Cade Lucas
When asked if it was worth entering the Wyndham Business Awards past winner Rob Brown didn’t mince words .
“Entering an award for the sake of it is kinda pointless,” said the owner and founder of Fruit 2 Work, a Laverton North based social enterprise that took out the not for profit prize last year.
“You’ve got to be clear about what the endgame is and what you want to get out of it.”
Being clear and frank comes naturally to Scottish-born Brown, who founded Fruit 2 Work after retiring from the mining industry seven years ago.
The company supplies fruit, milk and pantry items to other workplaces, so as a business that serves other businesses, entering the awards was a no brainer.
But as a social enterprise, Fruit 2 Work serves more than just customers.
“We’re a non for profit business creating chances for those with lived experience of the justice system.
“People who’ve been in prison or their partners have been in prison.”
Nearly half the inmates released from Victorian prisons return within two years, with difficulty gaining employment one of the main reasons why.
Brown said Fruit 2 Work does more than just get them back into the workplace.
“Giving them a job helps but how we run the business helps too” he said of an approach he dubbs the ‘secret sauce’ which has seen not one employee return to jail since the business started.
“A lot of it is to do with the authenticity and credibility of the people who run the organisation and the values we have.
“We suspend judgment, we remove stigma, we do what we say we’re going to do and we drive the business based on customer satisfaction.”
Brown knows the importance of these values having had his own brushes with the law while growing up on the streets of Glasgow in the 1960’s.
“Someone gave me a chance and that’s allowed me to live a pretty charmed life” he said.
A second chance is something Brown wants from judges of the Wyndham Business Awards too.
While Fruit 2 Work won the not for profit category last year, they finished runner up in two others, something he is keen to rectify.
“We plan to win the overall award this year.
If you don’t think you can you never will.”
Entries for the 2023 awards are now open:www.wyndham.vic.gov.au/services/business-investment/business-awards-special-events/2023-wyndham-business-awards
