Business of the year built to boost animal health and happiness
The 2026 Illawarra Business Awards celebrated the region's entrepreneurs and innovators at a gala event at UOW last night
The 2026 Illawarra Business of the Year is Poseidon Animal Health, a Unanderra-based supplier of gut health products hailed for its clear vision and outstanding international growth.
Poseidon’s founders are Kembla Grange couple Linda Goldspink-Lord and Peter Lord, who began feeding their own horses gut health formulations almost a decade ago and now supply vets, breeders and the owners of dogs and horses in Australia, New Zealand and United States.
More than 600 people attended the 2026 Illawarra Business Awards, held on Friday night at the University Hall at the University of Wollongong.
“The quality of this year’s finalists and winners was exceptional," Business Illawarra director Coralie McCarthy said. "These are businesses that are not waiting for the future to arrive, they are building it."
The Illawarra's winners will go on to represent the region at the Business NSW State Awards in October.
Winners of the 2026 Illawarra Business Awards
- Outstanding Employee: Brodie Mehey, Symbio Wildlife Park & Symbio Conservation Foundation
- Outstanding Young Business Leader: Aaron Mulhall, Specialised Energy Solutions
- Outstanding Business Leader – Twenty Employees and Under: Amy Hall, Banksia Support Services
- Outstanding Business Leader – Twenty-One Employees and Over: Alisha Musker, The Cram Foundation
- Excellence in International Business: Poseidon Animal Health
- Employer of Choice – Twenty Employees and Under: Marketing Movement
- Employer of Choice – Twenty-One Employees and Over: Hysata
- Excellence in Innovation: Hysata
- Excellence in Sustainability: Green Gravity
- Outstanding Community Organisation: CatholicCare Wollongong
- Outstanding New Business: Red Fox Pilates
- Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion: The Flagstaff Group
- Excellence in Micro Business (Zero to Five Employees): Banksia Support Services
- Excellence in Small Business (Six to Twenty Employees): Sprout Scientific
- Excellence in Medium Business (Twenty-One to Ninety-Nine Employees): Poseidon Animal Health
- Excellence in Large Business (One Hundred Plus Employees): Hysata
- Excellence in Workplace Health & Wellbeing: EHD Concrete Sleepers
- Outstanding Local Chamber: Northern Illawarra Chamber of Commerce
- Outstanding Visitor Experience: Stand Up Paddle Boarding Shellharbour
- Outstanding Visitor & Twenty-Four Hour Economy Collaboration: nowra.org.au
- IMB Bank Illawarra Business of the Year: Poseidon Animal Health
Highly Commended Recipients
- Outstanding Employee: Tania Jones, Green Gravity
- Outstanding Young Business Leader: Elise Sinclair, Waples Marketing Group
- Outstanding Community Organisation: The Flagstaff Group
- Outstanding New Business: Arkyn Civil
- Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion: Interchange Shoalhaven
- Excellence in Small Business (Six to Twenty Employees): Supercalla
