Orbitz Soars Upwards in World of Business

Written on the 1 October 2022 by Marshall Hall

Southport-headquartered Orbitz Elevators is soaring after restructuring its operations because of a Covid-created headache.

Founder and managing director Jonathan Dwayre says the business, which now employs 90 people in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, was hit hard at the start of the Covid pandemic.

“The Covid-19 pandemic affected our business significantly and forced us to rethink about the focus of our operations,’’ said Mr Dwayre.

“Before the pandemic, 80 per cent of our revenue came from installation of elevators while 20 per cent was from maintenance services.

“During the past few years we have focused heavily on shifting our revenue base towards the maintenance side of the business.

“We are on target to achieving a 75 per cent maintenance and 25 per cent new installation revenue mix by the end of the 2022/2023 financial year.”

The change has dramatically boosted the company and it has now grown become Australia’s largest independent “vertical transportation service provider”.

Mr Dwayre said the business, which he started from his home in 2014, now works with some of the largest construction, body corporate and facilities management companies in the country.

“We have also seen huge growth in Papua New Guinea over the last few years in the maintenance sector,’’ he said.

“We are now maintaining a plethora of well-known public and government buildings and we are working closely with organisations such as JLL and the Papua New Guinea Government.

The company’s efforts have been rewarded with victory in the Professions and Services category of the Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards for September and it is now in the running for the annual title to be announced in November.

Mr Dwayre said it was an honour to win one of the Excellence Awards and he was looking forward to the annual gala dinner in November.

The September winners in the other categories of the Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards were:

• Mayor’s Innovation GC Award: Shoebox Books and Tax
• Education, Training and Employment Award: GeSS Education
• Emerging and Micro Business Award: KK&O Agency
• Family Business Award: Global Food & Wine
• Retail, Wholesale and Distribution Award: Marques Flooring
• Manufacturing Award: dnata catering
• Construction and Trades Award: Usher Group
• Health and Wellbeing Award: Amtan Medical Group
• IT and Digital Business Award: ONGC Systems
• Tourism, Hospitality and Events Award: Aquaduck

The awards, now in their 27th year, aim to foster pride in the city’s business community and highlight its important as a business hub. Some of the city’s best-known companies can claim to have been winners.