Judging complete for AIMEX Awards

THE Australian International Marine Export Group (AIMEX) has been facilitating the process of the 2010 Australian Marine Industry Export Awards since February.

Applications closed on Friday May 14 and reached 21 entries. The judges Bob Basham, Ian Murray, John Savage, Ken Evans, and Peter Ironmonger said they were delighted with the high calibre of applications.

Judging was conducted during Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show. A good balance of applications across all five categories was submitted allowing a fair playing field for all companies. The aggregate scores from each company for these individual categories will be added together to determine the 2010 Marine Industry Exporter of the Year.

“I was impressed by the ingenuity displayed by many of the exporters to maintain or even expand their export business in the difficult times being faced by the marine sector. Several of them had adopted creative strategies to identify and pursue new geographic markets, find new applications for their products in non-marine sectors, or different market niches to balance the decline in traditional markets,” said Peter Ironmonger senior export advisor with Austrade.

Another judge John Savage said: “It was also gratifying to see that many had actually gone to the trouble of identifying their strengths and weaknesses in their fields and took time to develop marketing strategies and in many cases had already received rewards for their efforts.”

The Export Awards will be announced during the Club Marine and AIMEX Networking Function to be held at Harbours Edge Event Centre on Thursday 29 July, 2010.