photo-icon Bakery on O'Connell

From Opportunity to Growth: Adelaide Businesses Making Their Mark

Stories Business
Last updated 15 Oct, 2026

What does business success actually look like in Adelaide?

Across Adelaide CBD and North Adelaide, businesses are finding different ways to grow. Some are building loyal customer bases and establishing distinctive brands. Others are expanding their markets, developing new capabilities, or translating a strong local presence into a platform for expansion.

Their experiences demonstrate that business growth rarely follows a single formula. It often begins with a clear understanding of customers and markets, followed by the ability to recognise emerging demand and respond with purpose.

Success starts with understanding your market

North Adelaide's Bakery on O'Connell provides a compelling example of how customer insight can shape a business's direction. The bakery was not originally intended to operate around the clock, but university students began visiting late at night after noticing fresh products being made on-site.

As manager James Kent recalled: "We used to get uni students who would walk in and say, 'Oh, it smells great in here, can we come in and buy stuff?'"

The business responded by employing additional staff and eventually restructuring its operations to become a 24-hour bakery, turning an unforeseen pattern of customer behaviour into a distinctive point of difference.

The experience illustrates how attentiveness to customers' needs can reveal new ways to strengthen a business model. Across Adelaide CBD and North Adelaide, businesses such as Osteria Oggi, VON Thai, Let's Brunch and Barber 11 offer further examples of how local enterprises attract customers and establish their place in the market.

Building from a strong local base

For some businesses, sustained growth begins with a clear understanding of their local market and a reputation built on trusted relationships.

North Adelaide-based real estate business Crawford Doran is one example. Established in 2024, the business has expanded across metropolitan Adelaide and was recognised as Boutique Independent of the Year at the 2026 REB Awards.

Since opening, Crawford Doran has drawn on its local market knowledge and relationships to expand beyond its original inner-west focus. Its trajectory demonstrates how a strong regional understanding, supported by a credible reputation and established networks, can provide a foundation for broader market reach.

Knowing a market and earning customers' confidence can create a platform from which businesses extend their reach, deepen their presence, and pursue new avenues for expansion.

Taking Adelaide capability to new markets

For other businesses, growth involves translating capabilities developed in South Australia into a presence across national and international markets.

Ahrens provides a long-running example. The fifth-generation South Australian family business has grown from its local foundations into a national company with an international presence across markets including the United States, Vietnam and South Africa. Along the way, it has developed new capabilities, built strategic partnerships, and acquired businesses to support its expansion into new markets.

Its 2026 acquisition of South African water infrastructure business SBS Tanks is one recent example. The acquisition increased the Ahrens Group workforce to more than 2,000 globally, while SBS Tanks has installed more than 4,000 tanks across 36 countries.

Ahrens' story shows how established expertise, accumulated over generations, can underpin international expansion. By building on its existing capabilities while extending its reach into new markets, the business illustrates how a company can pursue global growth while retaining its South Australian foundations.

A city where businesses can grow

These businesses operate in very different sectors, but their stories share a common thread.

They understand their customers, recognise opportunities, and adapt. They also build the relationships, reputation and capabilities that allow them to take their next step, whether that means responding to new demand, expanding across metropolitan Adelaide or entering international markets.

These individual business stories sit within a broader economic landscape. The City of Adelaide is home to 12,975 businesses, an increase of 257 over the year, while local industry gross regional product (GRP) reached $19.11 billion, up 2.4% year-on-year.

Together, these stories and indicators show the different ways businesses can establish themselves, build connections and grow in Adelaide CBD and North Adelaide.

For AEDA, showcasing these businesses is about more than recognising individual achievement. It is about demonstrating the diversity of Adelaide's business community and the pathways available to enterprises looking to establish, expand or invest in the city.

Through AEDA's Data and Insights and Business Investment teams, businesses can access market insights and connections to support informed decision-making, assess market conditions, and identify potential avenues for expansion.

Explore AEDA's Data and Insights or connect with our Business Investment team to inform your next strategic move.

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