Waikato Business News July/August 2019

More documents

Recommendations

Info

16 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS July/August 2019 Retailer plays part in bringing life back to town By TE AHUA MAITLAND It’s a big risk to open a retail store in a small town, but Nicola Waea loves a challenge. Her shop, Ironic, is the newest retail business in the South Waikato town of Tokoroa. The store sells homeware, clothing, gifts and florist and opened in May, down what was once a thriving one-lane street. Today, there are noticeably many empty shops around the town and Waea is trying to change that by bringing back life and faceto-face interaction. “I wanted to bring back communication and interaction, so people coming into the store and not ordering everything online,” she said. “No one walks around town any more, and that’s a challenge that all small-town stores face.” Some have said she’s crazy - but Waea knows if it doesn’t work out, she’s at least given it a shot. “I am a risk taker and I felt our town deserved something like this,” she said. “You see similar stylish shops in Waikato, such as Cambridge, Te Awamutu, Matamata, and I thought there was definitely a market for one here.” The store sells everything from fresh flowers to candles, baby items, artwork and jewellery. It also has a website. People no longer have to head out of town after work to the nearest Hamilton, Rotorua or Taupō for last minute gifts. Waea had heard many people complain that there was “nothing” in the town, so she hopes those people utilise the shop and choose to support local businesses. The town’s main shopping precinct, which runs alongside the main highway, SH1, is undergoing a $4 million makeover. Construction began in March on the road, parking and walkways and there will be new plaza area for visitors and locals, public toilets, Talking Pole artwork and 100 car parks. Waea sees the CBD development as only a positive thing and hopes the makeover will help promote the town and Nicola Waea wants to bring back communication and interaction. encourage people to support local. Waea is no stranger to owning her own business and likes to not keep her eggs in one basket. She owns a painting business, Y-R’s Painters, and The Sign Shop, a graphic design store. She has seen the ups and downs of small-town businesses over the years, from strikes out at Kinleith Mill to changing seasonal work. But they’ve always adapted and made it through. “It’s hard work with all the businesses, but I am passionate about helping out this town. I would love to see more shops and more people taking risks. Even if there were more shops like Ironic - competition is not a bad thing, it’s constructive. There is money in this town and we just have to change our mindset.” Young women experience infrastructure industry Hundreds of young women throughout the country have experienced a taste of working in the infrastructure industry in a programme designed to showcase different career options. The industry is forecast to require around 44,000 more people over the next five years. New recruits are vital to keep the industry operating and women are significantly underrepresented, only accounting for about 6 percent of new trainees. Every year Connexis – the Industry Training Organisation (ITO) for infrastructure –targets young women with its annual Girls with Hi-Vis (GWHV) campaign. This year the campaign was held in May and June. The nationwide campaign sees companies in the civil, energy, telecommunication and water industries open their doors for a day to women who are interested in knowing more about what they do and the career opportunities available. Getting behind the controls of a digger was a huge hit at the GWHV event in Hamilton at Connell Contractors. So much of a hit that Connell Contractors are planning to help one of the Putaruru College students who attended the open day into a job. Putaruru College careers adviser Margaret Brunton says the day was a great success with the girls, especially the ‘digger school’, which offered a practical aspect. They also enjoyed hearing first-hand about working in the industry from female staff at Connells. Connexis chief executive Toby Beaglehole said the support from industry and employers for this year’s GWHV was “fantastic”. “We’ve seen our future apprentices, engineers, and leaders arrive, cautious and slightly hesitant, and leave curious, enthusiastic and engaged.” GWHV held 18 events from Northland through to Invercargill with a total of 450 attendees. Digger driving – a huge hit at Connell Contractors’ GWHV event.
WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS July/August 2019 17 Te Waka helping to boost business in Waikato This month marks Te Waka’s one year anniversary. Looking back over this last year, it’s important for us to reflect on how far we have come, where we plan to go, and what our influence has been with regards to the Waikato region’s economic development. Though Te Waka has only been around for 12 months, our Business Growth Team has been operating for a number of years and has assisted many regional businesses with their goals of expansion. Such businesses include local start-up company Torutek, who work on a variety of projects including facial recognition systems that help identify problem gamblers. Like many businesses we work with, Torutek had excellent potential and growth aspirations – they just needed the right guidance to turn their business into a reality. Our business growth DRIVING DEVELOPMENT > BY MICHAEL BASSETT-FOSS Chief executive, Te Waka: Waikato’s economic development agency team manager, Craig Purcell, worked closely with Torutek in securing office space at Waikato Innovation Park, and start-up grants through Callaghan Innovation. Torutek is now thriving, have sustainable cash flow, positive profitability, and in its own words, “couldn’t have hoped for better.” (See Torutek’s story, page 51.) Our assistance and influence with businesses in the region continues to progress, and recently Te Waka, along with the Waikato District Council, has been working with Australia’s biggest bed-maker, Comfort Group, in developing a $1 billion manufacturing and housing community. Despite the challenge of getting new businesses underway, we have contributed to the region’s wider economic development and I sense this will become even more prevalent in the near future. Comfort Group, who owns Sleepyhead, SleepMaker and Dunlop Foams, has bought 176ha of rural land where it is intended to build a mixeduse community with more than 1000 new homes, while enhancing its manufacturing space. We expect to see more projects like this on the horizon given Waikato is in a unique central location, and home to a high concentration of innovation and business potential. This being said, it has become more evident that new businesses need support to achieve their goals and strategic priorities. Our team here will continue to work closely with businesses in finding out what their challenges and aspirations are, and how we can best move forward in terms of planning and connecting them to the right people. A key component for a lot of businesses, particularly those getting off the ground, is funding. What many people may not know is that Te Waka can provide access to this. Our NZTE Capability Voucher funding assists businesses with partial funding towards capability development and training. We also provide access to Callaghan Innovation grants that provide R&D funding for new businesses. As we are a strong supporter of Māori business, we can also link people with Māori trusts throughout the region. In the last 12 months, Te Waka has supported $90m in applications to the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) and approximately $26m in central government funding has been secured. Despite the challenge of getting new businesses Michelle Hollands has been appointed strategic partnerships and projects manager. underway, we have contributed to the region’s wider economic development and I sense this will become even more prevalent in the near future. Our move to increase capability in the team also continues to be a key focus going forward. Recently we appointed Michelle Hollands to the role of strategic partnerships and projects manager – a role that will involve working alongside businesses developing and implementing sector strategies. Michelle comes to us from Sport Waikato, where she managed and led the implementation of the Regional Sports Facilities Plan. Before that, she was a self-employed strategy consultant and worked with some of New Zealand’s leading companies to guide and facilitate the development of market-led research plans. Her expertise adds to our effort in increasing capacity in the team, and we look forward to welcoming her as we continue to expand and enhance our impact in Waikato.
Page 1 and 2: SPECIAL ADVERTISING WRAP Te Rapa Ra
Page 3 and 4: JULY/AUGUST VOLUME 27: ISSUE 7 2019
Page 5 and 6: WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS July/August 2
Page 13 and 14: Julie Hardaker Lawyers juliehardake
Page 17: WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS July/August 2
Page 21 and 22: TŪ TONU NEW BUILD New rehabilitati
Page 23 and 24: TŪ TONU NEW BUILD WAIKATO BUSINESS
Page 25 and 26: TŪ TONU NEW BUILD WAIKATO BUSINESS
Page 27 and 28: Waikato architecture wows A minimal
Page 29 and 30: LIFT OUT Retirement PLANNING FOR A
Page 31 and 32: Supporting the Hamilton Community f
Page 33 and 34: The Atawhai Assisi rest home and ho
Page 35 and 36: WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS PLANNING FOR
Page 39 and 40: THE TOOLSHED WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS
Page 41 and 42: THE TOOLSHED WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS
Page 44 and 45: 34 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS July/Augus
Page 56 and 57: Ang An 46 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS Jul
Page 62 and 63: “I choose to work with Foster Eng
Page 64: 07 849 2839 Te Rapa Racecourse Ken

Waikato Business News July/August 2019

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?