacock – Alan Harris McDonald
Outstanding Young Business Leader
Chelsea Cleary – Recess Hospitality Group (Maybe Mabel, Birdy Bar, Royal Hotel West
Wyalong)
Outstanding Business Leader under 20 employees
Brent Castle – The Gardens Wagga
Outstanding Business Leader 21 employees and over
Annemaree Binger – Centacare Southwest NSW
Employer of choice under 20
Protech Personnel
Employer of choice 21 and over
Centacare South West NSW
Excellence in Innovation
Zetifi
Excellence in Sustainability
The Art Factory
Excellence in Business Ethics
Protech Personnel
Outstanding Community Organisation
PCYC Wagga Wagga
Outstanding New Business
Olivette
Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion
Thomas Bros
Excellence in Micro Business
Mint Agency
Excellence in Small Business
Orman Solicitors
Excellence in Large Business
Thomas Brothers
Triple M People’s Choice Award
New Directions Disability Services
Loading ...
