Electra Business and Innovation Awards celebrates 30 years

Māoriland was again the venue for the awards launch.

Electra Business and Innovation Awards is in its 30th year and the festive opening at Māoriland hub in Ōtaki attracted a lot of interest.

Guest speaker Chris Barber from the Bond Store in Kāpiti shared his story and how he adapted to the market.

That included product choice but also packaging, as well as learning to cope with a saturated market.

A distillery run by a family of three, the Bond Store was one of five founders of the national organisation of gin distillers.

“Now there are 90. The pandemic helped create more suppliers,” he said.

He started out buying into Limoncello and found the bottle stores would rather have gin, so he switched.

“Observing what people were buying by standing outside shops, we confirmed that preference.”

The team at The Bond Store, Chris Barber, Bec Kay and daughter.

He said they owned a farm in the Wairarapa which had a lot of kawakawa trees, so they made gin using their own kawakawa.

He found that a lot of gin brands were expensive, but most customers bought the cheaper versions so they matched that price, of about $40.

In their first year they won the bronze medal in the NZ Spirits Awards. They opted for a tall skinny bottle when they realised that a lot of bar staff were smaller and female.

“Existing bottles were just too big for them to firmly grip.”

He said innovation means doing things differently.

“We started a bottle swap and planted juniper trees on our farm. Growing your own juniper was yet another thing most people said couldn’t be done in New Zealand... until we found a grower in Nelson who supplied us with 12 trees.”

One interesting innovation from The Bond Store was a gift pack for one bottle in the shape of a rat trap.

Tainui Stevens gave everyone a warm Māori welcome to the Māoriland Hub.

The awards trust chairman Brendan Duffy said there are 7000 businesses in Kāpiti and Horowhenua and only 40 enter the awards, so he is encouraging everyone to consider entering.

“Thanks to the two local councils there no longer is an entry fee.”

Plenty of past entrants were there at the launch.

The 2024 awards have the following categories:

• Industry Categories: Manufacturing, Production and Processing, Hospitality, Entertainment and Tourism, Construction and Trades, Retail, Professional and Business Services, or Technology, Not for Profit, Community and Public Services, Consumer Services, Innovation, Environmental Sustainability.
• Sub Categories: Small Business Award, New/Emerging Award Business of the Year 2024 Customer Experience Award (Horowhenua and Kāpiti).

Register your business via the Electra Business & Innovation Awards website – www.bkh.org.nz