Sustainability

World class is not optional

From May issue, NZ Manufacturer magazine Ian Walsh, Partner, Argon & Co While there are industries — car assembly, for example — where the economic case for local production can be debated, food is different. Producing food is something we should be doing. More than that, it is something we must do well. The story of Heinz — and by association Wattie’s — is one that is very near and dear to my heart. I have worked in this business on and off since the 1990s, in the UK, the US, and across ANZ. That lived experience matters, because this is not a theoretical discussion about ownership structures or ideology. It is a practical lesson in how value is built over decades — and how it can be lost just as surely. Under the leadership of Tony O’Reilly, Heinz became one of the great global food companies of the late twentieth century. Through the 1980s and early 1990s, the strategy was clear: disciplined international expansion, strong brand investment, and relentless focus on cost and productivity. The acquisition of Wattie’s in 1992 — for approximately NZ$565 million — fit this pattern perfectly: a category‑leading local brand with deep trust and export potential. Markets rewarded this approach. By the early 1990s, Heinz’s market value had grown to roughly US$10–15 billion. Scale, brand power, and operating discipline reinforced one another. But acquisition‑led growth is never free. Each successive wave of M&A expanded the footprint and lifted shareholder expectations. With every deal came aging assets, capital‑intensive manufacturing plants, and increasing complexity. To sustain growth and fund further acquisitions, the base business had to extract more productivity and cut costs. Over time, this narrowed the margin for error. Many manufacturing sites were already under‑capitalised when acquired. They required sustained reinvestment simply to remain competitive. Too […]

Making scope 3 manageable: how to use spend-based emission factors

Manufacturers need a clear view of emissions across their value chain to identify hotspots, manage risk and meet reporting requirements. The challenge is that supply chains are complex, with limited visibility beyond direct suppliers. This makes scope 3 emissions difficult to quantify. Unlike scope 1 and scope 2, they are rarely measured directly and rely on estimates. Data is often incomplete or unavailable, especially early on. Waiting for perfect data is not realistic. This is where spend-based emission factors come in. They use financial data to estimate emissions, allowing organisations to build a complete scope 3 baseline from the data they already have. Using financial data to get emissions insight Spend-based emission factors link financial data to greenhouse gas emissions. They express the average emissions associated with a dollar spent in a given category. This approach uses national economic data and emissions data to estimate the average emissions per dollar spent. In practice, it allows manufacturers to use their existing spend data to estimate scope 3 emissions. This is exactly how many organisations begin. Financial data is readily available, structured and complete. Using it as a starting point enables a rapid, economy-wide view of emissions without waiting for supplier engagement. Photo by Cooper Hofmann on Unsplash Why this approach resonates with manufacturers Manufacturers operate across complex supply chains, often with a mix of domestic and imported inputs. Understanding upstream emissions in detail is challenging, particularly early on. Spend-based emission factors address this by providing full coverage. Because they are built on national economic accounts and include import data, they capture emissions across both domestic production and international supply chains. This completeness is one of their defining strengths. Every dollar spent is linked to emissions somewhere in the value chain. They are also efficient. Organisations can apply them using […]

The most expensive decision you signed off

Why not investing still shows up on your P&L Not many of us would say it out loud at the next networking event or Friday drinks. The biggest barrier to growth in New Zealand manufacturing isn’t the banks, isn’t the government, and it isn’t Donald Trump. It’s us. David Altana is Head of Growth &Partnerships at SmartSpace.ai & C0-Founder & Host of The Better SMB Podcast. david@altena.solutions It’s the business owner who knows what needs to change but keeps the wallet closed. The operator who will spend sixty grand on a new ute without blinking, but won’t invest $5,000 in a consultant with the knowledge to fundamentally improve how the business runs. Yes, the environment is genuinely difficult. A 15% tariff on New Zealand exports to the US, ongoing US-China trade tension rattling our largest trading partner, and renewed inflationary pressure on input costs driven by conflict in the Middle East. Add unemployment at 5.4%, near a decade high, and it’s no surprise consumer confidence is slipping. Rob Bull is Director of the New Zealand Lean Academy. rob@nzla.nz But this environment also creates the perfect alibi for doing nothing. And doing nothing is still a decision — one with real, measurable consequences. Holding back feels sensible – But it isn’t Of course hesitation feels rational right now. When uncertainty is everywhere, restraint looks like discipline. Deferring a machine upgrade preserves cash. Pausing training protects short‑term capacity. Delaying external support feels responsible. Inside businesses, that restraint shows up in familiar ways. Capital projects slide into the next quarter. Improvement initiatives lose momentum. Capability gaps are acknowledged, then tolerated. Nothing dramatic happens — just a series of small deferrals that quietly become the status quo. But financially, this isn’t neutrality. It’s a position, and one your competitors can see. The […]

