NZEDGE Business — New Zealand through the eyes of the world's media

Have a Beer With Them

The world’s first personal brewery, invented by Auckland company WilliamsWarn, features on luxury item website eXtravaganzi. “Of all home appliances, this is my favourite. The WilliamsWarn Personal Brewery is created…

Grand and Green Design

WoJo™, a revolutionary upholstery fabric created by Wellington company The Formary, has been named one of UK television presenter Kevin McCloud’s ‘Kevin’s Green Heroes’. McCloud, who fronts Grand Designs, personally chose ten products…

Trading Yoghurt Secrets

Family owned Piako Gourmet Yoghurt, which operates out of Auckland, was the inspiration behind a new gourmet yoghurt range for the UK market, called Little Melton Gourmet Yogurt and produced in Norfolk. The company…

Jennings Keeps it Under Wraps

New Zealander Stephen Jennings’ Moscow-based company Renaissance Group is included in a Guardian list of 1 invisible corporate giants you probably haven’t heard of. “Renaissance Group has quietly emerged as one of the world’s…

Flight Company Sold to Canada

Nelson-based Helicopters New Zealand (HNZ) has been bought by Canadian Helicopters Group for $16 million. HNZ operates 33 helicopters at 11 bases in New Zealand, Australia, Laos and Cambodia. “The acquisition of HNZ represents…

Retaining Our Competitive Edge

Executive director of the Lowy Institute in Sydney Dr Michael Wesley was in Auckland in early April addressing the Australia/New Zealand Leadership Forum. The latest in a string of bilateral gatherings which aim to…

Winners at Caples in NY

Draftfcb New Zealand was named the top winner and most awarded agency in Australasia at the 33rd annual John Caples International Awards held in New York on March 24. Draftfcb NZ picked up eight…

Afghanistan Made Light

Founder and CEO of Kabul-based renewable-power firm Sustainable Energy Services Afghanistan (SESA) New Zealand-raised Tony Woods says helping the poor was never his primary goal; he came to the energy business —…

Star Rising in US Car Industry

“Dan Ammann’s meteoric career track began with a call from his native New Zealand,” Detroit Free Press business reporter Chrissie Thompson writes. “We’ve got somebody very special whom we think should spend some time…

Global Merino Expert

Icebreaker owner and CEO Jeremy Moon hated wool as a child. “I had to wear it as a kid and it was my nightmare — itchy, heavy and prickly. It sucked.” In 1994, a…

Easy On the Planet

Sisters Andrea and Robin McBride’s eco.love is the first carboNZero Cert™ winery in the world; the pair tell American sustainable business innovator Paul Smith how it can be, coming all the way…

Trading Dairy for Baht

New Zealand’s high quality food and beverage industry is responsible for market growth in Thailand, according to acting New Zealand Trade Commissioner to Thailand Thanadej Trakulyingyong. New Zealand’s food industry, in particular dairy products,…

Snoop and Rico Salute Sun

Air New Zealand’s mascot Rico has teamed up with US rapper Snoop Dogg to produce a music video for the airline. Rico, whose controversial antics promoted Air New Zealand’s Skycouch, joins Snoop, who dons…

Opportunities for Growth

Business between New Zealand and India has reached nearly $87 million in the past two years, with India now New Zealand’s 1th largest market. Coal has led the list of trade items with India…

One Hundred Days Without Fail

New Zealander Geoff Vuleta runs New York’s Fahrenheit 212, an innovation consultancy firm that helps Fortune 1 companies build products and bring them to market. “This business structure leads to greater opportunities, as we’re…

Steaming Forward

Contact Energy is to go ahead with the $623 million Te Mihi geothermal power project, having awarded the contract to engineering and construction management giant SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. in a joint venture with United…

Money Helps

“Even when wandering through the heat in the transport black hole of Pyrmont, Sam Morgan is alive to a gap in the market,” Tim Dick writes for The Sydney Morning Herald. “He asks why…

Back to Business

The New Zealand dairy co-operative of 1,5 farmers, Fonterra, which controls about a third of all internationally traded dairy products, has resumed its operations in Egypt in the wake of political unrest there. “We…

German for Float

“With its eagerness for wacky rides and a steady stream of adventure-seeking human guinea pigs, New Zealand was the obvious location” for the 2m monorail Swheeb track, writes the Financial Times’ Tarquin Cooper. “The…

Entrepreneurs Abound

New Zealand has begun 2011 as one of the most entrepreneurial countries on the planet — “an entrepreneurial powerhouse,” according to The Economist. With a recent study by The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation finding…

Trail-blazing Tomatoes

Auckland-based Status Produce is New Zealand’s largest tomato supplier producing 10 million kilograms of tomatoes each year. Status Produce began as a vision in 1993 by John Becroft, a second-generation tomato grower and Garry…

Utopian Tech Mecca

New Zealand is a newly discovered “utopia” for American entrepreneur Peter Thiel, famous for co-founding PayPal and being an early investor in Facebook, buying 5.2% in 2004 (the scene is in The Social Network)….

