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Establishing credibility: Why and how to do it

A common reputational goal we set for clients is to establish them and their business as thought leaders in their field, so that the public (and the media) identify them as knowledgeable and the ‘go-to’ for a particular topic, subject or business area. We always say this can’t happen overnight; it takes months and more often years of sustained effort to position a business as an eminent voice. To do so, businesses need to establish credibility, defined as the quality of being believable or...

Five factors frustrate Hamilton home buyers and renters

Hamilton’s median house price broke another record last month.  The Real Estate Institute of NZ released its figures for September today, showing the city’s median for last month was $676,000, up from $654,500 in August. Lodge Real Estate Managing Director Jeremy O’Rourke says many buyers are being frustrated by rising prices and the extreme competition in the city.  He says five factors are creating frustration for both buyers and renters. Competitive bidding, multiple offers&nb...

New Zealanders with disabilities face five year wait for life-changing assistance dog

Those with severe disabilities around the country are waiting five or more years for access to an assistance dog that would give them independence and provide crucial daily aid. Assistance Dogs NZ Trust (ADNZT) is calling on the New Zealand public to help reduce this long wait time and bring this much-needed solution to the 47 children and families on their waiting list, launching their Appeal Week today. Assistance Dogs NZ Trust was founded in 2008 to provide specialist public access dogs to cl...

Hamilton Lake housing development to help ease city housing pressures

With demand for housing in Hamilton city at record levels, newly consented residential development Jack’s Landing is a welcome option on the doorstep of Hamilton Lake.  Bordering Innes Common, Jack’s Landing received approval under Special Housing Area legislation which stipulates a portion of the house and land packages must be deemed affordable housing.  At least ten percent of the homes will be no more than 90% of Hamilton’s average house price. The Special Housing Areas legis...

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tours NZ’s newest milk powder spray dryer in Waikato

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visited the Waikato Innovation Park today where she toured the newly-completed $50 million industrial spray dryer situated on the campus. CEO of Food Waikato and the Waikato Innovation Park, Stuart Gordon, says the dryer will meet the burgeoning demand for sheep milk products, with the industry aiming to double in size year-on-year for the next three years. The new spray dryer is tailored to the unique requirements of sheep milk. “This development is a real break...

Business growth drives appointment of inaugural Chief Executive

Business growth has driven the appointment of an inaugural chief executive at engineering, surveying and planning firm, Cheal. Rebecca (Beck) Hawke has been appointed to take on the leadership role after 14 years with the company. Starting out as a small Taupo-based consultancy in 1940, Cheal now has six offices across the central north island and more than 80 employees. Company director Phil Rielly says there are no signs of business slowing down. “We have seen steady growth in our business...

Vendors risk low return on home investment in white hot real estate market

While Hamilton’s housing market is booming, Lodge Real Estate Managing Director Jeremy O’Rourke says some vendors are still not getting the best price possible for their property investment. “Our local housing market is white hot.  Stocks are low and demand is high, which means offers from buyers are coming in very quickly on quality properties.  “In this sort of market it is tempting for vendors to take the first offer that meets their expectations.  But a quick sale isn...

New managing director brings fresh leadership approach to CRV

CRV Ambreed’s new managing director James Smallwood has an open-door approach to leadership, with plans to get out in the field with staff and invite farmers to connect with him one-on-one.  In its 50-year history, Smallwood is only CRV’s fourth managing director. He says he is focussed on working with the CRV team to continue offering industry-leading innovations and great products to the company’s farmer customers. “We want to deliver our products and services to farmers in a way...

Farmers driving genetic gains using sexed semen

Orders for frozen sexed semen at CRV Ambreed have more than doubled over the last two years as dairy farmers look to get more from their top cows through genetic gain. CRV product development manager Peter van Elzakker says an increasing number of farmers are considering sexed semen as a tool for lifting the quality of their herd improvement programme and getting replacement heifers from top producing cows. “For herds with good fertility management, using sexed semen from the very best proven ...

Waikato business survey reports mixed signals

A survey of 589 Waikato business owners and managers has found that while overall economic sentiment is pessimistic, the region’s businesses are more optimistic about Waikato and sector performance than they are about the New Zealand economy as a whole. This optimism is demonstrated by businesses signalling they are actively recruiting new staff, despite an environment of skill shortages and overall sales sitting below 2019 levels.  Businesses’ lack of planning for future scenarios, how...

Influencers: the rules are out!

This week the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) released their new requirements for influencers, marking a line in the sand for the industry to follow from 14 September 2020. They state that all ASA Codes apply to influencer advertising content (as well as more traditional forms), and that an influencer could be an advertiser (advertising their own product) or may act as a media platform, posting content controlled by an advertiser or brand. It also doesn’t matter what size an influencer�...

Leading with and communicating purpose - PODCAST

Unfortunately for many organisations, their purpose, mission, vision and values can be beautifully written statements that look great on a poster but have a hard time jumping off the page and coming to life. This is not the case with owner and managing director of Schick Civil Construction, Pat Peoples.  He is a leader who truly understands what it means for a business to ‘live’ its why.  And he’s taken a very pragmatic approach to communicating and instilling that purpose and Sc...

Keep sharing the love

They say every cloud has a silver lining. Despite the challenges of lockdown, we’ve found that working from home with no face-to-face contact prompted businesses to ramp up communications with their team. For businesses that have been out of lockdown for a few months, it’s a good time to assess the internal communications you did during that period. Have you kept it up or have you fallen back into old habits? Internal communications can often be overlooked when we are so outwardly focussed ...

