The Annual Staff Dinner is CMV Group’s largest event of the year, providing a wonderful opportunity to recognise the achievements of our people and businesses, while bringing employees and their guests together to enjoy a night of socialising and shared celebration.
 

The CMV Group Annual Staff Dinners are held in both Adelaide and Melbourne, providing staff across the Group the opportunity to come together and celebrate the year, as well as receive updates from across the automotive and farming divisions and acknowledge the amazing achievements of our valued employees.

This year’s CMV Group Annual Staff Dinner in Adelaide welcomed a record attendance with nearly 1,300 guests attending and it was wonderful to have over 800 guests be a part of the special event in Melbourne. As always, both events were memorable evenings and reflected the company’s ongoing growth and focus on our valued employees. 

Victorian guests gathered at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, with the room made even more spectacular by an impressive display of trucks and vehicles, including a Hino 700 Series, UD Quon, Mack 780hp Super-Liner, Volvo FH16, a vintage Volvo G88 and many other iconic and historic models.

The Adelaide Convention Centre was the perfect space to host 140 tables of our South Australian employees and their special guests, in addition to a range of 30 historic and new vehicles which provided the perfect surrounding backdrop for the evening. These included the new Kenworth K220, new Volvo FH, new DAF XG, Mercedes-Benz G63, Toyota GR Corolla, vintage Kenworth T600 and a 1994 Volvo FH. 

It was a delight to have Amelia Mulcahy of Channel 7 Adelaide return as MC for the Adelaide and Melbourne dinners. Amelia always does a fantastic job of setting the tone for the evening with her positive energy, genuine engagement with guests and seamless management of the evening’s formalities.

The evening began with a wonderful Welcome to Country by Jack Buckskin in Adelaide and Elder Colin Hunter Jnr and Ganga Giri in Melbourne, followed by the Chairperson’s Address by David Simmons in Adelaide and Deputy Chairperson’s Address from Steve Palyga in Melbourne. 

Anthony Casey, Director of Operations, then took to the stage in Adelaide and was accompanied by Work Health Safety Manager, Jess Gilson, to speak about WH&S across the business and to announce the Safety Awards winners. In Melbourne, Executive Director, Jono Crawford presented the award winners. The winners were nominated by their managers in recognition of their personal contribution to safety within their respective businesses and were awarded a trophy and a gift card valued at $1,000.

Safety Award Winners

Anthony and Jono also recognised the employees who received a Safety Commendation Award to the value of $250. 

Up next, they acknowledged the CMV Group businesses that have shown exceptional dedication to safety throughout the past year.

Business Safety Award Winners

After the Safety Awards, Amelia introduced Joint Managing Directors Miles and Daniel Crawford for a panel-style discussion. They shared key highlights from the past year, including strong profits, achievements across the business and the progress on the development of the “The CMV Way,” while recognising the hard work of employees throughout the business. 

Guests enjoyed a video update from CMV Farms Managing Director, Ryan Norton, highlighting a strong financial turnaround, favourable market conditions and a recently successful harvest. He also shared progress on infrastructure, expansion projects, innovative products and their ongoing safety commitment. 

Up next, Daniel and Miles proudly introduced the inaugural CMV Group Employee Excellence Awards program. This new set of values-based awards were developed to recognise outstanding individuals who go above and beyond to bring the CMV Group Values to life.

Employee Excellence Award Winner

Executive Directors Jono Crawford and Ross Grieg then took to the stage and presented this year’s Employee and Apprentice of the Year awards.

Living CMV Values is a prerequisite for these awards and Employees of the Year award winners received a $500 Visa gift voucher, while Apprentices of the Year are awarded a $500 credit to their tool account.

Employees of the Year

Apprentices of the Year

To conclude the night’s formalities we were thrilled to recognise the employees celebrating significant milestones within our business through Long Service Awards. 

The CMV Group takes great pride in its many long-serving employees and sincerely thanks them for their ongoing contributions.

Long Service Awards

After the evening’s formalities concluded, Superband brought the energy to the stage in both Adelaide and Melbourne, with guests getting the dance floor started. When guests weren’t socialising or dancing the night away, they had fun with the unique 360 photobooth, capturing lasting memories from the night. 

Thank you to everyone who attended this year's Annual Staff Dinners. We’d also like to extend a huge thank you to the evening's speakers, those who assisted with transporting vehicles and the event organisers. Your efforts were sincerely appreciated in helping to bring together our biggest Annual Staff Dinners yet.