Category Archives: Business Profiles

Meke Meter and Dominys set to dominate wellbeing market

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Levi and Dana Armstrong have a strong desire to improve the mental, social and physical wellbeing of communities.

For over five years, the Armstrongs have worked with a team of researchers at EIT to develop the Meke Meter, www.mekemeter.org.

The Meke Meter is an indigenous quality of life self-assessment tool.

By asking people to think about their current physical, mental and social well- being, Levi and Dana are hoping to gain good insight into the country’s well- being.

Through completing the Meke Meter regularly, people can track any changes to their wellbeing. This empowers individuals to set goals and make positive changes to improve their quality of life.

“I come from a fitness background where it’s all about physical appearance but actually it’s a lot bigger than that – it’s also about mental and social well-being, which is crucial when taking a holistic approach to health.”

Levi, with the support of technology company Haunui, has been able to turn the Meke Meter into an online platform that enables people to rate out of 10 how they are feeling physically, mentally and socially in regards to 15 specific key indicators.

During COVID-19, more than 1,000 people regularly submitted their measurements with Levi and Dana validating the quality of the information as part of a study for Masters of Health Science.

Levi has already completed a Bachelor of Recreation and Sport at EIT while Dana gained a Bachelor in Education, majoring in Physical Education and Health, and a Diploma in Teaching (Conjoint) from Massey University.

“While COVID-19 has made its presence felt in Aotearoa, we thought it would be a great opportunity to understand the impact that COVID-19 is having on the health and wellness of New Zealanders.

“We have looked at other studies including the Christchurch Earthquakes and the Global Financial Crisis and how wellness was measured,” says Levi.

Levi said it helped not having a regular 8 am–5 pm job during lockdown, but instead spending time with his whanau, studying, keeping fit but without going to the gym, and achieving a personal challenge of not drinking alcohol for 100 days. All of which was measured via the Meke Meter.

“We’re all quite busy in life and didn’t have much time for many things but COVID-19 gave me the opportunity to take a step back, reflect and set some goals, and the Meke Meter has helped me immensely.

“We’ve also had our children using the Meke Meter, as well as many others, and the research has highlighted some of the key areas that we can focus on and hopefully we can share and disseminate some of this information back to some key stakeholders in the health and well- being space.”

Levi says the aim is to now commercialise the Meke Meter to organisations involved in health, social well-being and education.

It will also complement another lockdown project – a fitness centre pod called Dominys – which is being piloted with Wellington high school Taita College. The project has received funding support from Wellington-based youth development organisation Boys and Girls Institute (BGI).

Levi had been toying with the idea of a fitness centre in a shipping container for some time. It had come about when his first whanau fitness project Patu was struggling to pay rent for the gym.

“My cousin is an architect and at Christmas I told him about my idea to create a fitness centre within a shipping container.”

“My cousin is an architect and at Christmas I told him about my idea to create a fitness centre within a shipping container.

“The next thing, he sent me some drawings and we’ve now got a prototype and a project with Taita College.

“The aim is to provide it as a shared space, so anyone in the community can use it.

“For the college they will use the pod as part of their curriculum and the Meke Meter will measure how much of a difference the gym is making in the school and the community.”

Levi says Sport New Zealand research shows that there is a significant drop-off of high school students participating in active recreation and it’s something he wants to turn around.

“We are trying to get the Meke Meter and Dominys to work hand in hand.

“There is a big drop-off in participation between the ages of 12 and 14 years of age, so we want to flatten that so that we can be the ambulance at the top of the hill rather than at the bottom.”

The container is equipped with weight rack systems, Olympic bars and weights, skipping ropes and boxing bags. It has a sound system, lighting and uses an hydraulic system to open up the sides.

Levi knows the positive impact of physical fitness on mental and social wellbeing and says that with the pandemic crisis and thousands of people losing their jobs and businesses closing, it will be more important than ever to better understand how people are feeling.

“Post-COVID-19, mental health is going to be a really important factor to consider in the nation’s recovery. We know from the research following the Christchurch earthquakes and the GFC that there was more mental support services set up and there’s going to need to be similar action taken after this pandemic.”

Capturing Award Winning Success

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They started out with an office in their kids’ rumpus room at their home in Clive in 2015, now Nicky and Kane Grundy have a Chamber of Commerce Business Awards trophy in their high-profile space at the Tech Collective in Ahuriri. The entrepreneurs, who have always owned their own businesses, have ticked off numerous goals since starting their video production company in 2015 including being a part of The Icehouse Owner Operator Programme.

Kate de Lautour spoke to Nicky Ross-Grundy about the opportunities for the business and how Grundy Productions are creating a shift in the way we think about recruitment.

