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…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
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A simple New Zealand-designed plastic-clip system — originally made for superyachts — held together a recent Parisian exhibition celebrating the 125th anniversary of Italian fashion brand Bvlgari.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…
Innovators named
Ryan Sanders of Christchurch-based Haka Tours, Rhythm and Vines’ Hamish Pinkham and Ben Knill of interactive online holiday planner Beek, have been named finalists in this year’s Pacific Asia Travel Association Young Tourism Entrepreneur…
In Defence of Milk
New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd. is defending products sold to China two years after the 28 milk scandal, in which at least six children died and 3, were sickened from milk…
Pure Advice for Coast
Former CEO of New Zealand Tourism and creator of the 100% Pure New Zealand campaign, George Hickton, was the keynote speaker at a gathering of 3 tourism sector operators making up the new Australian…
Fruit Ban Overturned
Australia’s 89-year ban on imports of New Zealand apples is illegal, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled, ordering Canberra to comply with international commerce law. In a 548-page verdict, the WTO rejected Australia’s…
Deliver or die
Christchurch film company Gorilla Pictures has created an interactive YouTube zombie adventure film for Hell Pizza which was launched online on July 31. The film, called Deliver Me To Hell, has been…
Gold stars for Lam
Bay of Plenty baker Patrick Lam has won the national Supreme Pie Award for the fourth time in the competition’s 14-year history. His bacon-and-egg special was named the best of a record 4336 entries…
Craving more bleu
Former sheep farmer New Zealander Alistair MacKenzie moved to Canada 11 years ago with his French-Canadian wife, Karien Piché and made a career change, purchasing a small artisan cheese-making and sheep farming business called…
No sweat merino
Wellington-based merino wool pioneer for the outdoors, Icebreaker, recently launched its new range of technical knits for runners, the GT Run range, at a product show in Friedrichshafen on the shores of Lake Constance…
Mega mobile sale
The New Zealand-based mobile marketing company Hyperfactory, whose clients include Coca-Cola, BlackBerry, Disney, Kraft, L’Oreal and Vodafone, has been bought by Iowa-based media group Meredith Corporation, publisher of Family Circle and Successful Farming, for…
Inspiring survivor
New Zealand-born Denis Shackel, 68, a professor at the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business and author of Five Seconds At A Time: How Leaders Can Make the Impossible Possible, is…
Own your own town
Remote Southern Alps township Otira, population 44 is for sale. Selling for $1 million, the deal includes a hotel, fire station, town hall and 18 houses. The Otira Hotel, which started life as a…
Kong is Back
The King Kong attraction at Hollywood park, the first theme park attraction that Peter Jackson’s New Zealand-based f/x shop Weta Digital has created, reopens on July 1 after a devastating fire two years ago….
Stopping the skim
BNZ fraud initiatives manager Michael Turner’s software-based technology for reducing credit-card fraud has been patented world-wide. The “liquid encryption number” (LEN) technology is used on all BNZ credit and debit cards, and has cut…
Geared-up for Top Show
The story of Hulme Supercars, the company behind the Hulme Can-Am, will feature on cult UK motoring show Top Gear, with the show expected to screen in August or September. Hulme managing director Jock…
Revell’s field day
Te Aroha dairy farmer Richard Revell who has developed a fizzy cola-flavoured milk drink in a can, has met with multinational ire, with Coca Cola banning him from selling the beverage at the annual…
Share of the pie
The business activities of this placid South Pacific nation of four million, just west of the international date line, barely register elsewhere: America is logging off for the day, Europe is heading to bed…
Developing film ties
New Zealand and China have further strengthened their relations with a film agreement to host more Chinese-produced films in New Zealand. The agreement, made between the two nations in Shanghai and led by a…
Healthy advice for kids
Entrepreneur Dr Kate Hersov “was working as a paediatric doctor in her home country New Zealand when she and business partner Dr Kim Chilman-Blair struck the million pound idea,” Kate Lockyer writes in an…
Super Swift and for Sale
Jock Freemantle’s super car company Hulme is now taking orders for 2 of its CanAm cars, which are priced around $64, and can reach speeds of 32kmh. Each car will be numbered and delivered…
National carrier wins
Air New Zealand has won the Australia-Pacific’s best airline and the region’s staff service excellence award and was voted fifth in the world in the annual Skytrax awards. Eighteen million people voted in this…
Papery puns
Rangitikei artist Andrew Reilly has turned bull dung into paper, “perfect,” reflects Guardian blogger Roy Greenslade “for publishing bullshit”. After harvesting the dung, Reilly soaks it in water for a fortnight, explaining that there…
Tree house wins Webby
Warkworth’s onion-shaped treehouse restaurant, constructed 3ft up in a redwood tree, has won an award in the telecommunications section of the 21 Webby Awards. The Yellow Tree House campaign — a collaboration between advertising…
Dairy giant expands
New Zealand’s Fonterra Cooperative Group, the world’s biggest dairy exporter, expects a double digit jump in Middle East and Africa sales over the next year as the region’s thirst for milk products grows and…
Ash brings business
New Zealand orchid and salmon suppliers were working overtime after the volcanic eruption beneath Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier caused ash-related delays across the planet. “The phone started ringing hot from the East Coast of North…
Developing football
Wellington property developer Terry Serepisos, “who decided three years ago to save professional football in New Zealand, is the talk of his home town” writes The Sydney Morning Herald’s Michael Cockerill. “Wellington Phoenix are…
Qatar seeks NZ company
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) recently held an advisory board meeting under its Beachheads programme in Qatar. Through this two-year programme New Zealand companies are provided with faster access to better international networks….
Twomey triumphs
Artistic director of the New Zealand International Arts Festival Lissa Twomey has “put together a triumphant programme of calculated risk-taking”. Guided by her long experience with the Sydney Festival and her now shrewd understanding of…
