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HMC NEWS: Award-winning PR agency expands into the Bay of Plenty

HMC Communications, an internationally acclaimed and national award-winning public relations agency, is now operating in the Bay of Plenty. Suzi Luff, Papamoa-based and former Trustpower Community Relations Coordinator, along with Director Heather Claycomb are leading this move which follows a strong period of growth and success for the agency. Claycomb says HMC Communications’ expansion into the Bay of Plenty is a logical next step for the public relations (PR) agency. “HMC Communications...

CLIENT NEWS: Nitrogen-reducing plantain recognised with Fieldays Innovation Award

A plantain that started life as a common weed has been recognised for its contribution to the future of farming with an Innovation Award from Fieldays. Ecotain is an environmentally functional plantain that significantly reduces nitrogen leaching on livestock farms. It was officially launched in September 2017 when proprietary seed company Agricom announced major research findings that showed Ecotain reduces nitrogen leaching from the urine patch, an area containing high concentrations of nitrog...

CLIENT NEWS: Hamilton median house price predicted to break $600,000 barrier by year-end

Hamilton’s median house price achieved another strong median during May at $542,000. This is down from a record median of $560,000 for the month of April and compares to $520,000 in May 2017. Lodge Real Estate’s managing director Jeremy O’Rourke says the dramatic decrease in the number of homes listed for sale in the city is keeping upward pressure on house prices in the city. “Three hundred and six (306) homes were sold in Hamilton during May, however that stock was not replenished at t...

CLIENT NEWS: Kiwi campaign now on at Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari

Friends and supporters of Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari are being encouraged to do their bit for the national icon, by supporting a fundraising campaign for the birds. The mountain was last year announced as the national stronghold for western brown kiwi, which will see up to 500 new kiwi introduced to its reserve over the next five years. The opportunity to use this predator-free environment was identified by Kiwis for kiwi, a national charity working alongside the Department of Conservation...

CLIENT NEWS: Young Kiwis take on the world in pool championships

Fifteen of New Zealand’s top junior pool players are heading to the United States to compete at the VNEA Junior World Pool Championships. The Valley National 8-ball League Association (VNEA) is one of the world’s largest amateur pool leagues.The New Zealand players, who range from 12 to 20 years, have qualified for the tournament and will compete in Sioux City, Nebraska in late June. Bernie Endres, team manager and general manager of cue sports club Massé, says the team is loaded with talen...

CLIENT NEWS: Helping dairy farmers avoid FEI penalties with supplementary feed

It’s three months away but New Zealand dairy farmers are already preparing for the impact of Fonterra’s new fat evaluation index (FEI) grading system, which comes into effect on September 1. Fonterra established the FEI test to measure the fat composition in the cow’s milk it collects, to ensure it is suitable for manufacturing products that meet customer specifications. The use of palm kernel expeller (PKE) as a supplementary feed has been identified as a key influencer on high FEI level...

CLIENT NEWS: CRV Ambreed to launch online calculator for farmers to assess cows’ urinary nitrogen output

CRV Ambreed has designed an assessment tool for its clients to calculate how much nitrogen their cows are excreting in urine. It’s an online assessment tool into which the farmer inputs their own data, including the Milk Urea concentration (MU) value on their daily bulk milk reports, to calculate the amount of nitrogen their herd is excreting in urine. Knowing the numbers means they can take steps to address it if they need to. The herd-improvement company made national headlines in 2017 when ...

HMC NEWS: HMC Communications named Small PR Consultancy of the Year

Hamilton-based public relations agency, HMC Communications, was named the winner of the Small PR Consultancy of the Year at last week’s 44th Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (PRINZ) annual industry awards. Additionally, the agency won the Sustainable PR Award for their work with King Country Energy over the past five years. The agency helped King Country Energy to create a community relations programme that contributed toward keeping customer churn levels at around 1.5% year on year, ...

