What is stopping competition in New Zealand?
As New Zealanders grapple with the cost of everyday essentials, from the supermarket checkout to power bills and bank fees, pressure is growing to address weak competition in critical sectors. Rebalancing Markets: Competition, power, and a fair economy, hosted by Business School research centre Juncture: Dialogues on Inclusive Capitalism, saw experts […]
Want to break free from big tech? ‘Self‑hosting’ could be the answer
Nikolai Hampton, School of Science, Edith Cowan University Paul Haskell-Dowland, Professor of Cyber Security Practice, Edith Cowan University You’re probably familiar with the idea that in the world of big tech, “we” are the product. Our data is the currency being traded every time we navigate our social […]
Mind the Gap: Closing the distance between AI hype and factory reality
From August 2026 issue NZ Manufacturer magazine. Manufacturers are under pressure to adopt AI fast. But an AI that doesn’t know your operation isn’t a productivity tool — it’s a liability with good grammar. Here’s why AI needs grounding before you let it loose on your business. By Ursula Riemer, […]
From Garage to Global: 20 years of Brolly Sheets
Family-owned, Kiwi-designed brand Brolly Sheets began with a problem at home. Founder Diane Hurford sewed the first Brolly Sheet after repeated middle-of-the-night bed changes during toilet training. The reusable, absorbent, waterproof bed pad quickly gained traction. What started as a homemade solution grew into a New Zealand manufacturing and export […]
NZ’s largest industrial landowner set to invest $110m in rooftop solar
New Zealand’s largest industrial landowner is set to invest over $110 million in a rooftop solar and battery storage rollout it says will lower production costs for local and export firms while reducing pressure on the national electricity grid at peak times. Over the next decade, the initiative will see […]
Stop managing outcomes, start managing behaviour
Your culture is the operating system driving those results — whether you measure it or not Ask a room of manufacturing leaders whether culture matters and every hand goes up. Ask them how they measure it, or when they last deliberately intervened in it — and the hands come down. […]
Profile: Green Gorilla tells sustainability story that matches its impact
Green Gorilla has spent more than a decade challenging the idea that waste should simply be hauled away and buried. Since 2010, the 100% New Zealand-owned business has grown into a major waste and resource recovery operator, helping customers recover more materials, reduce landfill and take a more practical approach […]
Manufacturing’s automation moment is here – now comes the workforce challenge
Jo Verry, Senior Key Account Manager at industry training organisation, Competenz You lock up your warehouse at night, switch off the lights and press play on an autonomous drone. By morning, it has flown the aisles, scanned barcodes, completed stocktakes and delivered real-time inventory data before the first staff member […]
Why the most valuable asset in your plant isn’t on the balance sheet
-Mike Warmington, Director, Platform 1 As the owner you can be the most valuable asset in the business. Manufacturing companies focus on equipment, inventory, capacity, and productivity. All are very important to success, however what is often overlooked is that a key asset is the systemisation and transferability of the […]
New Zealand talks about productivity, but does not build the capability to deliver it
From July 2026 issue, NZ Manufacturer magazine.We invite readers to feedback to us on this excellent article. How do you see things? How is Productivity in your workplace? Ian Walsh, Partner, Argon & Co New Zealand does not have a shortage of productivity commentary. We have reports, benchmarks, speeches, and […]
Pressure equipment in practice – Pressure Equipment Workshop 2026
4th September 2026 – Novotel Lakeside, Rotorua New Zealand’s manufacturing and engineering sectors are operating in a period of rapid change, where productivity, compliance, skills, and technology are all moving at once. For many businesses, the challenge is not simply keeping pace, but making sound decisions in an environment where […]
Connecting the dots
David Altena has 30 years of tech industry experience and is a founding director of The Better SMB Limited. david@altena.solutions Rob Bull, Director of the New Zealand Lean Academy rob@nzla.nz Connecting The Dots Everyone’s busy, capable and pulling in different directions Most manufacturers […]
Science reform: The missing link in NZ’s manufacturing productivity puzzle ?
The Problem We Have Been Ignoring By Sean Doherty, Manufacturing Commentator | NZ Industry Trends Ask any manufacturer about their biggest constraints and the answers are familiar: energy costs, skilled labour, margin pressure, and global competition from economies with far greater scale. What rarely comes up is New Zealand’s persistent underinvestment in the science and technology that lifts productivity. That gap is real. New Zealand’s total R&D investment sits at around 1.5% of GDP, well below the OECD average of 2.7%, and business investment is under 1%, among the lowest in the developed world. This shortfall is estimated to account for up to a third of our productivity gap. But this isn’t just about how much we spend. It’s also about how well manufacturing and science connect. When that link is weak, research struggles to reach the factory floor and manufacturers miss out on practical solutions. When it works, the gains are clear: better products, improved materials, and performance that carries through to export outcomes and productivity gains. All of this sits against a broader shift. Manufacturing’s share of GDP has halved since 2004, and close to 60% of what remains is concentrated in dairy, meat, food, and timber processing. These sectors matter, but focusing most of our limited science effort there won’t deliver the step change in productivity or living standards we’ll need. At best, it sustains incremental gains in mature industries. If we want a different trajectory, the focus has to shift toward building new capability, not just reinforcing what we already do well. What the 2026 Science Reforms Change The Government’s Science Investment Plan 2026–2036 is the most significant restructure of New Zealand’s research system in more than a decade. It also chooses a clear mission based focus and puts commercial outcomes as key objectives. Seven Crown […]