The Geelong Chamber of Commerce has once again dazzled businesses and sponsors alike at this year’s Geelong Business Excellence Awards.
Held on Thursday October 27 at GMHBA Stadium, the winner of the Retail Business Award was Zacale Pty Ltd, who owns and operates a number of McDonald’s stores in the Geelong and surrounding areas.
Since receiving the award in October, Zacale Pty Ltd has welcomed two new stores to the family, with addition of the Geelong Bypass Northbound and Southbound stores.
Now employing approximately 800 local employees, Zacale Pty Ltd general manager, Russell Desa, says the award is all thanks to the people in the business.
“We could be in any business, but if we haven’t got the right people, we would not be successful,” Russell explains.
“We just happen to be in a business where we sell hamburgers, but it’s our people that make our business successful and I think that’s our greatest achievement.”
Having served nearly 2 million customers in the past 12 months, Zacale Pty Ltd has a strong community presence.
“We sponsor a lot of local clubs in Geelong – the cricket club, footy clubs and netball clubs. We give out a lot of balls, scoreboards, coaches boards and things like that,” Russell says.
“We try to stay with the Macca’s ‘On Your Team’ initiative, but we have gone out and sponsored the Geelong Cricket Club for the last five or six years. In return, they also support us with things like McHappy Day, where they help us do fundraising at restaurants to help raise money for charities as well.”
Russell says the awards process was great, as the business is usually used to presenting to internal McDonald’s parties, as opposed to external parties such as the Business Awards’ judging panel.
“Being a first time entrant, they [kept] talking about how some businesses have entered four to five years in a row before winning, so we went in with no expectations,” Russell says.
“When our name was called, we were really excited – when word got out to our restaurants, they were really excited and we’ve actually started using the banners from the Geelong Chamber of Commerce announcing that we are winners.”
The 2022 Geelong Business Excellence Awards were proudly sponsored by LWB Business + Wealth Advisors, celebrating clever, creative and connected businesses in Geelong and the Bellarine, as well as the Surf Coast, Queenscliff and Golden Plains regions.
