Smart50 Awards Point Force Group
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Point Force Group

REVENUE: $10.2 million
GROWTH: 261.1%
FOUNDER: Ciaran Finnegan (33), James Hennelly (35), Nicholas Gordon (35)
HEAD OFFICE: Melbourne
YEAR FOUNDED: 2017
EMPLOYEES: 115
INDUSTRY: Construction

How it started

Co-founders Ciaran Finnegan, James Hennelly and Nicholas Gordon identified a shortage of high quality, affordable skilled labour services for construction sites around Melbourne and decided to build Point Force Group to fill the gap.

Despite the company growing incredibly quickly, seven clients went out of business in Point Force Group’s first two years of trading, while owing a lot of money. According to the co-founders, if they hadn’t paid for invoice insurance an expense they were initially hesitant about they wouldn’t have come back from the $500,000 hole in their pockets.

Growth

The co-founders quickly branched out beyond general labour hire to also offer basement construction, traffic control, carpentry, and skilled and unskilled labour services, which they say was instrumental to the company’s fast growth.

In five years, the business has grown dramatically. Point Force Group closed the 2018-19 financial year with $2.8 million in revenue, before recording $10.2 million in revenue and hiring 40 new staff members in the 2020-21 financial year.

Where to next?

With a shared passion for construction, the co-founders always wanted to start their own construction and development arm of the business — an achievement they broke ground on this year.

Next year, Finnegan, Hennelly and Gordon aim to focus their energy on securing government labour contracts and providing labour to major events. 

The founders told SmartCompany they’re excited to see what the next 12 months brings, and have no plans of exiting the business any time soon.