Pacific Services Group Holdings, a wholly Indigenous-owned company, and JLL have teamed up to create a new Indigenous-owned property management company, Evolve FM. PSGH is the majority owner of Evolve FM, which has just started providing facility and property management services to Indigenous Business Australia for its portfolio of more than 15 facilities across Australia. The IBA contract is for three years.

'It’s a very exciting development in the Indigenous business sector," said John Owens, Evolve FM CEO. 'Evolve FM is the only Indigenous majority-owned full service facilities management company in Australia, and we think we can make a real difference by maximising the engagement of other Indigenous businesses in our supply chain. It can have a genuine multiplier effect."

Steve Mackintosh, JLL’s Head of Government Business, said JLL is proud to be associated with a company like PSGH. 'PSGH is a leading Australian Indigenous business, and they bring energy and dynamism to our partnership," said Mackintosh.

Troy Rugless, co-owner of PSGH, said having a partner like JLL has allowed PSGH and Evolve FM to be 10-15 years ahead of where we would have been. "It’s not easy to start up a full service property management company, but JLL’s market-leading expertise and resources have provided a significant boost to us," said Rugless.

PSGH took out two of the nine Supplier Diversity Awards at the Supply Nation Connect 2016 Gala Awards in Sydney earlier this month. PSGH was awarded the Supplier to Supplier Partnership of the Year (in conjunction with Cole Workwear) and the Certified Supplier of the Year. James Tonkin, Chief Operating Officer of Evolve FM, noted that Evolve FM is committed to using Indigenous businesses wherever possible.

In July 2015, the Australian Government announced its new Indigenous Procurement Policy and for the 2015/16 financial year, the government has mandated that 0.5 percent of all government external expenditure must be spent with Indigenous businesses, increasing incrementally each year to become 3 percent by 2019/20.