Focus on: Quanton

Garry Green, Managing Director and Founder Tell readers what your company does Quanton is an AI, automation and operational excellence business founded in 2016 with a clear purpose: empowering humanity for tomorrow’s technology, today. We help ANZ organisations navigate digital transformation by making AI and automation work for people, not replace them. Our approach is pragmatic and technology-agnostic – we partner with Microsoft, Google Cloud and leading ai and automation platforms to deliver solutions that generate real business value. We’ve delivered over 120 intelligent automation and AI programmes, releasing more than five million hours of benefits for our customers. Our expertise spans financial services, manufacturing, infrastructure, utilities, government and logistics – anywhere organisations need to drive growth, productivity and profitability through smarter ways of working. How are you currently seeing the transformation of business? Business transformation today requires a layered approach. We see value delivered at three distinct levels: individual productivity, team performance and organisational capability. At the individual level, AI tools are transforming how professionals work – meeting capture, document preparation, research and analysis. At the team level, we’re seeing AI turbocharge sales performance, customer service and operational processes. At the organisational level, AI enables enterprise-wide compliance, quality assurance and strategic capability. The organisations succeeding are those treating AI as business transformation, not just technology implementation. The technology rarely fails – it’s strategy, governance, change management and skills development where projects stall. We consistently see that 70% of success comes from people, process and cultures with data foundations and technology accounting for 30%. AI – how will it change what we do? 2026 is the year AI agents move from experimentation to production. Gartner predicts 40% of enterprise applications will embed AI agents by year-end, up from less than 5% in 2025. These aren’t chatbots – they’re systems that […]

The emotional reality of a business exit

Mike Warmington, Director, Platform 1 Letting go of your business is often like letting go a piece of yourself. It’s been your life and you have been the business. Your identity is wrapped up in, and your confidence and self-worth are linked to its success. Staff feel like family and have shared the journey with you and your clients trust you. It embodies the sacrifices you have made including long hours, missed family time and sometimes financial and emotional stress. Exiting also means releasing control and direction of something you have built. For some it also involves grieving. It’s emotional as much as a financial transaction. The emotional side to an exit can often be the reason for delaying the process as you come to terms with the upcoming change you are not sure you are ready for. “The fact you will exit your business at some stage is inevitable” How can you lessen the impact? Firstly, it’s important to have a plan for your next phase of life before the exit regardless of the exit option you pursue. Prepare emotionally as well as financially. Not every business owner wants to go “cold turkey” and make a clean break. You can start the process well before you are ready to step out completely. An option is to start removing founder dependency over time, by bringing in a talented Business Partner who can free up some of your time and allow you to prepare emotionally for the shift. This person acquires shares over time and can give you the ability to emotionally exit at a timeframe of your choosing while protecting your legacy. Exiting your business is emotional because it’s not a transaction it’s a transition.

Fonterra’s real turnaround was productivity

From April issue of NZ Manufacturer magazine Geerten Lengkeek, Managing Director, Productivity People Miles Hurrell’s resignation marks the end of a significant chapter for Fonterra, and in many ways, for New Zealand. Fonterra isn’t just another company. It’s our largest business, a global-scale manufacturer, and the commercial engine behind a big part of our primary sector. When Fonterra performs, New Zealand performs. What stands out to me about the Hurrell era is this:the real turnaround wasn’t about growth, it was about productivity. He inherited a business that had achieved global scale, but not always strong returns. Revenue was high, but capital wasn’t working as hard as it could. Over the past six to seven years, that has fundamentally shifted. Return on capital has moved from around 5–6% to consistently around 11–12%, without a material increase in milk supply. That tells you something important. This wasn’t a volume story. It was a conversion story, and that’s what productivity really is. Better conversion of milk into value. Better use of assets to drive throughput and margin. Better deployment of capital into earnings. A big part of that has been strategic focus. Simplifying the portfolio, exiting lower-return businesses, and refocusing on Ingredients and Foodservice where Fonterra has real advantage. But just as important is what’s happened inside the system. This is a manufacturing business at scale. Productivity is won or lost in how well you manage flow, yield, and asset utilisation: from farm through to processing and export. Many years ago, my colleague Nick Brownsword and I were involved in the early operational excellence work in Fonterra. Even then, it was clear how much opportunity existed in improving flow, reducing waste, and aligning the system end-to-end. What’s been encouraging is seeing how those ideas have evolved and matured, and how this is […]

How one local council helped 1,200 low‑income residents finance solar and home energy upgrades

Could this work in New Zealand? Feedback please. Paris Hadfield, Research Fellow, Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University Most of Australia’s existing homes are old, uncomfortable and expensive to run. Too many are energy inefficient, and rising electricity and gas prices are making things worse. Mainstream programs are supporting home energy upgrades. But the transition isn’t happening quickly enough and risks leaving behind the households that could benefit most. Innovative finance models could help. Local initiatives can make solar and electrification more accessible. Darebin City Council’s Solar Saver program Running from 2014-2025, Darebin City Council’s Solar Saver program helped almost 1,200 low-income and vulnerable homeowners in the area get A$4.8 million worth of home energy upgrades. Council paid the upfront cost of installing solar and, in later iterations of the program, reverse cycle air conditioners and hot water heat pumps. Factoring in state government rebates, these costs were added to the homeowner’s property taxes as a “special rates charge”. The homeowner could then repay this money over ten years – interest-free. Suppliers were selected through council tender to make the process easier for homeowners, while ensuring quality products and services including component and performance warranties. This provided certainty for residents, one of whom said: the council’s not going to get involved with some shonky person who’s going to come in and tell you: “Terribly sorry, we’ve got to double the price because you’ve got a nail in the wrong place on your roof” or something. The scheme reduced financial risks and burdens for low-income homeowners. By using council rates to repay the money, the loan is attached to the property itself rather than the homeowner. This means any remaining debt is recouped if and when the house is sold, avoiding a situation where someone is paying a debt for solar […]

