48. Chilli Promotions

Revenue: $5.8 million
Growth: 98.93%
Founders: Andy Galbally, 45
Head office: Victoria
Year founded: 2002
Employees: 17
Industry: Promotional products
Website: chillipromotions.com.au

Much like the chilli plant, Andy Galbally’s promotional products business Chilli Promotions is resilient.

The Chilli Promotions founder says his business has certainly seen its share of heated competition over the past 13 years, since starting up in 2002 after Galbally borrowed a couple of hundred dollars from his brother to register the business name.

At one stage his company was embezzled to the tune of $80,000, an incident that almost brought about the end of his business. He has also had to face the periodical downturns, including the global financial crisis, which led to companies cutting back on their promotions budgets.

However, despite the hard times, the fire in Galbally’s belly has not been extinguished. He’s still passionate about growing Chilli Promotions.

“We are always trying to be different and better than the rest. Our ‘passion’ or ‘positioning’ statement is: You’ll notice the difference when you add chilli,” he says.

Chilli Promotions recently opened an office in Sydney and Galbally says the company’s main goal is to be more than just a supplier of promotional products.

“Our aim is to diversify our offering to expand into complementary areas that support the core range of merchandise, marketing, product, promotions, warehousing, fulfilment and distribution of catalogue programs of our clients,” Galbally says.

And the company has come up with a memorable way to stay in the minds of its clients.

“For the past five years we have grown chilli plants in self-watering pots. We have set up a website called www.whydoIhaveachillitreeonmydesk.com and each person gets a personal code to enter and access the website. The website tells the receivers about what we do, why choose us and why we’re different,” he says.

The plants have definitely made an impression with clients by highlighting the company’s quirky and innovative take on promotional products.

“They are hand delivered and fit with the brand perfectly,” Galbally says.

“We’ve sent over 500 of these in the last five years and it’s created fantastic viral discussions within the organisations that receive them. No one wants to throw something living away and we have some impressive stories about what people have done with them.”