Entrepreneur too interested to stop innovating

Claude Stratford knows age is no barrier to being a businessman.

The Te Puke great-grandfather turned 95 on Thursday, the same day he learned he was a finalist in the Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

"You can't put me in a box," he said yesterday. "I'm too interested to stop."

Mr Stratford was one of 17 entrepreneurs nominated for the Ernst & Young award. He is the founder of Comvita, a natural healthcare products firm with a multimillion-dollar export business that grew out of his background as a beekeeper.

Mr Stratford built many of his products on the antiseptic properties of manuka honey and still swallows a dessertspoon of bee pollen every day, as he has for 60 years. "If I didn't, I would've been dead years ago."

He has outlived two of his three children and been married five times.

Mr Stratford retired from Comvita five years ago but has not turned his back on business.

Instead, he is pouring his energy into a new venture called Total Value Health Foods.

He hopes the core of the business will be olive leaf extract, a product he believes has even greater potential than manuka honey.

The winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year Awards will be announced on October 12.