Exporting in 2026: Sustainability and proof

Exporters are not being asked for their sustainability commitments. They are being asked to prove them. Across global markets, sustainability is becoming a condition of doing business. Not because it is the “right thing to do” (although it is), but because regulators, retailers and procurement teams are building sustainability into the rules of trade. Eloise Joiner, Sustainability Lead at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), shared with thinkstep-anz team at our recent team days what NZTE is hearing directly from exporters and what this means for New Zealand businesses trying to grow internationally. Her talk was a timely reminder that while the sustainability conversation may feel noisy, complex and sometimes uncertain at home, the international direction is clear. Here are our takeaways Regulation is moving fast and it is not just climate Eloise highlighted that around 70% of New Zealand exports go to countries with mandatory climate disclosures either proposed or enforced. But climate is only one part of the picture. Exporters are also navigating requirements related to modern slavery, packaging, end-of-life responsibility and product design. For many companies, the challenge is not a single regulation. It is the growing number of overlapping requirements across multiple markets. The result is a system that is often fragmented and hard to interpret, particularly for businesses exporting to more than one region. \ The EU is setting the pace and everyone else is watching Eloise made it clear that Europe is setting the direction on sustainability requirements, and exporters will increasingly need to respond. Read more about the Europe’s sustainability demands on NZTE’s website. The challenge is not just the volume of regulation. It is the complexity, fragmentation and ambiguity, especially for companies selling into multiple markets. New Zealand’s domestic policy signals may not match what exporters face internationally. Despite any changes New […]

In God we trust: All others bring data

David Altena is Head of Growth & Partnerships at SmartSpace.ai & Co-Founder & Host of The Better SMB Podcast. david@altena.solutions Rob Bull is Director of the New Zealand Lean Academy. rob@nzla.nz Edwards Deming’s line has been quoted so often it risks becoming wallpaper. But for New Zealand manufacturers facing reducing margins, skills shortages and relentless competition, it’s not a slogan; it must be a standard. You know the feeling. Every day’s busy, the team hustle, the shop floor hums, yet profitability wobbles, lead times slip and projects that looked promising last quarter are still stuck in first gear. The gap isn’t effort. It’s information. Not a shortage of activity, but a shortage of clarity. Do you know what “good”, let alone “great”, looks like? Information-led businesses win Let’s be blunt: gut feel gets you started, but data helps you sustain quality, hit targets and scale. Information led businesses don’t drown in dashboards – they know which information actually matters, they measure, share with the team and act on it. Manufacturers need a clear view of flow, quality, throughput, commercial health and capability. Most businesses already measure far more than they need – but far less of what matters. These aren’t “nice-to-haves.” They’re the instrumentation panel telling you if your workshop is flying straight or drifting off course. Without this, you risk over-investing in the wrong places, repeating the same mistakes and confusing activity for progress. Insights, not just indicators But watch out, simply measuring more is not learning more. Too many leaders implement software, install sensors and create dashboards using yesterday’s processes and call it transformation. What’s missing are the insights – turning the raw numbers into a real narrative. Trends vs. snapshots: Is OEE improving, or did we just have a “good week”? Causes vs. symptoms: […]

Power Politics: How high electricity prices are squeezing NZ Manufacturers in an Election Year

By Sean Doherty,Manufacturing Commentator | NZ Industry Trends New Zealand’s electricity market is producing two parallel realities. For the country’s four major generator-retailers, business has never been better. For manufacturers, the same market is steadily destroying the economics of making things in this country. If the balance is not corrected soon, the closures already under way will accelerate – and some of the damage will be permanent. Generators cash in while industry burns out In the six months to December 2025, New Zealand’s four major gentailers – are forecast to deliver a combined operating profit of approximately $1.86 billion, an increase of around 45% on the same period a year earlier. These are not one-off results. In 2023, the same four companies posted combined operating profits of $2.7 billion – roughly $7.4 million in profit every single day. The Electricity Authority’s own energy margin dashboard shows big generators regularly earning weekly gross margins in excess of $70 million, peaking at around $119 million in some high-price weeks. Consumer NZ chief executive Jon Duffy has put the problem plainly: “We hear the same lines every year. Big profits are needed to fund investment. But the investment is always coming, never here in sufficient quantity“. The numbers back him up. Analysis by the NZCTU and 350 Aotearoa found that over the past decade, the four gentailers paid $10.8 billion in dividends to the government and shareholders while investing only $4.5 billion into plant, property and equipment. Transpower data showed that as of late 2025, only around 986 MW of new generation had been committed and financed – far short of the 1,500 GWh of new capacity needed every year until 2031. The system, in other words, is structured to reward generators most when supply is tight and prices are high – […]

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