The team from local export business Kids Ride Shotgun celebrate winning the Tauranga Business of the Year Award. Photo / Salina Galvan Photography
The team from local export business Kids Ride Shotgun celebrate winning the Tauranga Business of the Year Award. Photo / Salina Galvan Photography
COMMENT:
The best way I can wrap up this year is to celebrate the Western Bay’s top businesses in 2022.
Tauranga Business Chamber hosts the annual business awards to shine a light on local businesses achieving tremendous success – but often going under the radar – and to boost theprofile of Tauranga’s thriving business ecosystem.
This year’s award winners were of such high calibre, the finalists also felt very proud to be up there with the best of the best.
The Western Bay’s supreme business of 2022 was Kids Ride Shotgun, a business born out of a father’s desire to engineer a seat to take his child on a ride with him. This humble beginning has evolved into a mission to inspire future generations of mountain bikers across the globe.
The fact that 95 per cent of Kids Ride Shotgun’s sales come from international markets saw them win the Zespri International Trade and the Farmer Autovillage Marketing & Communications awards.
It also won the Trustpower Digital Innovation Award, which celebrates those who have designed and executed complex innovation projects that provide a step-change in their business.
Kids Ride Shotgun joins an exclusive club of supreme award winners, including LawVu, and Heilala Vanilla. Interestingly, the emerging trend among our recent supreme award winners is that they have all won the Trustpower Innovation Award.
We also need to celebrate those doing the hard yards, focusing on continually improving their processes and procedures to achieve greater productivity and employee wellbeing. EastPack was the deserving winner of the Ballance Agri-Nutrients & Productivity People’s Continuous Improvement/Lean Award. It also took home the Vertical Horizonz NZ Workplace Safety categories.
Kale Print was another business to win three categories. I was recognised for its outstanding support to staff and top-of-the-line customer service winning the 2Degrees People and Culture, KingSt Customer Experience, and Bay Venues Service Excellence awards.
Nothing says community engagement more than the winner of the NZME People’s Choice Award, Vet Post, which collected the biggest share of more than 7000 votes from the general public.
Tauranga Business Chamber chief executive Matt Cowley. Photo / Mead Norton
This year we partnered with the Tauranga Māori Business Association and Pacific Growth Services to put a spotlight on Māori and Pasifika businesses. The Te Puni Kokiri Excellence in Māori Business was won by Whare PR, followed by an inspirational speech from A1 Wrap which took home the Ministry for Pacifica People Excellence in Pacific Business category.
We also looked to the future with our independent judging panel creating the Community Impact Award, awarded to Purpose Capital, which invests to drive social and environmental change in New Zealand.
The one to keep an eye on is The Flatpack Company, which won the Te Pukenga Emerging Business of the year. It has grown from student hustlers on Castle St to entrepreneurs exporting to Kansas, USA.
We also celebrated Bluelab’s contribution to the wider Bay of Plenty community with the University of Waikato Corporate Leadership Award.
Without the annual Tauranga Business Awards, most people would be unaware of the incredible achievements of our top businesses. It also gives businesses an opportunity to thank their staff who have worked hard, together, to overcome some tough challenges.
These awards inspire the next generation of business owners and entrepreneurs, and show us businesses can be internationally successful while still being based in the beautiful Western Bay of Plenty.
I wish you all a very happy holiday season and I’ll catch you in the New Year.
Matt Cowley is the chief executive of the Tauranga Business Chamber.
