Portal:Queensland/Selected business
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Portal:Queensland/Selected business/1 La Boite Theatre Company is a major Australian theatre company based in Brisbane, Queensland. La Boite is the second largest theatre company in Queensland. Established in 1925, it occupies an important place in Queensland’s cultural history. It is known for its bold, contemporary approach towards theatrical texts, and its development of new Australian work. Its declared mission is to "produce and present exhilarating theatre that is alive to the present, extends and inspires artists, and invigorates the hearts and minds of audiences".
La Boite's mainstage production series is augmented by presentations of independent theatre work. In 2010, there were eleven productions, as well as various creative development and education programs.
La Boite is based at Brisbane’s Roundhouse Theatre, Australia’s only purpose-built theatre-in-the-round. Located in the Creative Industries Precinct of the Queensland University of Technology in Kelvin Grove. It seats 400, or 340 in thrust staging. The company moved into this new venue in February 2004, leaving its smaller theatre-in-the-round building in Hale Street, Milton, where it had been since 1972. (Full article...)
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Portal:Queensland/Selected business/2 Opera Queensland is an opera company based in Brisbane, Queensland. The company was founded with funding from the Queensland State Government in 1981, then under the name Lyric Opera of Queensland, after the Queensland Opera Company was closed in December 1980.
It is after Opera Australia the second largest opera company in Australia. Each year the company presents at least three major operatic productions in Brisbane and numerous smaller productions, concerts and tours of operatic and lighter musical material in other venues throughout Queensland. As a partner in The Opera Conference, the national partnership of professional opera companies, Opera Queensland is actively involved in commissioning and presenting new productions. Opera Queensland is a "State flagship company" member of the Australian Major Performing Arts Group. (Full article...)
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Portal:Queensland/Selected business/3 Macarthur Coal is a mining company based in Queensland, Australia, which was incorporated in October 1995. The company was founded by Ken Talbot, who was a former chief executive officer. It specialises in the production of metallurgical coal from mines in the Bowen Basin, specifically low-volatile pulverised injection coal used in steel making; essentially all the coal it produces is exported from Australia.
The company maintains a 73.3% ownership in all its major mine projects. As of 2010 it had open-cast mines at Coppabella, where the first coal was mined in October 1998, and 2.4 million tonnes of coal was produced from 2.9 million tonnes of material mined in 2009, and Moorvale (first coal March 2003, 2.2 million tonnes of coal from 2.9 million tonnes of material), and was opening a third mine at Middlemount with an initial target of 1.8 million tonnes of material per year. A fourth mine at Codrilla was selected for development in 2011.
In May 2011, the company announced that it had increased coal reserves estimates by 38% to 2.26 billion tonnes. (Full article...)
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Pictured left: Process workers at work at the Golden Circle cannery, 1947Golden Circle is a subsidiary of US-based Heinz Corporation, based in Brisbane, Queensland. Its main operations are food processing. Golden Circle began operations in 1947 after construction of the main canning factory at Northgate was completed. As of 2009, Golden Circle ceased to be an Australian owned company. The company employs a large number of people, which varies seasonally between 700 and 1,700.
Golden Circle manufactures more than 800 products. Initially, the company processed and canned pineapples and produced fruit jams. Over the years, production has expanded to include other canned fruit and vegetables, fruit cordials, juices, carbonated beverages and baby food. Golden Circle operates the world's largest steam peeler and new beetroot processing lines. The main production facility is at Northgate, a northern suburb of Brisbane. (Full article...)
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Portal:Queensland/Selected business/5 Mineralogy is a mining company owned by Clive Palmer of Queensland, Australia. Mineralogy signed a deal with the Chinese infrastructure company CITIC Pacific to develop a small portion of a large iron ore deposit in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The agreement involves the development of two magnetite mines and construction of port infrastructure at Cape Preston. Mineralogy was paid $415 million USD for the rights to mine the ore. (Full article...)
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(Pictured left: A Billabong brand hat)Billabong International is a clothing company traded on the Australian Securities Exchange since 11 August 2000. Billabong was founded in 1973 by Gordon and Rena Merchant. The name came from the same word billabong, which is a stagnant body of water attached to a waterway.
As well as the Billabong brand-name, the company sells surfwear and accessories under the Palmers Surf, Honolua Surf, Swell.com, Von Zipper, Kustom (footwear), Nixon, Xcel Wetsuits and Tigerlily brands, and also Element skate clothing and hardware. The brands are available at various surf and skateboard stores locations. (Full article...)
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Portal:Queensland/Selected business/7 NightOwl Convenience Stores is a franchised system of stores based in Brisbane, Australia. The first store opened in 1975 and was located in the Auchenflower suburb of Brisbane. The store pre-dated Seven Eleven opening in Australia by 12 months. The store traded 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Established by a former Woolworth's Store Manager, the Auchenflower branch offered an extensive range of traditional supermarket grocery items-together with fresh fruit, vegetables and hot BBQ Chickens. Popular with the growing Student and Yuppy community in the district. The business concept was franchised in 1987.
In 1995, NightOwl was floated on the stock exchange and was bought out by Retail Services Limited in 1996. RSL is a diversified holdings group mainly based in the retail sector, this helped take NightOwl nationwide. In 2011, the group had 63 stores including three of the new format 'NightOwl Super Stores'. (Full article...)
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Portal:Queensland/Selected business/8 Storm Financial Limited was a financial advice company, based in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The company was founded by Emmanual Cassimatis and his wife Julie Cassimatis in 2004. On 12 December 2008, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission began investigation of Storm Financial's margin lending and related advice.
It went into administration in January 2009 and was placed in liquidation on 26 March 2009. The company had A$88 million in debts at the time. The collapse came at a time when an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 investors had suffered the effects of the financial crisis, and were facing significant losses. This left any investors who felt that had been misled or misguided with limited financial recourse against the company. (Full article...)
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Bank of Queensland (BOQ), one of the oldest financial institutions in Queensland, Australia, is a retail bank with a network of almost 270 branches, including 152 in Queensland, 52 in New South Wales, 23 in Victoria and 34 in Western Australia. Following the Home Building Society and Pioneer mergers, it now has more than 650,000 customers. In 2007, customer satisfaction with the bank was placed at 88%.In 1874, the Brisbane Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society was established as the first permanent building society formed in Queensland. The Society incorporated in 1887. The company amalgamated with City and Suburban Building Society in 1921. The company amalgamated with Queensland Deposit Bank a decade later. The company received a licence to operate as a trading bank in 1942. 1971 saw the bank become a publicly traded company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. In 2011, the bank experienced a profit slump due to lending losses from the 2010–2011 Queensland floods. (Full article...)
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Portal:Queensland/Selected business/10 New Hope Coal is an Australian coal-mining and energy company with its headquarters in Brisbane, Queensland. The company's operations include New Acland Mine, Jeebropilly Mine, New Oakleigh Mine and Queensland Bulk Handling. New Hope Coal is 61.11% owned by Washington H. Soul Pattinson.
New Hope's first export shipment, 17,332 tonnes of Bundamba coal, was aboard MV "Floret" which sailed from the Maynegrain grain terminal at Pinkenba on 10 September 1980. At first the company met domestic demand however by 1986 New Hope's market mix had about-faced to 90 per cent export and 10 per cent domestic sales. On 18 July 2008, New Hope entered into an agreement to sell its New Saraji Coal Project to BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) for A$2.45 billion. (Full article...)