Waikato Business News February/March 2020

10 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS February/March 2020
IT jobs to Waikato
Wellness retreat
drawn to region
Michael Horton, HCL
executive vice president,
Australia and New Zealand.
Global technology company
HCL Technologies (HCL) has
won a new contract with New
Zealand dairy co-operative
Fonterra to modernise and
manage the entire technology
infrastructure Fonterra
employees around the world
use every day. The multi-year
partnership will extend HCL’s
New Zealand presence to three
offices within the country and
will bring around 60 new jobs
to Waikato as the local support
services for Fonterra employees
will be based at its Hamilton
Delivery centre.
Equidays canned
The New Zealand National
Fieldays Society is exiting
the equine event Equidays,
founded by members nine
years ago, to focus on future
events. CEO Peter Nation
said: “The events industry is
highly dynamic, and it is tough
financially for any organisation
to maintain the infrastructure
required to hold such a variety
of events as we do at Mystery
Creek. Equine events especially
require a lot of equipment
in stabling, pens, fencing
and grandstands which can
become an Achilles heel on the
bottom line when they are used
for just one event each year.”
Equidays will cease trading
effective immediately.
Tools wanted
The ToolShed is asking for
donations of surplus tools to
go to the Solomons, where
they have identified a serious
shortage. Donated tools will
be shipped and distributed to
Rural Training Centres and used
to teach carpentry, mechanics,
agriculture and textiles.
ToolShed stores throughout
New Zealand are collection
points for unwanted, surplus,
new, used and repairable
tools. Tools required include
hand tools, power tools,
garden equipment, workshop
machinery and accessories.
https://www.thetoolshed.co.nz/
page/42/solomon-islands-tooldrive
Two join Smart
Waikato team
Maddie Walker Penny Bunting
Penny Bunting, who has
interned with the Smart Waikato
trust since 2017, is the new coordinator
of the Lion Foundation
Young Enterprise Scheme
in the region, while Ngaati
Porou-Maniapoto descendant
Maddie Walker joins the
team as projects assistant.
Bunting recently completed
her Bachelor of Business
degree at the University of
Waikato. Walker is a former
Fairfield College student with
a background in events coordination
for ZEAL/Waikato
Queer Youth, as well as retail.
By RICHARD WALKER
A women’s wellness retreat that may be
the largest of its kind in Australasia has
opened on a high-profile property beside
Lake Karapiro.
Resolution Retreats
started operating at the
luxurious Tirau Road
resort, just south of Cambridge,
in September when
Joelene Ranby moved her business
from Tauranga.
It is the culmination of
a 20-year-old dream for the
property, which was originally
developed as the ill-fated
Phoenician Spa around 2000,
and has lain largely unused
ever since.
Current owner Lakeside
New Zealand Ltd have been
able to achieve what no previous
owner could in getting a
commercial operator on board.
Ranby was drawn by both
the facilities and the space, giving
her the opportunity to grow
her business.
She has fitted out 20 of the
45 chalets on site, with the ability
to upscale if needed. Most
guests are aged 40-60 years,
she says, and they can come
for stays ranging from three
days to three weeks. Demand
for the retreat comes mostly
from around New Zealand,
with about 10 percent of her
business coming from overseas,
mainly Australia.
“We specialise in women's
weight loss but also help
women with a huge array of
different health challenges,”
Ranby says.
The retreat facility near Lake
Karapiro includes a tennis court.
Amid coronavirus concerns, local tea exports
are looking healthy, says local tea grower
With growing concern
for New Zealand’s
economy over the
spread of novel coronavirus,
Waikato-based Zealong Tea
Estate says it’s been asked to
comment frequently on the status
of exports.
Despite uncertainty over
the effects Coronavirus will
have on trade, exports of Zealong
tea are looking healthy.
Zealong CEO Gigi Crawford
says that the diversification
of markets is essential for
long term business. It’s a strategy
that has been implemented
since Zealong launched in
early 2010.
“We allocate a percentage
of exports to each market. It
minimises risk and means we
can share our teas with more
countries.”
The chalets are each around
60 square metres, and a range
of activities are offered in
the central complex, which
includes a covered swimming
pool, spa rooms, a room used
for yoga with views across to
Maungatautari, along with a
commercial kitchen and dining
and lounge areas.
Ranby says it is the largest
complex specifically for
women’s wellness in Australasia.
On offer are yoga, meditation,
group fitness sessions,
and cooking and education
workshops, all with a practical
approach aimed at giving
guests useful tips to take home.
“We eat five meals a day -
practical, healthy food,” Ranby
says.”We prefer people to be
able to try a menu here that
they could realistically implement
at home.” That includes
meat and dairy where guests
are open to it.
Ranby says most of their
clients come specifically for
the retreat, but part of the
opportunity with Waikato, and
the resort’s proximity to huge
attractions such as Hobbiton
and Rotorua, is for the retreat
to be part of a longer trip.