You were the 2019 winners of the HB COC Small Business Award – just 4 years after starting the business. How have you done it?

The Icehouse has been a major contributing factor to the development of our business. The 12 month programme covered all the major areas of business which made filling in the business awards entry less daunting. It’s allowed us to be more conscious and purposeful in what, how and why we do the things we do and given us invaluable knowledge and structure.

The judges said they were impressed with our focus on quality in everything we did from all interactions with clients to ensuring that our staff are working in a brilliant environment. An important factor has been bringing the right people on board who share our values and vision. Suden and Ally are both talented, creative individuals who care deeply about what we do and our clients.

Recruitment videos for companies like Central Districts Pest Control have been incredibly successful with thousands of views. What are the key elements to good recruitment videos?

This is an area that really excites me because who you hire has such an impact on your business and the results our customers achieve are so positive. In today’s world recruitment is more about culture fit. Skills can be taught but matching the right values and mindset can ensure you’re hiring for the long term. The more our clients share with us the more real and creative we can be.

Also having a strategy to share your video and designing your recruitment process with your candidates’ experience in mind goes a long way.

How do you get that vision to portray each company in a way that captures people attention?

We start with researching the client to understand what makes them different and special. Then we drill down into who they want to speak to and why. That involves researching the potential target audience and then tailoring the client’s messaging to their audience.

With video we’ve found it far more impactful to keep the messaging simple, clear and targeted. For example, a brand video, telling the story of who you are, what you do and why is different to a recruitment video which articulates why talented individuals should work for you.

What are some of the challenges you face?

Working from home was challenging and, in the early days, when we didn’t have clear boundaries, we were trying to do everything. Kane has joined the coaching part of the Owner Operator Programme and he’s happy for me to work on the business while he works in the business although Kane does tell me not to talk about work at home! Finding that ideal balance isn’t always easy.

At a point last year I felt I needed to focus on our kids instead of spreading myself

too thin at work. The Icehouse coaching gave me the confidence and expertise to prioritise what was important. We can now be comfortable that we can say no to the projects that make room for the best opportunities.

What kind of growth are you experiencing ?

Financially we’ve met our targets and experienced year on year growth – a 244% increase from our first full year FY2017 to FY2020 and physically we will need extra office space. The Tech Collective has been really good for our brand, clients have enjoyed coming here and it’s a nice environment for the team so it’s likely we will be staying close to Ahuriri with Wallace Developments.

What is on the agenda for 2020?

We are seeing more and more export food businesses wanting to tell their story with visual impact. We are about to embark on training videos for large corporates. Rather than nuts and bolts training, these projects will be a story telling function to allow employees understand the “why” around the training they’re doing.

Charlie Wallace – rocking to success

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The hard work has paid off for musician and online entrepreneur Charlie Wallace, who now has the financial freedom to realise his dream of becoming an international rock star.

It’s a ‘high school dropout becomes a success’ story for the former Taradale High School student, who has created a multimillion-dollar online business before the age of 30.

His teachers may have doubted he would be successful but Charlie has gone
from leaving school at 15 years of age to creating the world’s leading online learn- to-play guitar business, Guitar Mastery Method.

So successful has Guitar Mastery Method become that Charlie can now afford a rock star-like house high on the Taradale hills with fast cars, a swimming pool and a studio for his band Black Smoke Trigger. The band is also paid a salary so that they can put everything into becoming the world’s biggest hard rock band. Think Metallica, Alice in Chains and Mötley Crüe.

“I was busy being a teenager and playing in a band but when I realised that if I wanted the band to be huge, we were going to need a lot of money. I couldn’t borrow any so I had to come up with a money-making idea.”

Charlie’s first money-making scheme was to publish an e-book teaching people to play the guitar, but success didn’t happen as fast as he had hoped.

“I released the e-book when I was 16 and it made $20,000 over five years. I knew that if an e-book could make me $20,000 then I would be able to make a lot more money from developing an online video course.

“I told the guys in the band that I was going to put the band on hold for a year, develop the guitar course and focus on making as much money as I could so that we could go full-time.

“I had no idea that it would end up taking me eight years to get into a position for us to go full-time.”

During those eight years the band also changed in both name – from Horresett to Black Trigger Smoke – and members, with only Charlie and Josh ‘Baldrick’ Rasmussen being the originals.

Charlie put everything on the line to make a success of Guitar Mastery Method.

It took three years to develop the online courses and he spent many sleep- deprived days building the website, the member login area and payment process; editing video and photography content; as well as being the anchor tutor.

“It was a lot of work and what made it harder was that I didn’t have any funds to get any support, so I had to learn to do everything myself.”

Charlie believes he was destined to be successful from playing guitar strings.

“I always knew that I was going to do something with a guitar even though my teachers thought I was destined for not a lot.

