Real businesses. Real funding. Real results.
These are the businesses from across the Adelaide Hills, Fleurieu Peninsula and Kangaroo Island that took a chance on a grant application – and what happened when they did.
Every story here started the same way: a business owner with a good idea, a project that needed funding, and a grant they found through our network. The rest is what you’re about to read.
The Hills and Coast Business Grant was designed for exactly the moments when a good project doesn’t quite fit existing programs – or the amount needed is too small for the big grants but too big to fund from operating revenue alone. These are those moments.
Click through any card to read the full case study.
Finch Restorations
Manufacturing / Technology | Mount Barker, Adelaide Hills
World-class restoration. Now with world-class technology to match.
Finch Restorations has been rebuilding and recreating vintage vehicles from the Adelaide Hills since 1988. But to do the work they wanted to do – and compete globally – they needed a capability that simply wasn’t available in Australia.
The challenge: sourcing or recreating parts for vehicles that stopped being made decades ago. The process was expensive, slow, and dependent on manual 3D CAD work that couldn’t capture the precision their clients expected.
With a Hills and Coast Business Grant, proprietor Peter Roberts purchased an Artec 3D Leo laser scanner – a hand-held device that captures precise three-dimensional scans of any vehicle component and feeds them directly into design software. Staff were trained, the technology was integrated, and Finch Restorations became the only automotive restoration business in Australia with this capability in-house.
The result: faster turnaround, more complex projects now within reach, and a new pathway to national and international clients – including potential partnerships with institutions like the National Motor Museum.
“When looking at a grant, read the criteria and ensure you can meet it. It takes time to collate the information you need, so it’s important to make sure the criteria can be met and the request is for something a little out of the ordinary.” – Peter Roberts, Finch Restorations
Inavogue
Advanced Manufacturing / Custom Cabinetry | Adelaide Hills
One new machine. 50% more production. Three new jobs.
Since 1990, Inavogue has been designing and building custom kitchens and cabinetry for homeowners across the Adelaide Hills. Their reputation for quality workmanship is built on precision – which made it all the more frustrating when a single ageing machine became a growing liability.
Their edge bander – the equipment that creates clean, durable finishes on cabinetry panels – was breaking down with increasing regularity. Replacement parts had to be imported from Germany. Build timelines were slipping. For a small business running lean, every delay costs more than just time.
A Hills and Coast Business Grant gave Inavogue the immediate cash flow to purchase a new edge bander from a local supplier – no second-hand compromises, no importing parts. The new machine processes three panels at a time instead of two, delivering an immediate 50% increase in production capacity.
Within months, Inavogue had taken on an apprentice and added two new staff members to keep up with demand.
“If you can see the potential in your business to make a difference – take it and make the most of it.” – Rowan Edwards, Inavogue
D’Estrees Bakery
Food Production / Agribusiness | Kangaroo Island
From island sourdough to shelf-stable pasta – and a year-round business.
D’Estrees Bakery is one of Kangaroo Island’s most loved producers – handmade sourdough breads and croissants, sold to local hospitality businesses, at markets and through a weekly pop-up in Penneshaw and Kingscote. Beautiful product. Loyal customers. And a business that goes quiet every off-season.
Owner Naomi O’Donnell had an idea to change that. Using her sourdough culture, South Australian semolina and free-range Kangaroo Island eggs, she began developing a dried pasta product that could be produced in the slow months and shipped anywhere. The fresh version was already selling well. A shelf-stable product would open the mainland and beyond.
The problem: drying pasta properly requires dedicated equipment. Her bakery gear wasn’t up to the job.
A Hills and Coast Business Grant funded the purchase of a specialised drying cabinet from Italy – including freight to Australia, shipping to Kangaroo Island, and installation. For a micro-business in a remote location, this kind of purchase could have taken years to save for.
