Special Reports

Western Australia’s biggest industrial company, Wesfarmers, has become the place to work for ambitious young executives hoping to earn more than $1 million.

Perth companies Monadelphous and Macmahon have a lot in common. They both service the booming resources sector, have about 3,000 staff, reported similar profits in 2006, achieved strong shareholder returns over the past three years, and have a similar mar

Aquila Resources and Paladin Resources provide stunning examples of the huge value that can flow from share options when companies achieve large and sustained increases in their share price.

Health supremo Neale Fong has retained his status as Western Australia’s highest-paid public sector employee, followed by the chief executives from a clutch of public trading enterprises.

Iconic smallgoods producer D'Orsogna typifies the challenges facing food manufacturers in WA, which are refining their strategies in response to an increasingly competitive market.

The past year has been a tough period for some of Western Australia’s best-known food manufacturers.

The draft Co-operatives Bill 2006 will regulate the formation, registration and operation of co-operatives in Western Australia.

Often viewed as relics of another era co-operatives may benefit from proposals to give them far more flexibility.

Caxton Co-operative was developed by five like-minded WA Snap Printing franchise holders as a way of growing their individual businesses by collectively investing in equipment to expand of their services.

An 8 per cent fall in university applications in Western Australia for 2006 entry had an immediate impact on staff numbers at Edith Cowan University.

Property and business services has been the fastest growing industry sector in Western Australia over the past 20 years, Australian Bureau of Statistics data has found.

Big retailers, big miners and big contractors sit at the top of WA Business News' second annual survey to find the state's largest employers.

When nickel producer Minara Resources decided last year to pursue the development of a $25 million heap leach demonstration plant, it ran into an unexpected problem.

The state government is by far the biggest employer in Western Australia with 101,920 public servants in June 2006 compared with 98,621 in June 2005.

Manufacturing is widely perceived to be an industry in terminal decline, so it’s rather surprising that the Australian Bureau of Statistics found it to be one of Western Australia’s biggest industry sectors, supporting more than 100,000 jobs.

Identifying and nurturing future leaders within the business was a key issue discussed at last week’s breakfast forum, with all four panellists highlighting the problems while stressing the importance of seeking out key personnel able to take up the compa

Mining might have received all the headlines in the past year, but Tessitura managing director and founder Liddy McCall is proof that other sectors are firing as well.

It seems to come around so quickly every year, but our search for the 2007 40under40 officially started last Wednesday at the ‘Dynamic Entrepreneurs in the Boom’ breakfast as part of the WA Business News Success and Leadership series.

Suzan Pervan says her luckiest break came following her departure from top four chartered accounting firm Ernst & Young, as it provided the catalyst for her, and Ernst and Young partner Dalton Gooding, to establish Gooding Pervan Chartered Accountants.

Imagine you could be premier of Western Australia for a day; what policies would you put forward to ensure the state’s future prosperity?

Facing adversity is nothing new to Edward Rigg, having grown up on a farm, often in drought conditions, at Coorow, north of Perth.

Finding a balance between work and life outside of business appears to be some way off for the entrepreneurial panellists at the WA Business News Success and Leadership event.

Brett Martin’s Trailcraft group of companies manufactures aluminium trailer boats, boat trailers and caravans and sells them through five of its own retail stores and 27 independently owner retail outlets across Australia.

The 2007 WA Business News 40under40 Awards program was launched at a breakfast forum featuring four high-profile past winners.

Staff retention and costs issues associated with the state’s protracted economic growth were among the key issues raised by panellists at the breakfast forum.

His role as a technology leader in Western Australia was well-known when Michael Malone was crowned 40under40 1st Amongst Equals earlier this year; a far cry from when he graduated from university in the early 1990s, when few knew anything about the inter

As a decision nears on the environmental viability of Gorgon, WA Business News reports on speculation surrounding the massive gas project.

As managing director of a big engineering business, you might think Peter Meurs gets his biggest buzz from winning multi-million dollar contracts.

Peter Meurs believes local companies seeking work on big resource and infrastructure projects need to ensure they meet the needs of project developers, rather than relying on work coming to them simply because they are Australian.

WorleyParsons has been one of the big winners from the resources boom, growing to be Australia’s largest engineering firm, and the Perth office under Peter Meurs has played a key part in that success.

All the stars continue to be aligned in favour of the Western Australian economy, on the back of a fourth successive year of above 30-year average real global economic growth.

Significant increases in net interstate and overseas migration have been the main contributors to the 1.9 per cent WA population increase in 2005-06.