It’s that time again - the annual EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards. Brendan Manning profiles the final group of finalists.
This year the 17 contenders come from backgrounds ranging from childcare to digital games development.
They will appear before an independent judging panel on August 18, competing for the top slot in one of five categories: products, services, technology and emerging industries, young and master.
The category winners will be announced on August 21 and will again face the judges in October to choose a winner who will go on to represent New Zealand at the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year contest in Monaco next June.
While studying engineering at the University of Auckland, Hamish Kennedy started looking for an opportunity to launch a business using microprocessors, "the hot technology of the early 80s".
"The kiwifruit industry was booming and having grown up on an orchard, I could see the potential to use this technology to build a more accurate kiwifruit sorting machine," he says.
He started building a prototype in the basement of his friends' flat in 1982 as a summer holiday project. By 1984 he had the first Compac machine working (the name is an abbreviation of "computerised" and "packing").
Compac Sorting Equipment now installs and services fruit and vegetable sorting machines in more than 40 countries.
"This requires a diverse team with a wide range of skills, from precision mechanical assembly to PhDs in a range of technologies, but most importantly a Kiwi can-do attitude," Kennedy says.
"Having grown up on a dairy farm that my parents converted to a kiwifruit orchard, I was brought up with the idea that if you set your mind to something and worked hard you could achieve whatever you wanted."
His goals for the company include it not only being a great place to work, but also No1 in its industry.
"This means the largest in revenue, but more importantly, the leader in technology and innovation," Kennedy says.
"We should be there in about three years, we have the best technology and are the second-largest in revenue and [are] growing at over 25 per cent per annum."
David Trubridge
David Trubridge. Photo / Supplied
David Trubridge says he discovered "a niche in the world design market that no one knew existed" with his wooden kitset lights.
Formed in 1995, David Trubridge Design has two "distinct, yet congruous areas" - production of the lights, and a furniture and design studio.
Trubridge says he started "making things" in the early 1970s, and in the 1990s began travelling overseas searching for a bigger market for his one-off designs.
"Through exhibiting at many trade shows around the world I also learned to export, in order to make the most of the opportunity."
The company exports 80 per cent of its production.
"We value lifestyle and family over profit as long as customer commitments are met."
Trubridge says he is always striving to improve the company's environmental record: "to design more ethical, more inspiring products that people will cherish and be nurtured by for a long time; to pay my people better wages; to influence our culture by our example and our products.
"I do not believe in growth for the sake of it, because unlimited growth is a cancerous monster that will destroy our finite planetary resources," he says.
"But if our company does grow slowly then that is an opportunity to give more people a good lifestyle and others rewarding products.
"Success for me is feedback saying 'you have enriched my life'."
Craig Hickson
Craig Hickson. Photo / Supplied
From humble beginnings working on the slaughterhouse floor, boning sheep and beef during his school holidays, Craig Hickson now employs 350 people through his business Progressive Meat.
He says he became involved with the meat industry when he heard the Hawkes Bay Farmers' Meat Company was offering a study grant to food technology students.
Abandoning plans for a science degree, he won the grant and went on to work for the Meat Producers Board, resigning in 1980 to set up a meat-processing business in Hastings.
Hickson says the business evolved from "three people working in the corner" to 15 people within six weeks.
From processing frozen lamb carcasses into cuts for export, the business has grown to include venison, lamb and beef farming, procurement, slaughter, processing and exporting.
In the peak season, the Hastings plant operates 22 hours a day, Hickson says. He attributes his success to "lateral thinking and hard work" and says he is always looking to add more value to the product.
He purchased the 1500ha Anawai Station in 1996 and the property now runs 12,000 stock - lamb, deer and cattle.
Progressive Meat's wider involvement in the industry extends to employing around 2000 people, he says.
Seeing positive results for children from poorer families who were cared for in a bicultural environment is what inspired Katie Phillipps to grow Provincial Childcare to employ more than 100 staff in nine centres.
The business began in western Rotorua and aims to provide high-quality, affordable early childhood education to families in provincial New Zealand.
Phillipps left her decile 1 high school aged 15, but wanted to work hard and succeed.
"At the age of 17, I was running a telemarketing team in Auckland and working 50 to 60-hour weeks and loving every minute of it."
After her first child in 2002, Phillipps started an internet marketing business from home, which she ran until having her second child in 2006, then shifted focus to raise her family and support her husband's career.
Phillipps says she feels fortunate to have been selected as a finalist. "To be acknowledged is so encouraging, as a young businesswoman I'm thankful for the support from those around me.
"The other finalists have great businesses and I'm looking forward to learning more about them."
Chris Heaslip and Eliot Crowther
Chris Heaslip. Photo / Supplied
Discussing why transactions often went uncompleted was what led Chris Heaslip and Eliot Crowther to found Pushpay in 2011.
The company provides mobile commerce tools that facilitate personalised payment solutions between consumers and merchants, targeting three key markets - the faith sector, non-profit organisations and other enterprises.
"We then started to think about where we could apply the technology we were looking to develop, and noticed that of all the transactions we both regularly made, aside from paying bills, none were more difficult and cumbersome than donating."
On any given Sunday in the US, more than 125 million people are facing the same struggle, Crowther says. "It's been very rewarding to not only see generosity made so much easier, but also the social impact our technology is having on communities."
Heaslip says before setting up the business he was operating an accounting firm, consulting with small and medium businesses.
"I found immense satisfaction assisting small-business owners with their finances and helping them become more successful."
Crowther says he was working in sales for home ventilation company HRV and "chasing some sporting dreams" - notably as a New Zealand representative cyclist.