“I started playing guitar after hearing a Black Sabbath song and I wanted to try and learn how to play it.

“I heard that you could illegally download it on the Internet, so I went online but failed to find it. But I did find this website called Guitar Tab and that gave me the prospect of playing this kick-ass song that I had just heard. I looked at these six lines [guitar strings] that had numbers on them and it just made sense to me; from that moment I stuck with it.”

Learning was a slow process, and Charlie had to search the Internet for different ways to learn instead of just relying on the one website. In doing so he was able to develop a unique teaching style that has become the secret ingredient to the business’s success and seen over 50,000 guitar wannabes subscribe and become guitarists.

“When I started to learn guitar it was about trying to get as much information as possible from all sources and then trying to make sense of it. I had to do
it the hard way and piece the puzzle together.

“I started to get really interested in how the brain learns because I wanted to learn faster, I wanted to absorb as much as possible.

Charlie also attributes Guitar Mastery Method’s online marketing success to what he’d learned from marketing guru and author of top-selling book ASK Ryan Levesque. Ryan has since become a close mentor.

However, when Guitar Mastery Method went live at 10 am on 5 August 2014, success wasn’t as instant as Charlie had hoped.

“I had been up all night getting it ready and managed to get just a couple of hours sleep on the broken fold out couch before 10 am launch time.

“I clicked the email ‘send’ button to say it was live and my heart started to pound as I was wondering whether I had just wasted three years of my life. I had no idea whether it was going to work at all. I kept hitting the browser refresh button over and over hoping for a sale yet nothing was coming in.

“It wasn’t looking good and although the website had been live for only 15 minutes, it seemed like an eternity waiting for the first sale.”

Charlie went for a walk outside to think about his next move: would it be going back to one-on-one teaching guitar, or working in a music shop?

“I went outside and pondered what would be next if this failed. I took a deep breath, walked back inside and hit refresh again, and at 10.17 am I had $47 dollars come in; it was the biggest $47 dollars I have ever earned.

“The first order was from the US and I was in celebration mode as it felt as if I had just made a million bucks.”

In the four months remaining in 2014, the business made just $13,000 – a long way from getting the band back together and paying them.

In 2015, turnover reached $80,000, then nearly doubled in 2016 to $150,000. In 2017, Guitar Mastery Method exploded with earnings reaching $1.5 million, then $3 million in 2018 and a staggering $5 million last year.

“The fastest earnings totalled $75,000 in 45 minutes. Our next target is to grow revenue to $15 million as soon as we can.”

Success has enabled Charlie to bring on staff and support agencies, including a social media firm run out of Vancouver, as well as to prepare to step aside to join the band.

Thanks to mentor Ryan, Charlie decided in 2018 to set a deadline for the band and its members Josh Coyle-Te Maro on drums, Dan Fulton on bass guitar and Josh ‘Baldrick’ Rasmussen on vocals to go full-time by March 2019.

Charlie said the early vision was to build up the business to sell, but he’s since seen it change peoples’ lives as well as realise the initial aim of funding a band.

“I’m not running any of the business day to day now. Ryan advised me to set a date to step away and that’s what I did, and the team has stepped up.”

Close friend Johnny (last name), a former builder, has risen to the ranks of chief operating officer – “he’s my right-hand man,” says Charlie.

Black Smoke Trigger’s success to date includes spending three months in Nashville recording an EP (extended play record) with one of the best music producers, Michael Wagner; making a music video for “Caught in the Undertow”, which has had more than 1 million views on YouTube; and reaching Number 9 on the US heavy rock billboard charts with “Set it off”. The band hopes to produce an album and tour the US in 2021.

All the while, Charlie has no plans to move permanently from Hawke’s Bay.

“It’s the best place to live. Most of our business is in the US, both with Guitar Mastery Method and the band’s music, but there’s an airport 15 minutes from my house and it’s only two or three flights to a US destination.”

Strong foundations – The efficient and eco-friendly building solution

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A construction boom has been sweeping across Hawke’s Bay over the last few years and it’s not predicted to decline any time soon.

As hundreds of new houses are needed due to population growth, there’s greater pressure on builders to complete projects more efficiently as well as adopting greater sustainable building products and practices.

This all starts with the foundations, and experienced businessman Mike Teddy of MPT Concrete, and Cupolex Solutions has been using the proven foundation flooring solution, Cupolex, since he was first asked by a homeowner to source it 16 years ago.

Not only did Mike find the product, he became an exclusive reseller for the lower North Island and has since acquired the New Zealand license to manufacture and sell Cupolex nationwide. Cupolex is a cost-effective, eco-friendly alternative to a polystyrene/raft foundation, using Italian designed structural domes to replace hard fill or polystyrene concrete formwork.