Speckle Park cattle offer more than just paddock cuteness

Speckle Park is a fast-growing breed of cattle that not only looks good, but is helping dairy farmers meet demand for a high-quality dairy beef cross product. CRV Product Development Manager Oceania Peter van Elzakker says one key attraction of the breed for dairy farmers is the suitability of Speckle Park for use across all breeds, with the colour mark holding well with Friesian, Ayrshire, Jersey and cross breeds. “The colour marking makes the animals easy to identify and reduces the chance ...

Too much grass! Extreme pasture covers present unique challenges for some Waikato dairy farmers

With the prolific pasture growth rates this Autumn-Winter, some farmers across the Waikato are tackling the challenges of extreme grass covers over several paddocks of 4,500kgDM/ha and higher. GrainCorp Feeds’ technical support manager Waikato, Ken Winter, says farmers in the region are being presented with a problem they may not have encountered in the past. “Ordinarily, it’s reassuring for farmers to have plenty of feed ahead to cover what can normally be challenging months for Spring gr...

Whanganui teen excels in agribusiness with help of scholarship

Whanganui student Hope Mauchline has been awarded a $3,000 scholarship from Perrin Ag Consultants Ltdto support her study towards a Bachelor of AgriCommerce at Massey University. Hope (18) is currently in her second year of extramural study, majoring in farm management. The scholarship will contribute to her course fees for 2020, with an opportunity to undertake practical work experience at one of Perrin Ag’s offices. Hope finished correspondence school at the tender age of 16 and was awarded ...

Hill Laboratories acquires water quality monitoring software Hilltop

Hill Laboratories has acquired New Zealand-based environmental management software Hilltop, used around the country as a water quality monitoring tool. Hilltop is used by most regional councils around New Zealand, as well as electricity generators and environmental consultants, to manage data related to water quality and quantity. CEO of Hill Laboratories, Dr Jonno Hill, says that the acquisition of Hilltop demonstrates the importance the company places on the water quality monitoring market. �...

Adapting to an online-first world in the age of Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has turned the business world upside down, changing consumer habits literally overnight. As brick-and-mortar shops have had to temporarily shut down during lockdown, the need to adapt and survive has never been greater as consumers have no choice but to shop online. A lot of businesses have had to reinvent themselves quickly and start or ramp up their online presence to offer their goods or services, often with little or no experience with e-commerce trading. This shift is...

Hill Laboratories acquires laboratory drug analysis business from TDDA Omega Laboratories

Hill Laboratories, New Zealand’s largest privately owned analytical laboratory, has purchased the laboratory testing assets of TDDA Omega Laboratories. The sale encompasses all processes, technologies and equipment from TDDA Omega Laboratories. The sale transitions The Drug Detection Agency’s (TDDA) critical laboratory testing services to a trusted partner in Hill Laboratories, and as part of the deal, the company becomes TDDA’s preferred lab supplier for drugs in urine testing. Hill Labo...

Hamilton real estate industry experiencing severe shortage of housing stock

Lodge Real Estate’s managing director Jeremy O’Rourke, says that while activity in the housing market continues to flourish, the industry is being held back by a shortage of new listings and rental stock. “We continue to see multiple offers on properties, and filled an entire auction room of 60 people this week with buyers for just one property, followed by eight other busy auctions. “This extreme buyer competition is keeping prices steady and strong, with first home buyers active and in...

Coronavirus – get your communications right

I think we all hoped New Zealand wouldn’t be hit by Coronavirus (Covid-19) again, but it has infiltrated our shores once more.  Auckland region is in Level 3 and the rest of the country in Level 2, which means we will all be working a bit differently with tighter regulations around social distancing. Here’s a reminder from a blog post we did in February on how to get your ‘covid comms’ right as your business navigates its way through: 1.       Follow th...

Working with the media in Covid-19 times

If you’ve kept up with the media news since early 2020, you’ll know that the landscape across print, online and broadcast media has changed considerably. We've experienced the closure of Bauer Media in April which spelled end of many treasured lifestyle publications (although some are on their way back!), the end of Radio Sport, and redundancies and reshuffles for numerous other sports journalists. There’s also been the loss of 200 jobs at NZME and 130 at Mediaworks, and together these hav...

Social procurement to help level playing field for Waikato Māori, Pasifika businesses

Te Waka is leading an initiative aimed at establishing supplier diversity practices within Waikato organisations.  Known as ‘social procurement,’ this will lead to more goods and services being bought from the region’s businesses owned by Māori and Pasifika people. Te Waka CEO Michael Bassett-Foss says that while ‘buy local’ is top of mind for most businesses in the current economic climate, this initiative goes one step further. “Social procurement is a priority outlined in t...

Government contributes $8.2M to Kōpū marine servicing and business precinct

Te Waka CEO Michael Bassett-Foss says today’s funding announcement by Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones will allow the Thames-Coromandel district to take advantage of a growing marine servicing industry, creating jobs and significant economic growth for the area. The proposed Kōpū marine servicing and business precinct has been given funding of $8.2 million from the Government’s $3 billion ‘shovel ready’ fund set aside to kick-start the country’s post Covid-19 economic recovery. Th...

Tokoroa Trade Training Centre receives $10.84M in funding for centralised facility

Today’s announcement by the Government is a boost for education, training and talent retention in South Waikato, says Te Waka CEO Michael Bassett-Foss. The planned upgrade to Tokoroa’s Trades Training Centre will receive $10.84 million in funding from the Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund, which bolsters the $3.06 million already fronted by Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, South Waikato Investment Fund Trust (SWIFT) and the South Waikato District Council (SWDC). The purpose-built Trades...