CLIENT NEWS: Interactive artwork created for Fieldays site, to be given away

An interactive and strangely-appropriate sculpture by scrap metal artist Adrian Worsley is set to pull them in at this year’s GrainCorp Feeds stand at National Fieldays. Everything about the work seems suitably rustic.  Drawing on Adrian’s sassy “number 8 wire” approach, it has been crafted from a marriage of odds and sods, discarded bits and pieces joined as one to tell a different story – in this instance, referencing the increasing popularity of molasses as a dairy feed supplem...

CLIENT NEWS: Waikato rural professional honours family Fieldays legacy

Te Awamutu-born Louise Wallace has a life-long connection to the New Zealand Agricultural Fieldays. “I’ve been going to since I was just a baby in a front pack,” says Ms Wallace, 28, a Te Awamutu farm investment support. “I always enjoy going to Fieldays; there is so much to see and do, and I always come away having learned something new about the agricultural industry.” Together with her sisters Alana and Hannah, Ms Wallace grew up on a dairy farm at Pukeatua, south of Cambridge. The...

CLIENT NEWS: Kiwi women to take on the world in pool championships

Four of New Zealand’s top female pool players are now competing in the United States at the Senior VNEA World Pool Championships. The Valley National 8-ball League Association (VNEA) is the largest global amateur pool organisation. Sixteen New Zealand players have qualified for the tournament in Las Vegas and include senior female players Brooque Pologa (23), Denise Wilkinson (28), Kimberley Cullen (41), and Agnes Kimura (43). Attracting approximately 3,000 players, the VNEA world Championship...

CLIENT NEWS: BOP entrepreneur’s Fieldays connection

Fieldays has a special appeal to Bay of Plenty inventor and businessman Matt Flowerday. Growing up on his parents’ dairy farm near Te Aroha, Flowerday attended Fieldays as a student a Te Aroha College and later as a university student. “I remember going Fieldays when I was at school and my friends and I would try and collect as many pamphlets as possible,” he says. “Fieldays is also a special time for our family because my father and sister’s birthdays always fall during that week in ...

CLIENT NEWS: From cows to bees: The inspiration behind a honey revolution

Growing up on a dairy farm in the Wairarapa, bees were the furthest things from Grant Engel’s mind. Now, they’re his livelihood and the inspiration for his business. Engel is the brains behind Revolutionary Beekeeping, a mobile stainless steel harvester that enables beekeepers to extract honey straight from the hive, instead of the more traditional method of transporting frames from hives to an off-site processor. As a child, Engel visited Fieldays and was inspired by the agricultural invent...

HMC NEWS: Entering industry awards: why you should and how to make the most of the opportunity

HMC Account Manager Kate Monahan-Riddell recently spoke to local chefs about the value of PR and entering award competitions. She shares her insights here. Have you thought about putting in an application for an industry award or competition? It can be a little daunting – what should you write? How can you tell your story in a way that will connect with the judges? Why bother anyway? From a public relations point of view, applying for select industry awards can be a great part of your bus...

CLIENT NEWS: Finding love at Fieldays: Rural Bachelor winner gets the Golden Gumboot, and the girl

When Mike Short entered the 2009 Fieldays Rural Bachelor competition on a whim, he never dreamed his life would change so dramatically. Fast forward four years and the Golden Gumboot winner was sitting on hay bales on the back of a Ute having his wedding photos taken with his new wife Ryley, who he first met at Fieldays. Many people find the latest agricultural products at Fieldays, but Mike and Ryley Short (nee McGougan) found love. Mike and Ryley's story has been made into a short film, part...

CLIENT NEWS: King Country Energy grants $6300 to community projects

king Country Energy (KCE) has announced $6300 will be distributed to four recipients of the latest Heartland Community Funding round. Four community organisations in the King Country will receive a share of that financial support towards their community initiative, including Piopio College in the Waitomo District. The college received funding to help pay for an outdoor fitness circuit to be built on the school grounds that can be used by students and the community. Piopio College Funding Office...

CLIENT NEWS: Intense competition and confidence drive Hamilton’s record median house price

Hamilton’s median house price achieved a record during April 2018 at $562,000, according to Real Estate Institute of NZ statistics released on 11 May. This is up from a $535,000 median in March 2018. Lodge Real Estate’s managing director Jeremy O’Rourke says strong competition from buyers, coupled with high confidence at the upper level of the market are key factors behind the surge. “Only 229 homes were sold in Hamilton during April as compared to 349 in March. However, the volume of ho...

