Australia’s top-performing tradies have been honoured at the 2024 Australian Trades Small Business Champion Awards, held at Sydney’s The Star on Friday 23 August.

Swapping their high-vis for red carpet glamour, more than 50 of the nation’s most dynamic, innovative and best-servicing tradies were crowned at the glittering gala event, hosted by Nine News’ Peter Overton.

Touted the ‘Logies of trades small business’, the second-annual Australian Trades Small Business Champion Awards paid tribute to the vital role of small businesses in the trade sector as the backbone of the nation’s construction industry, and a significant contributor to Australia’s overall social and economic prosperity.

The Awards also spotlighted trades-based small business owners’ invaluable contributions to their local communities and to their fields of specialty – including their encouragement of future generations of Aussie tradies.

The hotly-contested 2024 Young Small Business Champion Trades Entrepreneur title went to Anthony Antoun of Mr and Ms Group – a family-owned, design, construction and landscaping business based at Birrong in NSW.

The title of 2024 Apprentice Champion was won by Riley McCarthy, who is nearing the end of his apprenticeship at Macu Kitchens Mildura in Victoria.

In a particularly big night for small business plumbers, other declared 2024 Champion Tradies are…

PLUMBING: Champion Large Plumber was awarded to Reed Plumbing and Drainage Solutions of Keilor East in Victoria. Champion Medium Plumber was named as DCM Plumbing & Drainage from Burleigh Heads in Queensland, and Champion Small Plumber was won by Crucial Plumbing Services at Seven Hills in NSW.

Jet Plus Plumbing, owned and operated by Victoria’s Luke Kennedy, took the title of Australian Small Business Champion Trade Leader; while NSW-based Andrew Vanny Plumbing won the 2024 Champion Tradie title.

ELECTRICAL: Phoenix Energy based at Goondiwindi in Queensland took top gong in the Large Electrical Business Category; and Champion Medium Electrical Business was won by ARC Electrical & Data of Smeaton Grange NSW.

BUILDERS: Australia’s best Large Builder went to Ruby Homes of Box Hill in NSW, and Champion Medium Builder was won by Acme Built of Kangaroo Point in NSW.

BUILDING DESIGN: Green Ink Design Studio – East Maitland, NSW.

ARCHITECT: Sydney Drafting Concepts & Design – Oran Park, NSW.

CARPENTRY: Heritage Window Specialists – Wetherill Park, NSW.

PAINTER: Clean Lines Painting & Decorating – Montrose, VIC.

ROOFER: Tomkat Roofing – Prestons, NSW.

Bathroom and Kitchen Renovation: UrbanOps – Warners Bay, NSW.

Excavation + Demolition: Coopers Final Trim – Medowie, NSW.

Metal Fabrication: Star Aluminium – Keysborough, VIC.

Glazier: Glass Ontime – Ringwood, VIC.

LANDSCAPER: In-depth Landscape Construction – Hume, ACT.

TRADE SERVICES: Danrae Group – Prestons, NSW

Deliberately diverse in terms of the breadth of represented industries in trades, prestigious accolades were also presented to small business operators across automotive industries, pest control, tiling, fencing, flooring, solar, cleaning, gardening, removalist, concreting, air-conditioning, manufacturing and more.

Free to enter, the Awards were independently judged over multiple rounds, and the stringent judging criteria spanned various aspects of small business operations including short and long-term growth strategies, profitability, eco-friendliness, innovation, marketing initiatives, customer service quality and charitable and community support – to name but some of the criteria.

“Being selected as a Champion of this major event from a nationwide entrant pool speaks volumes of the tenacity and leadership at these small businesses,” said Steve Loe, Awards Founder and Managing Director of Precedent Productions, which coordinates the Australian Trades Small Business Champion Awards.

“Especially relevant this year as we continue to grapple with a housing shortage, urgent need for more skilled tradespeople and other undoubtedly stressful and unprecedented challenges in trades industries, this programme was deliberately designed to celebrate the millions of hardworking small business tradies who positively contribute to the country in so many ways,” added Mr Loe.

The 2024 Australian Trades Small Business Champion Awards were sponsored by Lifestyle Tradie, Boa, NOVA Employment, Xcllusive Business Sales, VJB Group, Castaway Forecasting and Big Clean.

For a full list of 2024 Australian Trades Small Business Champion Awards winners, visit championawards.com.au/trades.