Business News

Who is exporting?

NZ Manufacturer, June 2023 A mere 30 New Zealand companies, according to the Productivity Commission, account for over half of all exports. They say focus really needs to be on innovation and moving away from volume to value-added products. So, what are overseas trade visits for? Do business legations need to be vetted to determine that the ‘fact finding trip’ is not just an overseas holiday? Do they bring back business for the country? How much money has government invested over the years in trade visits that result in absolutely no return? Dairy is New Zealand’s biggest export earner – worth about $19 billion a year. The largest increase for the year ended December 2022 was for milk powder, butter, and cheese. This is New Zealand’s largest export commodity group, making up 28 percent of total exports over the year. This industry group, with a proven track record, doesn’t need to justify the trip; they have established markets and maintain them very well. To get more than 30 companies contributing to our export success, we need to increase productivity which needs: a positive attitude and involvement of management; proactive employees; good working conditions; tools and equipment available to raise productivity and the availability of input supplies. The four determinants of a nation’s productivity are physical capital, technology, human capital, and natural resources. Technology is a decisive factor in productivity, along with physical capital (equipment used to produce products), human capital (the knowledge of labourers), and natural resources. Now all of this sounds logical but obviously is not being put into practice(properly) if only 30 companies generate most of our export revenue. What are the restraints? At present, the shining light for export growth appears to be the gaming industry. What is everyone else doing? We are in a constant state of […]

Q&A: Keren Cook, NatureBee CEO and Global Consumer Advocate

Q: How are you finding current business conditions? A: Continued talk of a recession and the rising cost of living is reducing consumers’ discretionary spending, which naturally makes sales growth tougher. For us, this means working harder to position our product in a crowded marketplace where price is king for many. Q: Where do you see future growth opportunities for your company? A: We see some positive future growth opportunities offshore presently, specifically with a focus on the United States and United Kingdom markets. Q: Business success – what’s it all about? A: For us, business success is about customer-centric thinking and actions; having products that people both need and want. The key is to continually adapt and find ways in which to communicate the key benefits of our products and the drivers that really cut through a noisy marketplace. Q: How do you measure success – money or satisfaction for the task at hand? A: At NatureBee success is about having happy customers, which leads to business growth and customer retention! As such, success is measured by the lifetime value of our customers. We currently have over 29,000 loyal, returning customers and over 55,000 customers who we communicate with regularly, and we are always growing. Q: How are you finding staff retention in the current environment? Is it hard to keep them? A: Because of the way we’re set up as a business, the staff retention issues others are facing aren’t an issue for us at NatureBee. We tend to work alongside our long-term partners in a contract capacity and are fortunate that this creates consistency as well as flexibility. Q: What one thing would make business easier for you? A: Great question. I think finding the magic button for Amazon would be it for me! We have been […]

Major international summit to boost Kiwi healthcare, tech & food exports

A major international healthcare summit to be hosted in New Zealand is set to boost export access for Kiwi health, tech and food product manufacturers into over 10 nations with a combined GDP of US$33 trillion. A number of foreign dignitaries will be among the projected 10,000+ international and domestic attendees at the event, which is also expected to benefit the tourism sector and the local economy. Guests include health policy specialists from United Arab Emirates, China, Indonesia and Singapore. Government and industry representatives from Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Egypt, UK, Germany and Kazakhstan are also expected to attend. A number of the country’s healthcare organisations and largest food exporters including St Johns, Fonterra and Zespri have also confirmed they will use the event to promote their products to buyers from countries with a population of over 2 billion. In addition, buyers from China’s largest e-commerce platforms including Alibaba, JD.com, Meituan and Kuaishou are also set to attend – as they look to grow the number of their New Zealand suppliers. Tony Browne, former New Zealand ambassador to China and chairman of the Council of Next Federation, the event organisers, says the High 5 “Post Pandemic” summit, will include a series of seminars, forums, workshops and exhibitions focusing on economic recovery, mental health, telemedicine, ageing wellness, PPE and education. “The event will provide attendees with the opportunity to engage with industry leaders as they share industry policy research and market insights dealing with challenges facing the health industry. “We will also provide a centralised procurement platform for exhibitors to connect with international buyers and health experts. “While New Zealand has established trading relationships for food and beverages there is an increasing opportunity for us to look at growing health supplements and health tech exports. “The event will enable participants to […]

Empower Software celebrates 21 years in business.

