Articles

Founder/s: Theresa O’Brien and Sally Crown HQ: Hawke’s Bay What problems do you solve and what products or services do you sell?  The key issue that we have both found in business is not a lack of support available, but a disconnect in the approach and values recognition, especially for Māori who are looking to […]

New Zealand Quinoa Company founders Kate and Hamish Dunlop have just planted their fifth crop of the nutritious grain, having made it through cyclones, raising children and occasional supermarket scepticism. It’s been a good year for the quinoa couple, who now supply the shelves of 150 supermarkets.  Natural Quinoa Puffs and packets of Natural Quinoa […]

Taranaki startup Jobhop is on a mission to make the gig economy fair. The job-sharing platform went live in June  after getting through two years of work and overcoming plenty of pain points, and its latest achievement is winning the Innovation Excellence Award at the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards on November 14.    […]

Founder: Rob Elstone HQ: Hawke’s Bay What problems do you solve and what products or services do you sell? Hortworx grows production through smart automation, increasing packhouse efficiencies and reducing labour reliance through the use of simple ‘back to basics’ engineering complimented with the latest technology. We produce a range of bin filler products, pack […]

Founder/s: Paul Simpson & Dominic Sutton HQ: Manawatu-Whanganui What problems do you solve and what products or services do you sell? StockTrim has a SaaS product, an online app that helps larger SMB’s save money with their inventory costs.  It’s really difficult for businesses that buy and sell products to know how much to order […]

New Plymouth’s Juno Gin is zero-waste from start to finish using Kiwi engineering and locally sourced ingredients.  To Juno Gin founders Jo and Dave James, the best way to conduct market research is by getting their gin into customers’ hands – served neat.  “It’s a revelation for them,” says Jo, “They often say, ‘I had […]

When lockdown hit economies worldwide early in 2020, New Plymouth medical bed and stretcher manufacturer Howard Wright Limited found a way to thrive.  Having become a significant but still relatively small manufacturer in the global market of medical beds and stretchers across 57 years – operating “Between the toes of elephants,” in the words of […]

After years of iterations, Palmerston North’s Peurgon successfully combined two hay-feeding methods, resulting in a product that’s saving both time and money for horse owners.  It’s difficult for company founder Chelsea Hirst to identify the exact moment she launched her business. She began designing and developing a product in mid-2014, but she would hardly call […]