When Mike first started using Cupolex the domes were manufactured in Italy, then Australia, now here in NZ, but once he’d bought the license and dies, he went local and partnered with Napier plastics manufacturer NTD Plastics.

“It’s great that we can now manufacture 75% of the components in Napier; it was important to me that we looked to source local and it’s been great to partner with NTD Plastics,” he says.

Mike now sells Cupolex to like-minded and independent concrete contractors throughout New Zealand and to construction firms such as Gemco, as well as supplying to the likes of building supplies company ITM and Mitre 10.

Gemco general manager Chris Olsen says Cupolex has become their flooring system of choice.

“We first used it on a housing project and we immediately found the ease, cost efficiencies and programme advantages resulted in a quicker and better product for the client. We now endeavour to use it everywhere we can as it has proven to be a good addition in an always changing and challenging market for costs and programmes,” Chris says.

The dome designs aren’t new; they were invented in Italy over 20 years ago and have become a world-proven solution, predominantly for residential housing but now also starting to branch into commercial buildings.

Mike says the benefits of the dome system are many, including providing cost savings in concrete, steel, labour and freight as well as being a virtually zero waste solution. With a
global emphasis on the environment, all components are manufactured from 100 percent recycled/recyclable materials.

Since the Christchurch earthquakes, there has been greater focus on a building’s foundations, with geotechnical engineers designing the foundations and recommending the type of foundation system to use.

“Cupolex is a customised site-specific design and takes into consideration the unique ground dynamics, bearing in mind liquefaction and sheer twists, and Cupolex is pretty much a floating floor system.”

Mike says it’s not about supplying Cupolex and leaving the concreter or builder to it. “We’ve got a really good support service for the entire process and we put a lot of effort into training and showing how to use Cupolex.

“We’re not just selling a product. MPT Concrete use Cupolex on 99% of jobs so we have learned a lot and are only happy to pass on our experience to support our product.”

Cupolex is listed on www.productspec.co.nz and www.smartspec.co.nz.

Visit www.cupolex.co.nz 

Iconic Hastings hotel takes on new offering

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Hastings’ iconic Angus Inn, once the top business hotel in the city, is now part of a win-win solution to fixing Hawke’s Bay’s housing crisis and the seasonal labour shortage.

In its hey day, the Angus Inn was the place to stay — from hosting All Blacks players to politicians, as well as it being booked out on Saturday nights for weddings and 21st celebrations.

Today the Angus is playing a new role in growing Hastings’ economy along with transitioning locals into full-time employment.

It’s a great example of how Hawke’s Bay’s booming horticultural industry is dealing with the region’s housing crisis, while accommodating the desperately needed seasonal RSE (recognised seasonal employment) labour to get the record crop picked.

Bibby brothers Drew and Nick, together with their father Richard, recently purchased the Angus Inn for $4.8 million and have undertaken a $600,000 refurbishment to provide 312 beds.

The development is part of the apple industry’s $30 million investment in building 1500 new beds to gain the Government’s
confidence that Hawke’s Bay can accommodate the 1000 more RSE workers needed to get the crops harvested.

At the same time, these new beds are becoming part of the solution to the region’s housing crisis, offering transitional accommodation to vulnerable people in desperate need while also freeing up rented houses.

Their positive working relationship with WINZ means every suitable New Zealander looking for employment is being offered the chance of full-time work through a range of seasonal jobs required during the year.

The Bibby’s business, Thornhill Horticultural Contracting, provides a 450-strong permanent and seasonal workforce to a range of leading Hawke’s Bay employers, including Brownrigg Agriculture, Rockit Apples and Delegates.

As part of Thornhill’s pastoral care package, for $130 a week, RSEs staying at the Angus get full lodgings, fresh linen, weekly laundry and cleaning service, this is extra. They will also get three full meals a day for $13.50, including a packed lunch.

Thornhill have started an initiative with the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and Department of Corrections giving New Zealanders the same opportunities as RSE workers; that is, offering jobs, subsidised accommodation and meals to those in need. Named the Accommodate to Work Scheme, applicants are employed with Thornhill, or other employment if they already have full-time work.

The entire premises is now an alcohol-free zone, with full security, a 24-hour on-site manager, and a strong health and well-being focus.

Their focus is on developing a supportive and friendly culture for all different nationalities including people visiting
from Samoa, Vanuatu, Tonga, Thailand and Fiji.

The Bibby family is making a positive difference.

“It’s incredibly rewarding being able to help those who have no place to live,” says Drew.

A fully separated area with its own secure access of 14 units is providing transitional housing in partnership with MSD.

Some of the transitional housing tenants are also becoming permanent Thornhill employees working within the Angus accommodation complex and elsewhere as part of the contracting team.

