Honey exporters did especially well. Rotorua-based Streamland Honey Plant won the YOU Travel Emerging Exporter of the Year award. New Zealand Manuka Group executive chairman Phil Caskey received the Beca Export Achievement Award, and the company, which he founded, also took out the Page Macrae Engineering Innovation in Export Award.
Graeme Marshall, a well-known Bay businessman with a passion for shipping and international trade, received the New Zealand Trade & Enterprise Service to Export Award for his outstanding contributions to the export community throughout the region.
Zespri International sponsored the awards evening, themed "1950s - Golden age of air travel," and MC-ed by Samantha Hayes, with the Wellington City Shake Em-on-Downers providing entertainment.
The judges said they were impressed by the variety of businesses that had entered across the the awards.
Overall winner Skyline Rotorua was cited for having transformed its business, developing a multi-attraction and multi-activity venue providing visitors with a unique and memorable destination experience. The company beat other finalists Automation & Electronics NZ and Ntec Tertiary Group to the title.
Skyline's transformation has included new luge runs, wine-tasting facilities, a revamped hospitality offering, new retail platforms showcasing New Zealand design, a mountain bike track, and a dedicated star-gazing observatory. Skyline is also extensively involved with Destination Rotorua and a wide range of industry and community stakeholders to ensure major national and international events and individual visitors come to Rotorua.
"Skyline has transformed their Rotorua venue into a multi-attraction, multi-activity international tourism experience," the judges said.
Engineering Innovation in Export Award-winner New Zealand Manuka Group harvests and exports both consumer and medical honey products. NZ Manuka also processes seaweed into laboratory grade agar and bio-media, and Manuka leaves from the East Cape into a range of essential oils and bio-active products. Skyline Rotorua and new startup off-road electric bike manufacturer Ubco were the other finalists in the category.
Based in Awakeri outside of Whakatane, with operations spread throughout the Eastern Bay of Plenty, NZ Manuka is involved with a range of stakeholders, including beekeepers and landowners via partnership arrangements. The company is now building capability and investing heavily in developing Manuka plantations, propagating and planting Manuka seedlings that will be mechanically harvested.
"NZ Manuka Group is connecting local communities and their natural resources, through a matrix of innovative science, an ethos of environmental sustainability, and smart investment in knowhow and people capability," said the judges.
The company's founder, chairman and driving entrepreneurial spirit Phil Caskey picked up the Export Achievement award, given to recognise a material contribution to a company's export success by a particular individual within the company.
He was credited as an early pioneer in recognising the wider potential of Manuka-based products and has driven the company's scientific research into new products, production facilities and cultivation and harvesting of Manuka plantations for oil extraction, and the incorporation of that oil and derived triketones into an ever-expanding product range.
Mr Caskey has led from the front in planning his vision, building teams of collaborators, building relationships, harvesting and building the plant and facilities themselves, the judges said.
"Phil Caskey's vision and determination to establish a business that has, at its core, a real commitment to benefiting communities everywhere, is a significant achievement in its own right.
The other finalists were Chris Chaplin of Trimax Mowing Systems and Peter Edmonson and Peter McCormick of Shot! Darts (Puma Darts).
Rotorua-based Streamland Honey Plant, winner of the Emerging Exporter Award, has been operating since March 2014. The company sources bulk honeys from all over New Zealand, tests and grades them, then creates its own blends of Manuka UMF quality mark and other mono floral honeys. Products include Lemon 'n Honey and Cranberry 'n Honey. The flagship brand is Streamland Honey and they also contract pack honey for export.
The judges said Streamland Honey had utilised years of knowledge and in-market relationships to launch its new venture strongly into the NZ Honey Export Market.
"Having designed their own custom-built plant and differentiated their product range from others, they have maximised their considerable growth of revenue ever since starting only a couple of years ago."
Other finalists in the Emerging Exporter category included C-Corp, creator of Solomons Gold Chocolate, clothing company You Know We Aint, and Volcanic Hills Winery.
Ports expert Graeme Marshall received the Service to Export Award, traditionally a surprise to the winner, as it is the only category that can't be entered, but is chosen by previous award recipients.
Mr Marshall was fascinated with the sea and ships from an early age, leaving school for a job with freight company Hooker Brothers, then headhunted for a position in Wellington as a customs broker. He joined Skellerup Industries in Wellington and eventually became its branch manager in Hastings. His involvement with ports began with his appointment to a new trade promotion job at Napier Port, and he has remained dedicated to New Zealand's port industry.
After 19 years at Napier Port, ending up as general manager, he joined Port of Tauranga in 1997 as the commercial manager and was integral in helping his team build up the port. He was recognised for both his port activity and for mentoring mentoring local exporters, and continues to have a significant contribution to business and trade within NZ.
Lionel Crawley, NZTE's BOP regional manager, said that Mr Marshall had continued to give a lot of time to champion export growth from the BOP region since retiring from the Port of Tauranga.
"Graeme is an active supporter of the Bay of Connections Regional Growth Strategy and the effort he put in to ensure the voice of exporters was heard during the recent MBIE Regional Growth Study is just one example of his commitment and drive."
Mr Marshall has also been the chairman of Tourism Bay of Plenty, director and chairman of Metrobox, Chairman of Cruise New Zealand, and responsible for business development for the Timaru Container Terminal, and Northport, and a director of Port Taranaki. More recently he has been heavily involved in leading Bay of Plenty Export initiatives through his role as a member of the Bay of Connections Governance Group, and is the chairman of the Biosecurity Ministerial Advisory Committee.
He has also been an active supporter and intern coach for the past seven years at Second Base, which provides values-based leadership programmes in international settings. Mr Marshall has introduced several exporting leaders to Second Base, in the process helping them empower their own export success. In addition, he is a board member and volunteer of the related charity Face Nepal, which organises child sponsorship and volunteers for community projects.
Primary Industry Minister Nathan Guy said the award was very well-deserved, and described Mr Marshall as a champion for the wider biosecurity system in New Zealand .
"You are a champion for the Bay of Plenty, and someone who is very passionate about Exports," he said. "Graeme has been involved with the Port of Tauranga, as well as the Bay of Connections where he does a lot of work with the government there in supporting regional economic development."
Bay of Connections portfolio manager Cheryl Lewis said Mr Marshall's commitment to the organisation over the last five years had been outstanding.