MKM Group founder Michael Kljaic was named the 2009 Gold Coast Business News Young Entrepreneur of the Year during a gala event at the Sheraton Mirage last Friday.
The 37-year-old edged out Zarraffa’s Coffee founder Kenton Campbell and Absynthe owner and restaurateur Meyjitte Boughenout to win the coveted award.
Total revenue generated by this year’s finalists exceeded $100 million.
After establishing MKM in1997, Kljaic has built his business to incorporate 100 staff and revenues of more than $40 million this FY.
Not content to bunker down during the economic turmoil of the last 12 months, he instead orchestrated a cavalier strategy that would prove to be the turning point of his business.
As projects around him were mothballed and receivership levelled some of his more colourful competitors, Kljaic’ s MKM Group won the $1 million State Government tender for civil works on the new hospital at Parklands.
As projects around him were mothballed and receivership levelled some of his more colourful competitors, Kljaic’ s MKM Group won the $1 million State Government tender for civil works on the new hospital at Parklands.
“I just kept thinking ‘what do we need to do’ to get out of this and we were looking for anything to keep us going. I couldn’t sit around and wait, I had to make things happen and we did,” says Kljaic.