“MSD clients are often homeless when referred so it’s great to be able to accommodate them and help them into full employment.

Nick says“One of the greatest benefits is it’s giving people the time and opportunity they need to find work and a place to settle, without the fear of where their next bed and meal will come from.

“This is how we can make a real difference towards helping people improve their lives.”

The Angus offered everything the Bibby’s needed: it had great bones, a full commercial kitchen and dining hall, and an open lounge and common area.

“The complex is ideal. Its large hotel rooms mean we can meet all the new size and building, bed and bathroom requirements set by the council for RSEs, as well as providing a great place for people to enjoy their work/life balance.”

It now has an entertainment area with pool tables, 86-inch televisions, computers and free Wi-Fi throughout. Outside there’s a range of different activities available including volleyball, pentaque and a swimming pool during summer.

The Bibby’s are also developing 60+ more beds in the ‘bird cage bar’ area within the hotel site. As well as accommodating their own RSE and New Zealand staff, the Bibby’s are now providing evening meals to other employee staff.

FIngermark – Making a mark on the global fast food scene

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Luke Irving has big aspirations to leave an indelible mark on the global technology scene from Havelock North, as well as creating a Silicon Valley styled technology scene nurturing Hawke’s Bay talent.

Luke, the founder of a global tech company Fingermark which is leading the development of applied computer vision and deep learning computer machine technology, uplifted his

team of 18 staff from Auckland and moved them into a warehouse in Havelock North three years ago.

The easiest way to explain what Fingermark does is that it designs, builds and manufactures leading edge technology solutions to help businesses streamline operations and enhance customer experience.

Fingermark leads the way in artificial intelligence (AI) software with real time and predictive business analytics, through to next generation customer kiosks and digital menu boards, which is fit for purpose and with a clear vision to “revolutionise customer speed of service” in sectors such as Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) and the health sector.

Luke established Fingermark in 2005, seeing a gap in the touch screen market and how it could be adopted in the hospitality and food service industry. He had had dabbled in the technology as a bar owner in Wellington, when he installed a touch screen point of sale system which he simply turned the screen around to the customer to place their food order.

“Self-service was starting to come of age and technology was at price point that it could be adopted into most markets quite easily but there was no one building technology in that space in NZ.

“I took a bit of a punt and set Fingermark up as a digital kiosk company, where we started to build hardware and software.

Early adopters included the Briscoes Group including Rebel Sport as well as Westfield Group and Sky City.”

Luke’s big break came when he developed the first self-ordering and payment kiosk for Subway, heralding a serious foray into the QSR sector.

This opened up the global opportunity to secure a contract with Yum Brands, the parent company of Restaurant Brands, which operates Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC globally.

Luke says fast food businesses were making good money during the Global Financial Crisis and they decided to invest in digital technology such as outdoor and indoor ordering kiosks and digital signage.

“There’s a well-known story of me taking 63 flights across the Tasman to win the Yum brands contract.

“They saw us as one-stop technology shop and that started our growth and global opportunities, so at the point in time I reinvested heavily back into the business in software development and we set up a software development business in Brazil.”

Four years ago, Fingermark hit a “sweet spot” and started to win additional contracts in the QSR sector for developing AI and Machine learning for suggestive selling and predictive modelling of a customer’s ordering patterns. The next generation technology is capable of identifying the customer and its buying habits so that it can offer more than ‘would you like fries with that?’.

Fingermark has gone on to smash its “big hairy audacious” client base target set for end of 2020 goal of 100,000 QSR including securing a global contact with McDonalds.

Fingermark now employs over 60 staff, many spread across two offices spaces in Havelock North, as well as team members based in Brazil, Dubai and Colarado, United States.

Luke’s ambitions are not to just develop a large technology business in Hawke’s Bay but to develop local talent that goes on to work in other local technology businesses such as Re-leased, Ask Your Team or Fingermark’s sister business Florence, which is based in Napier.

To do so, he is championing a talent laboratory campus and is scouting for a greenfields site. He has also had early discussions with EIT Hawke’s Bay to be the education partner with the aim of delivering highly skilled technology graduates with a higher earning capacity to Hawke’s Bay businesses.

“We’ve got five EIT technology graduates at Fingermark and we can see the potential to create a lab style education hub that will ensure the long term sustainability of businesses like ours in Hawke’s Bay. We don’t want to move, but we need the talent and there’s two options — you grow it locally or you import it.

Hastings HIVE has businesses buzzing with excitement over a new co-working space!

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A new-age approach to renting office space that provides corporate-level facilities for small companies has got the business community buzzing in Hawke’s Bay.

