Survey asks who are we Te Awamutu?

Interim Te Awamutu Chamber of Commerce chief executive Shane Walsh began his successful corporate career at Te Awamutu's dairy factory. Photo / Dean Taylor

More than four decades ago a Te Awamutu teenager took the opportunity to turn a school holiday job at the dairy factory into a successful career in the corporate world.

Shane Walsh had been working at the Te Awamutu Dairy Factory in his last year at high school and was offered a cadetship – attending Massey University during the academic year and working at the factory during holidays.

That led to a number of opportunities within the NZ Dairy Group, including heading a couple of Waikato's plants – then executive and senior management roles both nationally and internationally for the likes of Sanford Ltd and International Nutrition Company, Shanghai.

He continued his own higher education and gained an MBA (with distinction) from Waikato University.

Recently Shane, and his wife Paula (nee Williams), also of Te Awamutu, returned to their hometown and both are keen to make a positive contribution to the town and community.

Shane has been using his extensive business knowledge by volunteering his time to help business owners as a business mentor and recently he was appointed a trustee on the Waipā Community Facilities Board.

He is also involved with Te Awamutu Chamber of Commerce and has been appointed interim chief executive on a fixed six month term, covering maternity leave.

The chamber's board is delighted to have someone with Shane's experience and knowledge to fill the role.

Shane believes local business and the community benefit from an inspiring and vibrant Chamber of Commerce.

"I look forward to working with the board to grow membership by creating a chamber that local business owners are excited to be part of because they believe it adds value," he says.

"Thriving Te Awamutu businesses benefit the whole community."

He is also representing the chamber as it works alongside Te Awamutu Community Board on a branding project.

The initial discussion came about last year when he and Paula presented to the board at a meeting.

Shane says Paula did most of the talking as she was concerned about the appearance of Te Awamutu's main street and thought we should be able to do much better.

"Follow up meetings with board chair Ange Holt resulted in a decision to undergo a branding exercise," says Shane.

"It made sense that before we tried to design a CBD that worked for Te Awamutu, we should understand who we are."

The chamber and board formed a working committee to drive the project.

Shane understands Te Awamutu has looked at this issue before, but is concerned it may not have been far reaching enough.

"I called on people with experience and knowledge about branding, including some ex-Te Awamutu people, to come up with a plan," says Shane.

"It is clear we need to start by knowing who we are – right now."

To that end Shane has developed a survey that is designed to answer that question by pulling a lot of information and knowledge from locals into a pool of responses.

He also studied small town branding and found that about 80 per cent was unsuccessful for various reasons.

Some of the main drivers to failure include brands that are devised by councils, or some other authority, without community input and buy-in, and brands that are no longer relevant.

He believes a brand must equate to how people experience living in their town.

Shane says he wants to be clear the project isn't about getting rid of the 'Rosetown' tag, but making sure it is the best we can have.

He says it might eventuate that the 'Rosetown' tag is the most appropriate – but he also believes successful brands are backed up by events and actions, and that may no longer be the case.

"I can recall the annual Rose Festival, Rose Queen Parade and Rose Shows but I don't see them now," he says.

Part of driving community involvement is meeting with as many groups as possible and he hopes that will be possible within a reasonable time-frame despite Covid restrictions.

Shane plans to meet with community groups representing youth, sports organisations, service clubs, the Rose Society, Chamber of Commerce and business, senior groups and iwi over the next couple of months.

"We want everyone to have the opportunity to have a say so we get it right," he says.

"All I ask is people have an open mind to the possibilities."

The survey has been kindly supported by Te Awamutu Pak'nSave. Everyone who completes the survey will go into a draw to win a Te Awamutu Pak'nSave $500 Gift Card.

"It is great to have Pak'nSave on board as they are always wonderful supporters of the Te Awamutu community," says Ange.

"We are all grateful for their generosity."

The chamber and community board is partnering exclusively with the Te Awamutu Courier to bring this project to the community, gather information and opinions and report progress.

We welcome Letters to the Editor on the topic and these will be considered as part of the consultation. Letters must adhere to the rules of publication as described in our imprint on page 2, but all letters, whether published or not, will be forwarded to the committee.

To undertake the survey, visit whoareweteawamutu.com

To contact the group about opportunities for consultation, or to share views, use the contact information at teawamutuchamber.org.nz.