Awards for young business talent

Natalie Milne of Young Read Woudberg with Scott Bartlett of Bartlett Swim School. Photo / Rose McMahon

The Tauranga Chamber of Commerce announced the winners of the 2014 Young Read Woudberg Rocket Awards on Saturday, noting the high quality of young businesses, employees and innovative young professionals who had entered.

This year's winner of the Young Read Woudberg Business Owner award was the Bartlett Swim School, which has 13 employees and more than 630 students. The judges said the school had proven to be a real asset to the Tauranga community.

The school was established by former Australian international swimmer Scott Bartlett, who gutted an old warehouse in Mount Maunganui and created two purpose-built pools with a state-of-the-art heating system to focus on teaching children to swim.

"Scott impressed the judges with the design and implementation of his teaching programme and his growth strategies for the future," the judges said. "He shows a deep passion for his business, but still finds time to be the current coach of the New Zealand World Champion Surf Lifesaving team."

The winner of the Holland Becket Lawyers Young Employee of the Year was Gemma Hignett of Tui Products. Gemma has worked for Tui Products for the past two-and-a-half years as the marketing co-ordinator.

"Gemma particularly impressed the judges with her level of insight and dedication to her role, her desire for advancement within the business, the willingness to challenge herself and achieve focused outcomes and a recognition of her responsibility and commitment to developing those who worked on direct report to her," the judges said.

The Tauranga Chamber of Commerce Young Innovator of the Year award was Matt Backler of dental technology company Rhondium in Katikati.

"Clearly Matt has sought to understand his market, which is dentistry, to identify where opportunities lie," the judges said. This included a less costly alternative to conventional crown dentistry techniques.

Eric Woudberg, partner of Young Read Woudberg, said the firm was delighted to help with a programme that inspired young professionals to strive for and celebrate success.