Empower Software have pioneered engineers’ and manufacturers’ use of labour productivity software using touch screens on the workshop floor, since commencing business in 2002. Empower Software is cloud based, an Add On and an App; manufacturing clients interface to their accounting software. Empower is supplied and supported as SaaS (Software as a Service), low cost monthly fee based. They currently have 240 manufacturing and engineering clients, mainly throughout Australia and New Zealand including US, Canada, UK, South Africa and the Philippines. There are an estimated 80,000 SME based manufacturing and engineering businesses throughout Australia and New Zealand, 80,000 businesses an estimated 30% still use manual time sheets “today” for workshop staff to manually record their jobs and times worked on each job. An estimated 60% do not track their workshop staff time on their jobs at all because manual time sheets produce information that is “too little, too late, too inaccurate and too costly to produce”. Manual time sheets cost approximately $80 per workshop staff member per week to produce; in comparison the Empower Software App is approximately $15 per staff member per week – so it is an obvious substitution to adopt technology and use the Empower Software App. Empower Software suits manufacturers and engineers who wish to replace manual time sheets, as well as those manufacturers who wish to commence tracking time on jobs for the first time, using technology. Lean manufacturing, Digital Manufacturing, Industry 4.0 are all being heavily promoted to Australasian and NZ manufacturers by government and industry groups as the means to be labour cost competitive and Empower Software “rides that wave”. Touch screens on the workshop floor and Empower deliver for 90% of manufacturing clients a 20% to 40% reduction in labour times on jobs and 20% to 40% reduction in labour cost […]

Kayasand receives backing from NZGIF to reduce carbon emissions from concrete

Kayasand, a distributor of premium sand manufacturing technology, is opening its first V7 high-technology manufacturing demonstration plant in New Zealand, which uses waste products such as recycled glass, concrete and slag, and turns them into premium sand for concrete. Kayasand has received the backing of New Zealand Green Investment Finance (NZGIF) via a $3.5 million equity investment. The green investment bank was established to accelerate investment that helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A further $1.8 million of private investment has been secured alongside the NZGIF investment bringing the total raise to $5.3 million. Natural sand supplies are becoming harder to access and traditional concrete manufacturing processes, including the impacts of sand dredging on coastlines such as Pakiri, 100km north of Auckland, are not sustainable over the longer-term. Dr Bram Smith, Kayasand General Manager, says “Our technology can reduce or in cases eliminates the need for natural sand dredging. It uses by-products and recycled materials such as quarry crusher dust and recycled glass to manufacture a sand of such quality that it makes stronger concrete than natural sand when mixed with cement. Our goal is to reduce carbon emissions from concrete production by up to 20% using this method.” Kayasand technology is used in over 300 plants across Japan, China, India, and Australia. NZGIF Chief Executive, Craig Weise, says the deal is an important step and is a boost for the construction sector and consumers who are eagerly looking for more sustainable building materials. He says, “Auckland’s infrastructure requirements alone are projected to be $26 billion over the next decade and if New Zealand is going to meet its CO2 emission reduction targets, we need to find alternative manufacturing and building methods. We are delighted to invest in Kayasand to help deliver its services to the construction sector and to support […]

Matahio Energy completes acquisition of onshore assets in Taranaki

Matahio Energy has completed the acquisition of a portfolio of six onshore oil and gas licenses in the Taranaki Basin, NZ. Matahio will be the operator of these licenses, holding 100% participating interest in four licenses, and 70% interest in the remaining two licenses. Of the six licenses, three are currently producing. The sale and purchase agreement between the parties was signed in March 2022. All required approvals for the relevant New Zealand regulatory authorities have been obtained to complete this transaction. Key highlights of the transaction: – Operatorship of two fields, namely Cheal and Sidewinder, which are currently producing a total of 1.4 Kboepd (thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day), net to Matahio. Cheal and Sidewinder are well-established, prolific fields, which have produced over 5 MM bbls (million barrels of oil) to date, since the first oil in 2008. – Matahio is adding 2 MM boe (million barrels of oil equivalent) 2P reserves (Net, effective date 1st January 2023). At prevailing oil prices and contemporary OPEX rates, the Cheal and Sidewinder fields are expected to generate positive cash flow until 2030. The New Zealand business’s EBITDA for the calendar year 2022 was NZD$29 MM. – The transaction also includes full technical and operational teams, based in New Plymouth, who have a track record in delivering strong health, safety & environment (HSE) and production performance. Most notably, recent production optimisation efforts have resulted in production rates returning to 2015 levels without drilling any new wells. – Matahio has crafted a multi-year development programme consisting of infill and step-out drilling as well as the appraisal of newer fields in the Puka license (which was 100% acquired by Matahio) to be tied back to existing operated infrastructure. This organic growth programme targets an additional 3.8 MM boe and, if successful, will […]

