Grant Arnold, Adrian Broughton & Shane Horan, Waipapa Pine Ltd
Westpac Northland Business Excellence Awards for 2016 took place at the Forum North on Friday night. Northland businesses submitted 40 entries across 5 business categories, 7 ancillary categories and an overall supreme winner.
Waipapa Pine Ltd was the Supreme 2016 Westpac Northland Business of the Year and was also the winner of the Vodafone Excellence in Business Large Business Award.
The judges said:
The judging panel was unanimous in making the Supreme Award to Waipapa Pine after a short discussion. The scale and complexity of this business and the space in which it operates, the company’s holistic approach to their industry and the people in it, plus their industry leadership and genuine respect for the environment, made this entry shine above the rest.
Tony Collins from the NZ Chambers of Commerce Northland said that it was great to celebrate not only the winners but all entrants for the passion they show to their business aspirations and their pursuit of excellence, the standard continues to get better every year and no matter what the size, structure or nature of the enterprise they were all committed to making their business a success.
The complete list of winners were:
- Northcity Caravans – Piano Hill – winner of the Ricoh Northland Excellence in Micro Business (1-3FTE) Category. (Finalist Sarah Burrows Design)
- Tyrepower Whangarei – winner of the Henderson Reeves Excellence in Business Small Business Awards (4-9FTE). (Finalists were Activ8 NZ Ltd, EchoNorth Diagnostic Ultrasound and Te Hiku Media)
- Unichem Buchanans Pharmacy – winner of the GBC Winstone Excellence in Business Medium Business Award (10-24FTE). (Finalists were Habitat for Humanity and Trigg Construction Ltd)
- Waipapa Pine Ltd – winner of the Vodafone Excellence in Business Large Business Award (25 plus FTE) (Finalists were Ross Insulation Ltd and Airzone Ltd)
- Cadenshae – winner of the Business Coaching New Zealand Best Emerging Business Award. (Finalists were Monster Graphics, Live Wire Media and Mint Floral)
- Habitat for Humanity – winner of the Top Energy Best Not for Profit Organisation Award, Northland Kindergarten Association and Te Hiku Media were finalists in this category
- Te Hiku Media – winner of the Northland Regional Council Sustainable Business Award (Finalists were Waipapa Pine and Habitat for Humanity)
- Airzone Ltd – winner of the ACC Workplace Safety Award. (Finalist Ross Insulation)
- Te Hiku Media – winner of the Creative Northland Excellence in Creative Industries Awards and Mint Floral and Sarah Burrows Design were named as a finalist
- Supacolour – Hot Printz Screenprinting Ltd took out the Northland Inc Innovation Award, established business (the other two finalists were Building & Fire Services (2008) Ltd and Northland Regional Council which as well as naming as a finalist was highly commended by the judging panel)
- Hive took out the Northland Inc Innovation Award, emerging business (Finalists were UV Solutionz Ltd and JP Green)
- Alzheimers Society Northland Inc and Active Attitude were joint winners in the Cavern Home Solutions Judges Choice Award
- Hone Heke Lodge Flashpackers Kerikeri was voted More FM Customer’s Choice Service Provider while Mint Floral Ltd was the More FM Customer’s Choice Retail Provider.
The Northern Advocate Business Hall of Fame inductee this year was Jack Guy in recognition of his contribution to Northland business.
