Eves Overall Top Salesperson of the Year was won by Danielle Hayes. Photo / Supplied
Success Realty, incorporating the Eves offices across the Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Whangarei, held its annual awards evening last night, where it celebrated the top performing individuals and offices for the 2020/2021 financial year.
The combination of salespeople, managers and support staff from 13 offices across the three regions – more than 330 people - made for a great night with a number of fantastic achievements celebrated.
Heath Young, Realty Group chief executive officer said, "These nights are a memorable occasion where we have the chance to recognise the successes of our people and also have the opportunity to come together as a company to celebrate another year of exceptional performance".
Eves Overall Top Salesperson of the Year was won by Danielle Hayes from the Eves Mount Maunganui team.
The Mount Maunganui office also notched up another award in taking out Eves Top Office of the Year.
The Greatest Year on Year growth award went to Kale Kirk from Eves Gate Pa.
This Eves Rookie Salesperson of the Year award, recognising an excellent first year in real estate, went to Ranjit Singh from Eves Gate Pa.
The Eves Marketing Campaign of the Year was awarded to Rachel Love from Eves Bethlehem and Grace Anderson from Eves Katikati for their work on Uretara River Views.
Eves Property Manager of the Year was Ailsa Cowdrey of Eves Papamoa with the Eves Property Excellence Award going to Coralie Nixon of Eves Hamilton. Angela Boland from Eves Tauranga won the Eves Property Management Administrator of the Year.
Anne Moffatt from Eves Tauranga won Rothbury Eves Referrer of the year, while John Rose from Eves Cameron Road was awarded the Lifetime Eves Referrer of the Year.
At Realty Group, the administrative and head office staff are invaluable to the business and were also recognised at last night's ceremony. Helen Baker of Eves Cherrywood won Eves Sales Administrator of the Year and Shae Capewell won the Realty Services Excellence award.
Owen Phelps from Eves Gate Pa won Top Auction Achiever and Nicholas Meloni from Eves The Lakes took out the award for Greatest Number of Unconditional Deals Settled.
A special mention to Andrea Cawley, Craig Sandlant, Diane Davidson and Deb Christensen on their 10-year awards. Also to Jan Booth, Harry Balloch and Ron Melville on their 20-year service awards.
Success Realty and Eves congratulate all of the award winners and wish the entire group all the best for the 2021/2022 financial year.
Coresteel Central Plateau has won the highly-coveted title of Franchise of the Year.
The company, which has more than 25 locally-owned franchises nationwide, was awarded the title at the annual national Coresteel Buildings Conference on May 4-5 in Napier.
The Central Plateau franchise is owned and operated by Logan Frew and Lee Parker-Frew, who have been running the franchise together for more than seven years.
"We are completely blown away to be awarded 2020's Franchise of the Year and to be recognised with the Design Excellence Award," Lee said.
"2020 presented many challenges that our team navigated with resilience and perseverance, having the support from an amazing crew of contractors and suppliers all contributing to our success."
Lee acknowledged their clients, contractors and suppliers, as well as the support from their franchise's head office team.
In addition to winning Franchise of the Year, Logan and Lee also won the Design Station Excellence award.
This award is judged on a franchisee's communication, responsiveness, professionalism and ability to provide comprehensive information.
Coresteel Buildings commercial manager Simon Archer said Lee, Logan and the Central Plateau team should be congratulated on picking up not only the two awards.
"The awards recognise both an outstanding achievement in business performance but also the consistent demonstration of professionalism and living the Coresteel values."
In the past year, Central Plateau has been involved in many commercial and industrial buildings, including a bespoke ambulance facility for St John Ambulance, a custom-fit workshop for Caulfield Signs and a 961m 2 commercial showroom for Norwood.
"We are privileged to be a part of an amazing group of business owners that share, collaborate, and support one another during the tough times. " Lee said.
"We look forward to seeing what the balance of 2021 can throw at the greater Coresteel team and how much more resilient the network can become."
Construction company Dominion Constructors has received top recognition for its work on the Mainfrieght Tauranga site.
Dominion Constructors won the Industrial Award in the New Zealand Commercial Project 2021 Awards this month.
The prestigious awards, owned and run by Registered Master Builders, sets the benchmark for commercial construction in New Zealand and recognises the team collaboration and innovation that bring these projects to life.
The 2021 awards took place at the Cordis Hotel in Auckland, with project teams from around the country coming together to celebrate the best in commercial construction.
Mainfreight Tauranga is built with sustainability and the future in mind, including a 100 KWh solar array, rainwater harvesting, and EV car charging stations.
The new facility is situated on a 6.1ha site and includes an impressive entry foyer with whale carvings depicting the history of the land.
The judges said the project team successfully enabled futureproofing for potential expansions and the integration of electric truck movements.