CLIENT NEWS: Invercargill farmer ready for his 50th Fieldays

When Bill Johnston went to the first New Zealand Agricultural Fieldays in 1969 (or the Town and Country Fair as it was then known), he probably wasn’t thinking about the half-century long tradition he was starting. This year marks Fieldays’ 50th year of showcasing agriculture and innovation to rural and urban audiences. It’s also a special year for Bill, because 2018 will mark his 50th Fieldays. The Invercargill farmer hasn’t missed one since it started. Fifty years ago Bill travelled fr...

CLIENT NEWS: New free app means it is easier and quicker to navigate Fieldays

The official Fieldays app launches today, six weeks out from the internationally acclaimed New Zealand National Fieldays event at Mystery Creek on Wednesday 13 June. The new and improved free app has been developed specifically for use at Fieldays, and will enable visitors to use GSP mapping technology to better navigate the 114-hectare site and to plan their day in advance. “We are really excited about the technology, which means visitors will have a much better search and site experience,”...

HMC NEWS: Business leaders need a new approach to understanding Millennial workforce

Waikato business leaders gathered last week to talk about the importance of the Millennial generation and how to better attract, inspire and communicate with them. The Crucial Conversations over Lunch (CRUNCH) session in Hamilton last Tuesday featured a panel of four experts talking about Millennials from a variety of point of views, organised by local public relations consultancy HMC Communications. Understanding demographic groups and generational cohorts can help business people – and emplo...

CLIENT NEWS: Waikato farmer changing old farming attitudes

At the foot of the Kaimai Ranges lies the Troughton dairy farm. Ben and Sarah Troughton sharemilk 500 cows on the 200-hectare property, which is owned by Ben’s parents Terry and Margaret, and has been in the family for more than 100 years. A lot has changed over the last century, and the current generation of Troughtons are embracing a variety of sustainable and environmental farm practices because, as Ben says, it’s their duty to do so. “At some point you have to change that old att...

HMC NEWS: Let’s put the respect back into disagreement

Some of the best things in business – and life – can come out of an ethos of curiosity, questioning and disagreement.  You can’t have progress, innovation or positive change if you’re not willing to challenge conventional thinking and stir up the occasional healthy debate. What doesn’t work is when you couple disagreement with disrespect.  And don’t we see a lot of that lately? Trump is modelling this communication style for all the world to see.  But you don’t have ...

CLIENT NEWS: Bay of Plenty housing developers turning to non-bank lending to help build houses

Land developers and builders are increasingly turning to non-bank lending to be able to develop new homes for the Bay of Plenty. Omega Capital Corporation Ltd provides finance and equity solutions for developers, farms, businesses and more. It says it’s seen an increase in the number of land developers and builders in the Bay of Plenty region who are seeking finance and that would traditionally have been bank clients. The latest QV House Price Index Report shows Tauranga home values have rise...

CLIENT NEWS: Hamilton CBD cafe relaunches, to bring unique experience to inner city

Hamilton foodies and inner-city workers have an exciting new place to wine and dine with the relaunch of Prof’s on Alexandra this week. The Alexandra St eatery, a short work from Garden Place, is owned and run by well-known Waikato foodies, Kate and Allan Wilson, who are also behind the successful café, Prof’s at Woodlands in Gordonton. Prof’s on Alexandra has recently been awarded an on-license and is changing its focus to a café/restaurant serving tapas, fine wine and funky cocktails. ...

CLIENT NEWS: Southland stock agent values healthy, efficient cows

Stock agent Matt Brinsdon loves his job. He’s with Rural Livestock in Southland and has been working as a stock agent, based in Gore, for 12 years. “It’s a busy job year-round, and the work varies depending on the time of year,” says Brinsdon. It involves everything from photographing and marketing calves and cows, to showing and selling stock to clients and sorting contracts. The period leading into May and June is always particularly busy, as cows and heifers change hands and are deliv...