New Zealand's export expertise wins recognition

By CHRIS DANIELS

Navman, Auckland designer and maker of navigation systems, is New Zealand's supreme exporter of the year.

The presentation took place at an Export Awards dinner in Auckland last night, highlight of the first National Export Conference organised by trade promotion body Trade NZ.

Judges said Navman was a "dynamic company whose use of technology and innovation plus excellent business processes enable it to compete in world markets".

Company president Peter Maire, one of the founders of Navman, said he was motivated by "the thrill of exporting, not the money".

"It's the buzz of exporting, it's a drug - the bigger the market, the bigger the customer, the bigger the deal, the more fun you get out of it."

He said Navman had increased its exports tenfold in the past four years to $30 million. It expected to top $70 million next year.

Navman, formerly Talon Technology, won a $930,000 research grant from Technology New Zealand in August to develop an "in-car" navigation system allowing motorists to see their positions on maps displayed on small screens.

The company now makes GPS navigation systems for boats, vehicles and handheld computers.

Navman hopes to begin selling its car navigation products this year and has 15 engineers devoted to the project.

Its biggest growth area is land navigation - where users attach a GPS card to their handheld computers and let satellites plot a path.

Maire said the huge increase in export sales was due to the expansion from marine electronics - fishfinders and chartplotters - into land navigation and fleet tracking products.

Navman bought out its US shareholder at the end of last year. Maire said returning the company to local ownership and making a foreign acquisition was in contrast to the usual New Zealand story in which a foreign firm bought up local technology and swiftly moved it overseas.

"We've been able to do things in reverse: dump the manufacturer relationships, take over the brand and distribution strategies ourselves, buy our shares back from the US shareholder - and then buy a US company."

Other award winners announced last night are:

* Rayonier MDF New Zealand - building and wood products exporter of the year. Rayonier's 101 employees make and export medium-density fibreboard (MDF). The $180 million plant in Mataura, Southland, was built by US company Rayonier in late 1997. General manager James Everett said the opening coincided with the Asian collapse and the opening of dozens of other MDF mills.

* Aspect International Language Academies - education exporter of the year. Aspect runs language schools in Christchurch and Auckland and trained nearly 3000 students from 35 countries last year, earning $7 million in foreign exchange.

* Glidepath - engineering exporter of the year. The Auckland company, which designs and makes airport baggage handling systems, earned about $40 million in export sales last year.

* Frucor Beverages - food and beverage exporter of the year. Frucor is known for its V energy drink.

* Opus International Consultants - services exporter of the year. The Wellington engineering, planning and architecture consultancy boosted its export earnings from $9.5 million in 1999 to $28.8 million last year, largely through winning several long-term road asset management contracts in Britain, Australia and Malaysia. Opus has more than 1200 staff.

* Tacit Group - technology and communications exporter of the year. The financial software company has more than doubled in size from 100 to 220 staff in the past three years and has opened offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong and Manchester. It recently delivered a $5 million system to MGM Assurance in Britain and one worth $1.4 million to a Hong Kong institution.