The new space includes a large clear-span freight building alongside attached amenities and office space, with separate sleeping pods for drivers and fully-catered kitchen facilities.
Several logistical challenges had to be considered as part of the design and delivery because of heavy operations, and significant truck movements.
"The experience bought to the project, by the design and construction team increased efficiency, and ensured valuable lessons learnt from developing previous facilities were incorporated.
"The use of local subcontractors and suppliers was critical."
Registered Master Builders chief executive David Kelly said this year's entrants were of an extremely high calibre, with only Gold and Silver awards being awarded.
"This is a reflection of both the skill and collaboration that exists within the project teams."
Entries are now open for Hospitality New Zealand's Awards for Excellence 2021.
Now in its 24th year, the annual awards celebrate the successes and achievements of the hospitality industry across New Zealand.
Each year, Hospitality New Zealand recognises businesses in the accommodation and food and beverage sectors for their hard work and commitment to excellence in their field.
Entrants have the opportunity to put forward their products to an expert judging panel, benchmark themselves against industry peers, providing valuable insights for future development and approaches.
For the first time, the awards are open to all of the New Zealand hospitality industry.
The self-nomination process is free to Hospitality New Zealand members. Non-members can enter for a fee.
Winners will be announced on September 9 at a formal black-tie Awards for Excellence dinner.
A Supreme overall winner will also be announced, along with the winner of the People's Choice Award.
Hospitality New Zealand chief executive Julie White said the awards programme has been developed to recognise the best of the best of the industry.
That includes individuals, operators, owners, properties that have demonstrated significant accomplishments, exemplary leadership and tireless commitment to the industry and have shown a commitment to looking after the communities in which they operate, she said.
Entries will remain open until June 20. For more information, or to enter, visit https://www.hospitality.org.nz/s/awards
Showing that New Zealand can compete on a global stage, the House of Science Tauranga Robotics Club pulled off a division win in the 2021 VEX Robotics World Championships.
The Mount Maunganui College team won the Engineering B Division and an Innovation Award.
Sam Orsler, Ryan Kayser and Luca Ririnui earned their place in the first Live Remote World Championships by competing against 60 teams in the NZ National Championships.
During the national contest, they won both the Excellence and Robot Skills Champion awards.
They designed, built and programmed their own robot to compete in a three-dimensional TicTacToe game, which involved removing and placing balls throughout a physical playing field. The team then partnered with an all-girl robotics team from California to win one of six Middle School divisions, before losing to the eventual world champions in inter-division playoffs.
Despite the virtual teamwork required, Orsler said communication with their alliance partner was really important.
"Being able to live video chat with them before matches allowed us to formulate a strategy to do our best."
Gaining the Innovate Award was a crowning achievement for the team, having initially built their robot based on the live events held in New Zealand, as opposed to international teams being familiar with live remote contests due to stricter Covid-19 regulations.
Spending five hours per week building robots and volunteering time with the House of Science robotics class, the team made weekly entries into a design notebook, and improved their robot continuously through trial and error.
The team has already started planning for the 2022 competition season, with the next contest being called "Tipping Point" and being based off a backyard ring toss game with additional challenges.
Orsley said it is a shame they have to dismantle their robot but doing well on the world stage has given them the confidence they can build another competitive robot.
"Hopefully, next year's world event will be in-person rather than remote."
Imagine only paying for car insurance based on how much you drive, or your home contents policy is automatically updated when you buy new tech, art and furniture?
This type of personalised insurance will soon be possible in New Zealand with the launch of Huddle in late 2021.
Open is teaming up with Tower Insurance to launch Huddle, bringing personalised, digital-first insurance to New Zealand.
Open has sold more than 60,000 car and home insurance policies across Australia, and also offers insurance through tech leaders such as Telstra.
Open's New Zealand operation will be underwritten by Tower and leverage Tower's reinsurance, pricing and claims supply chain, all via API thanks to Tower's significant investment in technology.
Tower chief executive officer Blair Turnbull said more competition can only be a good thing for Kiwis in an insurance market dominated by big players.
"There is a huge opportunity to reimagine how insurance operates so we welcome the innovation and energy that clever insurtech start-ups like Huddle are bringing to our industry.
"Huddle's success will be our success, leading to accelerated growth for both companies and more choice for customers. It's a win-win."
Jason Wilby, co-founder and joint chief executive of Open, said Tower is the perfect partner for their New Zealand expansion.
"It might seem strange that we're partnering with a 150-year-old Kiwi-owned company, but Tower is completely aligned with our vision to recalibrate how insurers leverage digital and data.
"Together we can engage customers and make insurance simpler and easier for all Kiwis."
"If you’re loyal to them, they will be loyal to you."