“So free independent travellers,
being women from Australia
who are wanting to come
to New Zealand, seeing a little
bit of New Zealand and doing
Zealong exports to a thriving
world tea market, including
countries like the USA,
Germany and the United Kingdom,
and despite concerns
over the growing epidemic, the
estate is increasing in popularity.
In the United Kingdom,
Zealong teas are found in the
most famous department stores
Fortnum & Mason and Harrods
of London. The New Zealand
teas also feature in London’s
most iconic hotels and visitor
sites, including Four Seasons
hotel at Ten Trinity Square,
and Claridge’s five star hotel.
Michelin Star restaurants
also love the teas with The
Greenhouse in London and
Blue Hill in New York featuring
them. The Two Michelin
Star restaurants are highly
a retreat as well while they are
here, I think is a pretty special
opportunity,” Ranby says.
She also enthuses about
the nearby walks, including
the banks of Lake Karapiro,
Maungatautari and the Blue
Spring Te Waihou walkway,
along with Cambridge as an
attraction in its own right.
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism
chief executive Jason
Dawson has welcomed the
arrival of the retreat to the
region.
“The establishment of Resolution
Retreat in the Waikato
is aligned to our 2016 Tourism
Opportunities Plan, where we
identified the opportunity to
establish well-being experiences
in the region,” he says.
Ranby expresses frustration,
however, at a perceived
lack of support from both
NZTE and Tourism New Zealand,
despite wellness tourism
being identified in a summit
last year as a lucrative option
for the industry.
“I'm not aware of any wellness
tourism push from Tourism
New Zealand or support of
any description,” Ranby says.
She started running retreats
in Tauranga in 2012 as a sideline
while working as a chartered
accountant. She had gone
through what she describes as a
“health transformation” in her
20s and discovered there was a
scarcity of women-only wellness
retreats.
The sideline grew to become
a full-time business and now
has 21 staff and contractors,
including nurses, workshop
facilitators and consultants,
beauty and massage therapists
and personal trainers.
“I'm glad that it started out
as a hobby because it genuinely
is something I'm really
passionate about.”
Her accountancy background
also plays its part,
contributing to her pragmatic
approach, she says.
“I really understand that
these women don't have 20
hours a week to spend in the
kitchen. They need a pragmatic
and a solutions focused
approach to health. And in
their massive list of things
on the to do list today, if
I'm going to add another 10
things to that list, I'm actually
Joelene Ranby at the retreat.
probably not helping.”
Instead, women are encouraged
to prioritise, and start
with one thing to change and
one thing to add, she says.
There is potential for
growth at the complex, and
Ranby has been approached
by organisations interested in
running conferences on site.
She says there is the possibility
for that to happen between
retreat offerings but also sees
an opportunity in running more
retreats back to back, retaining
the intimate feel.
The complex itself has a
colourful history that takes in
successive ownerships. It was
kickstarted by Henry Holt as
the Phoenician Spa, which
collapsed in 2001. Balmoral
Marketing picked it up before
going into receivership in 2005
and it was then acquired by
subsidiaries of the Tony Tay
Group who almost completed
the property as the Karapiro
Wellness Centre before going
into receivership. It has finally
opened for guests under current
owner Lakeside New Zealand
Ltd.
The companies register lists
Luigi and Antonio Muollo as
the owners of Lakeside. The
Muollos have extensive property
and horse racing interests.
Owner representative Greg
Cobb says Lakeside began
acquiring the property post-
GFC in a tortuous process that
popular and booking is advised
two months in advance. In
Chicago, Zealong teas can be
found at all four Mojo Coffee
sites, including the historic
landmark, the AMA Plaza
(American Medical Association).
Zealong is also in the process
of exporting one tonne of
their tea by air freight to Germany
in order to cater to the
growing demand for tea. Distribution
of products to France,
Czech Republic, and Singapore
are also growing.
Along with foreign exports,
branching into cafes and
restaurants around New Zealand
is also a priority for the
Waikato tea farm.
Crawford said it was
important to work with the
growing list of local businesses
and distributors, a list
including Mojo Coffee, Hilton
Hotels, Smith & Caughey
saw them buying separate unit
titles from multiple owners and
then making the property compliant.
“We had something like
about 15 or 18 different purchases
to make to acquire
them,” Cobb says.
“We bought this thing off
liquidators and mortgagees
at a price that allowed for our
expectations of what may need
to be done and the time we
were going to do it. And we
weren't far off the mark at the
end of the day.”
They also bought two
neighbouring properties, one
with a five-bedroom house
used by the caretaker and the
other currently being grazed,
collectively giving them 35
hectares.
The property was briefly
back on the market two years
ago. Nick Thompson, who
marketed the property, says
there was a lot of interest and
offers but the price wasn’t
right and ultimately the owners
decided not to sell.
Cobb says Tay had done a
“damn nice” job of the construction.
“We came along and
saw great bones.”
Lakeside has done some
landscaping and building
repair and maintenance. “We're
very proud of what we've done
there,” says Cobb. “It's 100
percent compliant, it looks
great.”
and Ballantynes.
- Supplied copy