Waikato AgriBusiness News September 2020

4 WAIKATO AGRIBUSINESS NEWS September 2020
Hill Laboratories sees continuing growth
By RICHARD WALKER
A flurry of activity has seen Hill Laboratories
make three acquisitions in the space of a
month as the Hamilton testing lab develops
on several fronts.
The timing is largely coincidental
but the moves
are a signal of intent as
the company eyes continuing
growth.
It has bought assets in environmental
water, viticulture
and drug testing while also
achieving accreditation for
Covid-19 testing.
The first completed acquisition,
on 31 August, was Hilltop
Software, which operates in
the increasingly crowded environmental
water sector.
Chief executive Jonno Hill
says it was a strategic move
that was 18 months in the making,
and combines hydrology
- the measurement of water
volume and movement - with
water quality.
“We're pretty plugged into
the water quality side because
we do all of that testing for
most of the regional councils in
the country, but the hydrology
is going to be new to us.”
They will work with the
major power generation companies,
whose hydrologists use
Hilltop to manage their data in
order to manage their dams.
Hilltop harvests an enormous
amount of data, including
from the proliferating number
of infield sensors being
used in waterways, particularly
by territorial authorities, to
measure water quality.
Hill says there will continue
to be a place for the “gold standard”
testing Hill Laboratories
does alongside the infield.
“We're not in
the business of
hardware design
or manufacturing,
we don't
want to be. But
data management
feels a lot
more comfortable
to us,” Hill
says.
“If we stay
pretty agnostic
around the platforms
for doing
field measurements,
but aspire
to do more with
managing the
data, making
sure that quality
assurance is
being applied,
then it's a better
fit for us.
“We hope to
create additional tools to help
the users of the data do their
jobs more effectively and efficiently.
“If we can be working with
the scientists at the regional
councils, bringing great data
science solutions into play,
empowering them to do what
they need to do to help clean
up the country's water and
manage the water well, that
feels good.”
The acquisition, which sees
them take on the assets and
two staff, is set to open up new
revenue streams and extend
the relationship with territorial
authorities, which almost all
currently use the Hilltop service,
he says.
“We're looking forward
to exploring in time how we
may be able to
broaden the customer
base.”
WE HOPE
TO CREATE
ADDITIONAL
TOOLS TO HELP
THE USERS
OF THE DATA
DO THEIR
JOBS MORE
EFFECTIVELY
AND
EFFICIENTLY.
The other
two acquisitions
were more
opportunistic.
The first, which
settled the day
after the Hilltop
deal, was
for a viticulture
pathogen testing
lab, VTL. It was
an arrangement
made during
lockdown when
Blenheim-based
Ormond Nurseries
general
manager Marcus
Wickham got in
touch to say they
were acquiring
Villa Maria’s
nurseries in a
deal that included the associated
pathology lab, which
Ormond didn’t want to retain.
Hill Laboratories already
had a presence in Blenheim,
and within a week the deal
was done. As with the Hilltop
acquisition, it was for the
Jonno Hill
assets and customer contracts.
“We've got a small lab
in Blenheim that is really
focused on the wine and viticulture
industries,” Hill says.
“So we're really committed to
that footprint and to continue
servicing those industries into
the future. And this is a nice
growth of scope of services
and speaks positively about
our intentions in the future
down there.”
The final acquisition is in
the area of drug testing. It is
for the laboratory drug analysis
business of TDDA Omega
Laboratories. The sale encompasses
processes, technologies
and equipment, as The Drug
Detection Agency, which is a
major player in the New Zealand
market, sheds the lab to
focus on its core competencies
such as providing mobile drug
and alcohol testing, policy
design, and drug and alcohol
training.
Hill Laboratories have
secured a multi-year service
agreement with TDDA and
Hill says the two firms have a
mutual desire to work to work
well together into the future.
“TDDA are the first and
probably most important customer
of hopefully many for
us.”
Hill Laboratories employs
400 staff after more than three
decades of growth. They consolidated
from four Hamilton
sites three years ago into the
former NZ Post parcel sorting
building in Frankton, which
they were able to completely
refit internally for their own
purposes.
Hill says they are the leading
independent commercial
lab for environmental and agriculture
testing in the country,
and well positioned to assist
farmers with environmental
stewardship on their land.
“Primary industries are
absolutely central to our reason
for being and we would
expect, like all Kiwis, that they
remain a really important part
of the national economy for the
foreseeable future,” Hill says.
“So we look forward to
being in there recognising or
responding to new opportunities
and growing with our
customers.”
Farmers asked to keep eye out for destructive pest
Landowners are being
asked to report rook
sightings for targeted
pest control to prevent the
invasive, big black bird from
becoming a problem on farms.
It’s a good time of the
year to start seeing rooks as
it’s breeding season, which is
when they congregate together.
In the Waikato, rook populations
are found in Te Poi/Matamata,
Cambridge/Hamilton
and Mangakino to Taupō, with
rooks generally building nests
in pine or eucalyptus trees.
Waikato Regional Council
biosecurity officer Andrew
McConnell says rooks are one
of the most destructive farm
production pest birds in the
world.
“They feed on newly sown
crops and destroy paddocks by
tearing them up in search for
grubs. A large rook population
can completely destroy entire
paddocks. It’s definitely not
something we want to be seeing
here in our region.”
Rooks were introduced to
New Zealand in the 1860s to
control insect pests. The largest
colony found in New Zealand
was nearly 1000 nests but,
thanks to control, such groupings
are a thing of the past.
The regional council has
been managing rooks since
2002 and the Waikato population
is now estimated at less
than 50 birds.
“It’s a bit like looking for a
needle in a haystack for them,
which is why we need landowners
to give us a call when
they see rooks,” says McConnell.
“They’re also very wary so
it’s important that landowners
contact us if they see them
rather than try get rid of them
themselves. We don’t want to
scare them; it becomes tricky
locating rooks once they have
been spooked.”
Last year, five rookeries
were found and controlled:
three in Mangakino and two in
Matamata. A rookery in Hamilton
was destroyed by a storm
and abandoned.
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