“If hesitating and wondering if your project is suitable – just do it. Believe in your project, and your business, and give it a go. You can only miss out if you don’t try.” – Naomi O’Donnell, D’Estrees Bakery
Section28 Artisan Cheeses
Food Production / Value-Adding | Woodside, Adelaide Hills
From guesswork to precision – and a national award-winning result.
Section28 Artisan Cheeses is one of the few commercial producers of raw milk cheese in Australia. Based in Woodside and launched in 2015, they had already won National Champion at the Australian Grand Dairy Awards – twice. The quality was there. What was missing was the science to make it consistent.
The challenge: understanding how each batch of raw milk would behave during the cheesemaking process requires real-time data. Without it, cheesemakers rely on experience and instinct. Section28 was sending milk samples to external laboratories and waiting weeks for results – which meant critical decisions were made on incomplete information.
A Hills and Coast Business Grant funded three pieces of precision testing equipment: an automated titrator to measure lactic acid, a rapid-read milk analyser for same-day batch decisions, and a halogen moisture analyser for finished cheese. Together, they brought the lab in-house.
Product loss dropped from 10% to between 2-3%. A new cheese launched nine months ahead of schedule. And director Kym Masters estimates the business is now one to two years ahead of where it would have been without the grant.
“If you have a genuine need in your business, then it’s definitely worth investing the time to put a high-quality application together.” – Kym Masters, Section28 Artisan Cheeses
Chamberlain Orchards
Horticulture / Primary Production | Adelaide Hills
Four generations of pear growing. One piece of technology changing everything.
Damian McArdle is a fourth-generation pear grower. His family has been farming from the same land since 1932, and Chamberlain Orchards now grows seven varieties of pear across a substantial operation – with Packham Triumph pears making up around 80% of the crop.
The challenge they faced was a familiar one for fruit growers: cold storage extends shelf life, but it can also cause superficial scald – a cosmetic injury that turns pears black once they warm up. Packham pears are especially vulnerable. Without chemical treatment, produce couldn’t be stored past June. In a market where organic demand is growing around 20% year on year, and 100% organic production was the goal, this was a significant constraint.
A Hills and Coast Business Grant helped make a purpose-built solution viable: an Isolcell Dynamic Controlled Atmosphere machine from Italy that monitors coolroom oxygen levels in real time, using nitrogen to reduce them as low as 0.7% – the conditions that protect fruit from scald without chemical intervention.
The equipment arrived and was installed just in time for the 2022 harvest, putting Chamberlain Orchards at the forefront of organic cool-chain technology in Australia.
“Always look out for grant opportunities. And if you’re unsure of the process, a 5-minute chat to get some advice can be invaluable.” – Damian McArdle, Chamberlain Orchards
Kauppila
Modular Construction / Regional Innovation | Kangaroo Island
No crane. No specialist licences. Five hours instead of a full day.
Kauppila designs and builds prefabricated studios, tourism units and commercial buildings from their facility in Kingscote, delivering to remote and regional sites across Kangaroo Island. They do precision work, in a location where the usual support infrastructure – crane hire, specialist equipment, easy freight – simply doesn’t exist.
That gap had a real cost. Moving completed modules required multiple people, heavy machinery, specialist licences, and days of logistics. It was expensive, risky, and a bottleneck that limited how fast the business could grow.
A Hills and Coast Business Grant funded four mobile column hoists – equipment typically used for lifting heavy vehicles, adapted here for modular buildings. The first deployment with the new hoists reduced a four-to-five person job to a two-person task. Four modules were loaded in eight hours. Turnaround times improved. Safety improved. And Kauppila gained something more valuable than any single piece of equipment: the ability to run their entire operation in-house, without depending on resources that don’t exist on an island.
Five more tourism accommodation modules are now under construction, ready to be deployed using the new system.
“This flexible, matched funding program proved to be invaluable for Kauppila as it simply made the investment decision viable.” – Sharon and Luke Kauppila, Kauppila Pty Ltd
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