General News
7 July, 2022
Lexton business wins big at inaugural awards
Lexton business Leroy Mac Designs has gone from strength to strength over the years, despite battling bushfires and the pandemic, most recently recognised at a first time awards event for rural and regional small businesses. Owned by Rebecca and...
Lexton business Leroy Mac Designs has gone from strength to strength over the years, despite battling bushfires and the pandemic, most recently recognised at a first time awards event for rural and regional small businesses.
Owned by Rebecca and Rodney McErvale, the business brought home the Innovation and Sustainability Excellence Award — and second place in the Australian Made Small Business Excellence Award category — in the inaugural Australian Rural Business Awards.
The awards were founded by Spend with Us, an online shopping marketplace and directory for rural and regional small businesses impacted by bushfire, drought, and coronavirus, and are designed to recognise the strength, resilience, and talent of small rural and regional business owners.
Starting back in 2010, Leroy Mac Designs specialises in Australian merino garments including baby blankets, beanies and throws made with wool from the McErvale’s own farm, and Ms McErvale said she was excited to find out about the award win.
“We’re really proud to have won this,” she said.
“Getting a little bit of recognition was wonderful and there were so many businesses involved.”
The awards come after several tough years for the business, which was first impacted by the December 2019 Lexton bushfire which tore through 95 percent of the farm, destroying pasture, fencing and 300 sheep.
Not long after in 2020 the business had to contend with the COVID-19 pandemic, and Ms McErvale said it’s been a difficult time.
“The impact of the fire was horrendous. It wiped the farm — the ground is still so hard and things haven’t grown back the way it was, the trauma of it on the ground was huge,” she said.
“It’ll be a good five years before we get back on our feet due to the loss of the sheep and getting our stock numbers back up.
“COVID did also impact us fairly dramatically as well. We had to move our business completely online.
“We don’t have a shop front but we usually go to all the agricultural shows and markets and they were all cancelled.
“We’ve got a hugely loyal customer base that were able to help us get through, but moving the business online was a massive step. Customers love to touch and feel our products in person.”
Prior to the awards, Ms McErvale said Spend with Us was a great help during some difficult times for the business.
“Spend with Us has been great, we’ve had phenomenal support from them,” she said.
“They created a page that really helped businesses like us struggling with the trauma of a fire, it helped us not having to think about advertising our products when these guys were promoting our business.
“We’re really grateful for what Spend with Us have done for so many drought and fire affected businesses.
“It’s been a massive help having people behind us.”
To discover more Australian businesses visit www.spendwithus.com.au
Leroy Mac Designs products can be found at www.leroymac.com.au