From high-end offices, super-fast Internet connectivity, hi-tech meeting and board rooms, a café with great coffee, a chilled water station with still and sparkling water and relaxing lounge area, to luxury bathrooms with showers and changing lockers, small businesses can now enjoy the trappings of a swish corporate office.

Rob and Jenny Gill bought the former Hastings Farmers store in 2018. The large building on the corner of Queen Street and Market Street was completely redeveloped and earthquake strengthened in 2014, becoming the National Operations Centre for Kiwibank.

Part of the building remained undeveloped until the Gills identified an opportunity in Hastings for high-quality, shared workspaces. Rob says the complex, called Hastings HIVE, is based on the shared workplace concept pioneered in international trading centres like London, New York and Toronto.

He says this movement, which they’ve branded ‘i-space’, has been spreading globally, fuelled by a need for adaptable workspaces and a desire for better quality but shared resources, supporting modern agile work practices with intelligent design and the latest information technologies.

Rob illustrates why adaptable spaces are important: “Previously, we owned an IT business that was locked into a 10-year lease, ratcheting up 3 percent a year. This at a time when rents around us fell by up to 30 percent after the 2008 global financial crisis. We had to lay off staff as this lack of flexibility with one of our biggest fixed costs was really hurting us. It was a very stressful time to own a small business.

“So we were determined our customers would have some of the best working conditions and professional support available anywhere in New Zealand, so they can concentrate on their core business and leave the contextual stuff to us and our professional partners.”

Being an i-space, the first partner on board was local ICT company Glenn Cook Technologies, whose job it was to ensure customers have the best and most resilient networking and Internet experience possible. The ultra-secure Aruba system that powers the new network is normally found only in large corporate sites. Better still, like most services at Hastings HIVE, networking is included in the monthly rental plan.

“We have certainly gone to the next level with office fit-out,” says interior designer Amy Henderson, who recently returned to New Zealand from working in London. “The design brief was to create a sophisticated workplace that provides small businesses the opportunity to work in an environment that usually only large corporates can afford. Fundamentally, people work better when they love where they work.

“What sets this i-space apart from co-working spaces I have seen here and overseas is the quality of the fit-out, the high-end products we specified and the craftsmanship on display. MCL Construction (based in Hastings) have done a world-class job.”

Local architects Fat Parrot have designed a highly functional space that customers can adapt as needed but know that almost everything they might require is provided for, from fixtures and fittings to the café and lounge setting, meeting spaces and five-star hotel-like bathrooms.

This i-space, the first of many the Gill’s say, offers a range of flexible workspaces to suit most uses and budgets, starting from a one-person i-desk up to larger i-offices sized from 26 m2 to 78 m2 and suitable for six to twenty people. All this, amazingly, with a 30 to 40 percent lower total occupancy cost than leasing your own office, with no long fixed-term leases or guarantees required.

“Success for us will be seeing our first i-desk customer move to an i-office,” says Rob. “And that’s the incubator opportunity that we hope will boost the local economy – it’s about supporting people, growing business and creating jobs.”

Interested in leasing an i-space? Visit www.hastingshive.co.nz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Pero Real Estate establishes in HB

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The savvy and experienced local business woman, has opened the region’s first Mike Pero Real Estate franchise, based in Hastings, as the Hawke’s Bay brand and territory owner covering Napier to Central Hawke’s Bay.

Fulfilling a lifelong ambition to own her own business in real estate, Amber says she wanted to bring a real point of difference to the regions highly competitive residential market.

“I’m hugely excited about the opportunities for Hawke’s Bay, particularly in Hastings which has huge potential as a growing city with coming more alive with inner city living in the planning – it’s all happening here and it’s fantastic to be part of it.”

Throughout her career, Amber’s worked across almost every aspect of the property market, first starting out at 18 in administration, then moving into property management then finance and sales.

“I’m passionate about the industry and through a range of different career opportunities, I’ve been able to gain experience right across the board both working in Auckland and the regions.”

“For the past two years, I enjoyed working within another franchise Property Scouts in Hawke’s Bay, so it’s given me a great insight into the advantages of becoming a franchisee.

“After doing my research I rang Mike Pero and we hit it off instantly.

As part of Mike Pero Real Estate, I’m able to offer an affordable option for Hawke’s Bay clients along with providing all our local listings with the significant benefits of being connected to a major brand with national marketing, scale and reach.

It’s the best of both worlds,” says Amber.

Amber has been built up great network within Hawke’s Bay, which has already seen her gaining referrals and being busy with appraisals and first listings.

“When people are listing their home, they want to know they’re getting expert advice and value for money. We have one of the most competitive lower fee rates on offer at 2.95 for the first $390,000 and 1.95% thereafter.

Mike Pero says he’s looking forward to his next visit to Hawke’s Bay to officially open the new office with Amber.