Business Realities

In an article titled ‘The Rise of the Global Elite’, in which New Zealander Stephen Jennings is referenced, The Atlantic’s Chrystia Freeland discusses the modern-day super-rich, a “more hardworking and meritocratic” group, though “less…

Little guys think big

“Historic inner-city suburb” Freemans Bay in Auckland is one of “five great city districts” included in Monocle’s December 2010/January 2011 issue as part of the magazine’s “annual global guide to the little guys with…

One big game changer

Air New Zealand’s new Boeing 777-3ER is reviewed by industry publication NYCAviation reporter Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren who takes a detailed tour on board “one of the biggest game changers to hit the commercial aviation industry…

Polished Parisian Finish

A simple New Zealand-designed plastic-clip system — originally made for superyachts — held together a recent Parisian exhibition celebrating the 125th anniversary of Italian fashion brand Bvlgari. The fifteen 8.5m-high pyramids constructed at the…

Luscious success

Handmade cosmetics company Lush, which Wellington-born Andrew Gerrie helped found in the UK in 1995, will release chewable toothpaste tablets to help reduce the amount of tubes thrown into landfills every year around the…

Airline alliance

Air New Zealand and Virgin Blue will form an alliance on trans-Tasman routes, after the competition regulator dropped its opposition to the plan. After indicating three months ago that it would block the deal,…

Diamond forever

Auckland couple Cameron and Shariyah Morris have won the title of “The World’s Best Couple” and a 22-carat diamond ring worth $1 million, which was presented by US reality television celebrity Kim Kardashian, in…

General Ovations for Liddell

General Motors CEO Dan Ackerson and Vice-Chairman and CFO Chris Liddell (center, at the New York Stock Exchange listing) received standing ovations from the trading floors of JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley to cap…

There is such a thing

New Zealand dairy company Fonterra has created a new yoghurt tailored for men, filled with fruit, seeds, grains and barley, under the brand name Mammoth Supply Co. Its marketing plays on social stereotypes of…

Factory opening in US

New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra is taking on the tenancy of the Heartland Corporate Center in Shorewood, Illinois. Fonterra’s products will come to the United States from New Zealand via ships and then be…

Pago Pago challenge

Fletcher Construction of New Zealand has been awarded a US$7 million contract for the replacement of 33 homes destroyed in last year’s 8. earthquake and tsunami in American Samoa. Fletcher Construction has done business…

Mood-lit air travel

“Air New Zealand’s new Boeing 777-3ER passenger cabins look more like those inside a private jet than a commercial airliner,” according to Alan Ferguson reporting for The Province. “Redesigned from scratch, the mood-lit cabins…

Made with wunderlust

Newzedge editor Jane Nye, 33, and her partner Paul Milne, 44, have opened a New Zealand-influenced café in Berlin. Antipodes is reviewed in the latest issue of Exberliner, the German capital’s foremost English-language magazine….

Powerful manure

New Zealand-based company Flotech Inc. will soon open its first biogas upgrading system, which converts manure into natural gas, in Canada at an Abbotsford farm southeast of Vancouver. Flotech has a water-scrubbing system…

Age of Now

Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Worldwide and nzedge.com co-founder Kevin Roberts appeared on US financial and business news channel Bloomberg. In a 14-minute interview with Pimm Fox, Roberts talks about the concept of

Starbucks combo

Wellington-based design company The Formary, have developed a new sustainable textile called “WoJo” which will be used by coffee chain Starbucks for chairs in their stores and unveiled as part of UK Wool Week…

To India for milk

New Zealand dairy conglomerate Fonterra is in talks with Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd. to set up a dairy farm in India. The project may cost as much as 1 billion rupees ($225 million)…

Merino for New Yorkers

Icebreaker will open its first store in Manhattan, New York in early December. The 25-square-foot SoHo store will be Icebreaker’s flagship. The new TOUCH_LAB retail store will showcase the complete Icebreaker line from its…

Woods’ own hill

New Zealand entrepreneur Nick Wood, co-creator of internet service provider iHug, which sold for NZ$82 million in 23, is currently in the United States where he has purchased Teton Pass Ski Resort in Wyoming…

Compressed innovation

Fisher & Paykel Appliances (FPA) has claimed a technology breakthrough that will boost the energy efficiency of home refrigerators by 3 per cent and increase their storage capacity. The company has designed a revolutionary…

Historical Appointment

Aucklander Professor Noel Cox has been appointed head of Wales’ oldest law and criminology department at Aberystwyth University. Cox’s main research interests include constitutional, Church-State and cyberspace law. Cox is the author of more…

One of the best

New Zealand’s listed stock exchange NZX has been included in a Forbes list of the 2 ‘Best Under a Billion’ top-performing companies in Asia for the fourth consecutive year. The NZX was listed by…

Carbon trading issues

Three years ago, in anticipation of substantial growth in the voluntary and compliance carbon markets, governments and business groups around the Asia-Pacific region were jockeying to establish a regional hub for carbon trading, including…

Claim to Fame

On a barista training course at Auckland’s Allpress Espresso, the Guardian’s Chris Mugan learns the flat white-making mantra: “stretch, whirlpool, surf” in the city that claims the iconic drink as their invention. “The brew…

Real farms promoted

A large selection of New Zealand farmland, businesses and property will be on display in North Yorkshire in October, as part of a national road show from real estate company, Bayleys Realty Global. Bayleys…

Taking the Sting Out

Gisborne-based Dive Tatapouri is defending the reputation of the short-tailed stingray, offering plucky tourists the opportunity to hand-feed the sea creatures. “They’re incredibly good-natured,” owner Dean Savage says. “It’s extremely rare for them to…