Bomen business Prefabulous, renowned for its "cool-style" buildings, has been named as a Murray Riverina Regional Business Awards finalist in this year's NSW Business Chamber Business Awards.
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Winners which will be announced on October 8 will progress to the state finals on November 26.
Prefabulous is in the running to take out the Outstanding Start Up category, designed for businesses which have been operating for less than two years.
Owner Gavin King said being named as a finalist was "fantastic recognition" for his business that puts "fab in prefab".
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Mr King believes many people are "stuck on an outdated stereotype" of the prefab home, but his products could not be further from the truth.
"We don't do ugly, we have cool styles for places now," Mr King said.
"We only do fabulous - strikingly architectural, devastatingly good-looking, thoroughly finished and great value for money.
"People are interested in these premium homes we build and a lot of them and put them on country acreage."
Prefabulous has flourished despite facing much adversity during its initial starting period.
"We started about 18 months ago and two weeks later we were being told about a pandemic - it was very unsettling but it turned out pretty good," Mr King said.
"It was daunting at the time because we just didn't know what was going to happen.
"We started with two people in our office and now we have nine full-time there and 20 or more contractors."
A diverse clientele range has enabled Prefabulous' range of buildings to be constructed mainly outside of Wagga.
"We are dealing with clients remotely a lot of the time, but people can walk in off the street and can browse our catalogue and choose their selection from about a dozen standard designs," Mr King said.
"If they want to move a window or change something in the design to cater for solar orientation or prevailing wind, we can do that.
"Although we're mainly servicing out of town, some of our clients come to Wagga and spend money and help the economy as they spend on such things as accommodation.
"We start building and in 16 weeks we're knocking on the client's gate to deliver their home - it's our specialty as we have a very capable crew."
The business prides itself in locating homes in inaccessible and remote locations.
"They arrive at sometimes remote sites, complete on big trucks and are put in place on site in one day," Mr King said.
"We've had city people buying blocks of land on five acres either down the South Coast or in the Snowy Mountains and wanting homes built on them.
"We're really servicing a large area outside Wagga, mostly down the South Coast as people are rebuilding after the bushfires they had there.
"The most popular build at the moment would be three or four bedroom lifestyle block homes."
Some of the projects Prefabulous have been involved with include building 10 villas at Cupitt's Winery (Ulladulla) and 16 villas at the Malthouse at Whitton.
More projects are on the way as Mr King said his business had secured a "joint venture" to build government buildings in Canberra with one of his previous clients who owns a construction business in the nation's capital.
Business NSW Murray Riverina regional manager Anthony McFarlane said there had been a 25 percent increase in award entries this year.
"Four of the 13 winners in the last state awards in 2019 came from the Riverina so we're looking to back up our reputation as we've got a tradition to uphold," he said.
"There's been strong engagement with a 25 percent increase in entries this year."
Other Wagga finalists include:
- Employer of Choice: Riverina Oils, WDF Professional and RSM Australia Pty Ltd
- Excellence in Business: WDF Professional Excellence in Innovation: Riverina Oils
- Excellence in Micro Business: Civil Celebrations and Cobrapparel
- Excellence in Small Business: Bedrock Landscape Supplies
- Excellence in Sustainability: 17 Trees a product with a purpose
- Outstanding Business Leader: Emma Grant from Selby Watson and Co and Mackenna Powell from WFI Insurance
- Outstanding Community Organisation: The Personnel Group
- Outstanding Employee: Mackenna Powell from WFI Insurance
- Outstanding Local Chamber: Wagga Business Chamber
- Outstanding Start Up: Prefabulous
- Outstanding Young Business Leader: Joshua Paul from Alan Harris McDonald
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