“For the last five or six years we have been very keen to open in Hawke’s Bay, but we really wanted someone who would fit in with our culture, vision and integrity. Amber is the perfect fit and we are delighted to have her as our representative based in Hastings – you will find Amber a pleasure to deal with” says Mike.

Rental housing overhaul long overdue

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The landscape of property management is changing and the days of letting your investment property to a ‘mate of a mate’ on a handshake is gone, or at least it should be.

In recent years the industry has undergone massive change and Propertyscouts Hawke’s Bay owner Duncan McLean warns there are more changes on the horizon. He says those who aren’t abreast of the changes can no longer bury their heads in the sand on the matter with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Enterprise working hard at identifying landlords operating outside the law and holding them to account.

A Whanganui property management company was ordered to pay $34,500 in damages for multiple counts of failing to lodge bonds and failure to provide insulation statements on tenancy agreements.

Duncan purchased the Hawke’s Bay franchise in 2016 after spending 18 years as a police detective.

“It’s not so different to policing in many ways. Communication is key, we forge relationships with all walks of life, ensuring tenant and landlord obligations are understood and met, always diplomatically and where possible with a smile.”

Duncan has assisted private landlords through the transition into professional management, often after issues have arisen.

“Often the friendship between the owner and tenant is a barrier to effective management of the investment. Properties are under-rented and inspections are not completed in a timely manner due to a perceived breach of privacy. I really enjoy the positive feedback from landlords who no longer have the stress but are enjoying better yields from their investment, knowing

Rental housing overhaul long overdue

Coming of age for residential rental market that the properties are now compliant with the Residential Tenancies Act. Many private landlords aren’t aware that without recorded three monthly inspections their insurance policies are likely void.”

He says there is no place in the industry for owners not willing to maintain healthy and dry properties, nor property managers not willing to toe the line.

Minister for Housing & Urban Development Phil Twyford makes no secret of the need for change believing proposed changes will “strike a new balance between providing tenants with more secure tenure and allowing them to make their house a home while protecting the rights and interests of landlords.”

Mandatory smoke alarms, minimum levels of insulation (by July 1st 2019) and a raft of proposed changes under the Healthy Homes Bill addressing heating, ventilation, insulation, moisture ingress, drainage and draft stopping are just some of the changes.

Couple this with ring fencing of tax losses and a Capital Gains working group looking at the possibilities of Capital Gains Tax on investment properties and there is a fair amount for property owners to digest.

There is also discussion about regulation of the industry thanks to some rogue landlords. Duncan believes regulation is definitely the way forward.

Licensing and regulation will help ensure that those involved in residential letting are following the rules and increasing standards right across the industry.

Duncan believes the list of ‘reforms’ which were all passed into law by the Australian Victorian Government in August 2018 may paint a picture of what is to come:

• allowing animals to be kept in rented premises

• allowing renters to make prescribed minor modifications to a rental property

• bolstering security of tenure and ending ‘no fault’ evictions by removing the ‘no specified reason’ notice to vacate and restricting the use of ‘end of the fixed- term’ notices to vacate to the end of an initial fixed term agreement

• establishing a non-compliance register ‘blacklisting’ residential rental providers and agents who fail to meet their obligations

• providing for the early release of bonds with the consent of both parties to the tenancy agreement

• restricting solicitation of rental bids by residential rental providers and agents

• providing for yearly, instead of six- monthly, rent increases

• providing for faster reimbursement where renters have paid for urgent repairs

• enabling automatic bond repayments, which will be available to a renter within 14 days where the parties are not in dispute over the apportionment of the bond

• requiring mandatory pre-contractual disclosure of material facts, such as an intention to sell the rental property, or the known presences of asbestos

• prohibiting misleading or deceptive conduct inducing a person into renting a property.

To contact Duncan for a no obligation discussion regarding the management and compliance of your rental property call 021-850933 or email hawkesbay@ propertyscouts.co.nz

Local technology business tastes success

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It’s been a long time between drinks – eight years to be exact – but after getting as far as a finalist in 2010, the team at Hawke’s Bay Technologies has gone on to take out the Pan Pac 2018 Business of the Year.

The business has evolved from being a reseller and service provider of Ricoh copier machines to becoming one of the region’s leading IT and communications service providers.

Duncan and Amanda Wallace moved from Wellington to Hawke’s Bay in 2007 to start the business and have grown it from four staff to over 20, which now includes a number of high-end IT engineers.

The early days were tough. It was the start of the Global Financial Crisis and Duncan says that although they were working incredibly hard, the business operated on negative cash flow for its first two years.

However, they always had a plan right from the start, and Duncan thinks this has been key to their success: “If you’ve got the plan and the passion and some good advice, you should be ok.”

