Cedrent Enterprises claims PwC’s indigenous business prize
The PwC MURRA Boost Initiative has selected an indigenous-owned vehicle hire company as its latest recipient, with Cedrent Enterprises profits helping to support Far West Coast youth.
The South Australian-headquartred vehicle hire company – which is majority Indigenous-owned – will receive $30,000 worth of in kind consulting support from a specialist PwC team to help strengthen business practices and build capacity for future growth.
Now into its sixth cycle, the PwC MURRA Boost Initiative is part of Indigenous Business Month, which was established in 2015 by alumni of Melbourne Business School’s MURRA Indigenous Business Master Class Program. The aim of Indigenous Business Month – this year held under the theme ‘Powering the Indigenous Economy’ – is to highlight and foster indigenous economic participation.
“PwC is extremely pleased to continue our support for Indigenous Business Month,” said PwC CEO Tom Seymour. “We have been privileged to work with many great Indigenous businesses over the six years of this award – and see them thrive and grow. This continues to demonstrate the growth and diversity of Indigenous businesses and their ambitions have a significant impact.”
Seymour also noted the extremely high quality of this year’s applicants “This year’s winner, Cedrent Enterprises, run a successful commercial operation as well as providing a valuable service to enable access to many regional and remote areas across Southern Australia and Northern Territory. PwC is really looking forward to working with Cedrent and contributing to the next stage of their growth journey.”
Founded in 1991, Cedrent Enterprises today serves customers from locations across the South Australian outback and through to Alice Springs and Darwin, with a range of commercial utes, trucks, vans, and buses on offer together with large to small passenger vehicles. In 2017, a controlling stake in the company was bought by the indigenous business Munda Wana Wilurarra.
Indigenous owned and operated, Munda Wana Wilurarra is in turn a business arm of the Far West Coast Aboriginal Corporation’s community’s trust, a body overseeing management of the Far West Coast lands of South Australia, a region stretching roughly from the western side of the Eyre Peninsula across the Nullarbor Plain to the Western Australia border which was granted native title in 2013.
“Cedrent Enterprises has empowered the indigenous economy by growing our Enterprise Rent-A-Car franchise throughout Australia, helping us to involve more Aboriginal communities and provide more opportunities for our mob,” said Far West Coast Investment director April Lawrie, who noted that profits went towards providing education programs and scholarships to Far West Coast youth.
Previous winners of the PwC MURRA Boost Initiative are: GWS Engineering and Construction (2020), BlackCard (2019), Kakadu Tiny Tots (2019), Marrawah Law (2018), Biodiversity Australia (2017) and Ngakkan Nyaagu (2016).