Women in Business: Marina Rajic, CEO BioViros

Tell readers what it is that you do? At BioViros, we make special tools called viral vectors to help fight cancer. Imagine these as tiny delivery vans. We take a harmless virus, remove its contents, and put in a special package instead. This package has instructions that can teach our own immune system to recognise and fight cancer. We produce these viral vectors in large quantities so they can be used in cancer treatments. It’s a bit like running a factory that makes special delivery vans, but these vans are 0.000000001 meters in size, and their cargo is to equip our white blood cells. So far, we have established a laboratory for production in Lower Hutt, and hired key people to do run the process in NZ. As we expand in 2023, we are prioritising communication with our investors, understanding that their partnership is crucial for the team growth and production scale up to enable production of viral vectors for clinical trials in NZ and beyond. Where are the opportunities in Bio Tech? In the last couple of years, we’ve seen a growth of FDA approved drugs for cell and gene therapy. We have decided to dive deeper into this and place our bets on viral vector manufacturing. I hope to see New Zealand attracting a lot of talent in the field of cell therapy in the very near future. Globally we will also probably see a shift towards personalised medicine, driven by genomics and bioinformatics where precise algorithms can tailor the treatments for individual patients. Does BioViros have overseas markets? A large portion of BioViros market will be overseas. We’ve talked to people from Australia, US and will look into Asia as well. Customers are mainly interested in sourcing a high-quality product without the fear of delays, because that […]

Australian Steel Convention 2023: Choose Steel

10 -12 September 2023 Sofitel Melbourne, Victoria ASI convention to flag exciting careers in steel Steel as the preferred building material and why you should Choose Steel as a career will be key themes at this year’s Australian Steel Convention at Sofitel Melbourne on 10 – 12 September 2023. What to expect: A young achievers panel will share their career stories – and help shape a new Australian Steel Institute’s (ASI) ‘careers-in-steel’ strategy. Project case studies are back by demand, showcasing the innovative solutions across a myriad of project applications and steel product groups. Popular TV personality and academic Adam Spencer will guide us through an entertaining and informative program, full of energy and valuable insights for your business. There will be valuable insights as to what is happening around the globe, and how these topics affect your business from a global and local perspective. The 2023 convention will present the ASI Choose Steel campaign – an exciting promotional campaign putting steel at the forefront of the public eye as Australia’s preferred building material – and how you can get involved with your steel solutions. The convention will run over three days, and will include a unique opportunity for networking, learning and celebration in a single package. Sponsorship and exhibition packages available now, download the prospectus by clicking on the button below. Please contact Convention Manager, Jessica Abbey at jessicaa@steel.org.au to find out more.

New Zealand research to fly on International Space Station

Dr Sarah Kessans. A research facility prototype developed in Christchurch will soon orbit Earth aboard the International Space Station (ISS) under a partnership between the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and US space company Axiom Space. The facility for studying protein crystal growth in space, developed by Senior Lecturer at the University of Canterbury’s School of Product Design, Dr Sarah Kessans, in collaboration with teams from Arizona State University and Christchurch companies Asteria Engineering Consultancy and Intranel, was one of two projects selected for initial feasibility studies in 2022. “We signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Axiom last year and agreed to two feasibility studies, one of which led to Dr Kessans’ project,” MBIE Director of Innovative Partnerships Joe McKay said. “This facility could lead to major advances in medical, biotechnological, food science, and agricultural innovation and we are excited to support the next step.” Sarah’s research facility is scheduled to fly on Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) later this year, which will be the third private astronaut mission to the ISS. “Being able to conduct this research on the ISS is such a huge opportunity and really is critical to what we’re trying to achieve in terms of scientific innovation and future commercial outcomes,” Sarah said. “When protein crystals are grown in microgravity, they can develop into larger and higher quality crystals than what we can grow on Earth. These crystals can then be used to create high-resolution pictures of the protein’s structure. If we have a detailed picture of what virus proteins look like, for example, we can develop things like antiviral drugs and vaccines.” Current facilities for protein crystal growth on the Space Station require significant time and resources for astronauts to mix samples, set up experiments, observe growth and adjust settings as needed. By developing […]

Dr John Peebles: The Board review and strategies for managing issues and crises

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2zYcG5mMK4M3ao2WinNjyb The three questions a Director should ask when they first join an organisation. What Directors can do to upskill themselves to become more effective in their roles. Strategies to prepare for and manage issues and crises. When a board review is required You can listen to the interview on all major platforms including: Podbean: https://thecontentplace.podbean.com/e/dr-john-peebles-the-board-review-plus-strategies-to-prepare-for-and-manage-issues-crises/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2zYcG5mMK4M3ao2WinNjyb Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/dr-john-peebles-the-board-review-plus-strategies-to/id1538676422?i=1000612670276 iHeart radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-the-c-suite-spot-73692882/episode/dr-john-peebles-the-board-review-114923878/ Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Dr-John-Peebles-The-Board-review-plus-strategies-to-prepare-for-and-manage-issues-crises-Podcast/B0C4ZWLWB4?ref=a_pd_The-C-_c3_lAsin_0_0&pf_rd_p=625c212d-b95a-47db-8d56-d35a359de6e9&pf_rd_r=W52BA86HMCHVS1RXS8WE&pageLoadId=Mr2Jow1VlFhkTZpS&creativeId=6c5159d7-bb10-4fb4-929b-ae2b2f5000c7

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