Still basking in the afterglow of winning the Pan Pac Business Awards 2018 NZME Medium to Large award and then the Supreme Award, we caught up with Duncan to listen to what he considers are the key ingredients to building a successful local business.

You first entered the awards in 2010 and you were a finalist; what did you go away and do to win the overall award eight years later? The business was only about three years old when we first entered and we certainly didn’t have everything we needed to win. We were a finalist in our category and afterwards we listened to the judges’ feedback, then went on to analyse why we didn’t win, what we needed to do differently, and what areas of our business needed attention.

It’s no different to playing sport and you lose and you say, ‘ok, why didn’t we win?’ We analysed our performance and we used it as an opportunity to work out what we needed to do if we entered again.

Since the earlier days, the business has matured. Being a small-to- medium-sized business, we realised that we couldn’t be experts in everything, so we brought in support, mainly with our human resources function and systems and process optimisation. This freed us up to focus on the strategic direction of the business.

 

We now have solid human resources processes such as performance appraisal in place, along with what we need for health and safety documentation and processes. We also have regular business improvement meetings where we are on a constant mission to just do things better.

In entering the Pan Pac Business Awards again in 2018 it was about testing ourselves and seeing how we measured up. We believed that what we were doing was good but we wanted to validate that.

What have been the initial spins-offs since winning the award? The emails and the phone calls have been fantastic; it felt like everyone was celebrating with us, which was really nice.

I’ve been called and asked for advice by senior people on boards around technology decisions. It has been difficult in the past to find appropriately qualified staff but now CVs are turning up on my desk from very competent IT engineers.

We’ve signed up some significant managed IT service business. Some of our customers had been thinking about changing so winning the award helped them realise ‘ok, we think you are doing a good job and that award tells us that you are’.

The business started out as a reseller of Ricoh copiers but technology has evolved rapidly and you’ve changed your business model accordingly, was that easy? Our main reason for change was to make the business more sustainable, relevant and ultimately more profitable. To grow we needed to look at diversification and be prepared for what it would actually cost us.

It was timing for us; we started to pick up some very significant IT contracts and people were starting to talk about us. That was after five years of graft migrating to also be an IT provider. We had to really work on getting the message out there that we not only sold copiers but had a whole new IT services part of our business to offer.

The common theme that is part of our culture has been about delivering, and that our good reputation is everything. Whatever we were getting into, I needed to make sure it was as good or better than what we have done with our traditional business. So that has always been and will continue to be what drives the business. It’s easy to jump in and do something new but you can end up doing it averagely and we were hell bent on that not being the case.

For businesses, what HBT is about is helping our customers to access the information and the tools that enable them to do their job, wherever they are, all the time. And now with the rapid growth in cybercrime, it is imperative we provide a secure IT platform designed with resilience to avoid risk and potential down time.

What have been the challenges in evolving the business? There’s not one thing that sticks out. Technology is a challenge, full stop. We have made mistakes with selecting the wrong vendors to supply certain services for us. You are only as good as the partners you work with.

In the last year we have gone to the market and built some good relationships with very experienced partners in the IT space. We have created an advisory board to help keep us on the right track. These guys are on international software boards, so I’ve gone pretty high level and it has been invaluable.

What’s the future direction of HBT? We are building a national IT network business alliance so that we can provide services throughout New Zealand for customers who have presence around the country or worldwide. The alliance will be offered to other businesses that are Ricoh distributors and service providers.

Our Onekawa premises is also running out of room. It has served us well to date but we will be looking at a building project in the next 12 to 18 months as we look to expand, so we are looking at potential sites at the moment.

How competitive is the IT market? It’s very competitive but with technology moving so fast, there’s always opportunity to bring new things to the table if you understand your customer’s business and where they’re heading.

We certainly now take more of an interest in where our customers are heading business wise and make sure our IT solutions are in line with where they are going, and that helps us guide and enable them to make wise decisions with their technology.

You need to start with the end in mind and with IT, it’s important to make decisions on expenditure now that will be relevant in three years’ time.

What has been exciting about being in the technology space? IT as a whole is super exciting. With experience you look to those things that work and those that don’t and that helps address the customers’ needs. Being a bit older and wiser helps!

What’s an exciting project that you have on the go? The Hawke’s Bay Airport project is pretty exciting. We are managing the technology aspect of the airport’s evolution and have been pretty immersed in the project with them.

We initially talked with the airport at a high level about how they were using technology, especially around security and systems stability. They soon realised that with the expansion and growing passenger numbers, they needed an airport that functioned 24/7 and had total resilience in its IT platform.

How we look at it is that it’s as important as having quality asphalt on the runway – there’s no point having a runway if the foundations are not up to scratch. It’s the same with IT.