Kia ora and chur - my name is Potaua and I operate Tangatawhenua.com, a site dedicated to telling Maori stories and exchanging Maori news, views and opinions online.
We’ve been around since 2003 and have built a community of over 6000 members. Along the way we have developed an online e-panui (newsletter) called RANGIKAINGA (meaning Celestial Blessings) which is Maori news straight to your In-box.
Google Aotearoa
We also led the team to develop Google Maori, an te reo Maori language tool with Google. This generated world wide buzz and we are currently in talks to create new IT projects - more soon.
Heading up HighlyPalatable.com, Jan Willoughby says - I’m A passionate New Zealander who wants to play a part in a global marketplace showcasing our country, culture, food and wine and interacting with the world through meaningful exchange of shared human experiences.
Mentoring and building tourism business capabilities, identifying and developing new unique and authentic New Zealand products/experiences appreciated for/by a new consumer that cares about quality and sustainability.
What makes Highly Palatable Made From New Zealand?
Being born in New Zealand and spending over 21 years of working in NZ’s tourism, I consider myself fortunate to enjoy a career in the world’s most dynamic industry and travelling the world promoting New Zealand - the best country on earth. Working in many of NZ’s regions, travelling from the far North to the bottom of the South Island and meeting enthusiastic passionate New Zealanders telling their story… being able to promote the myriad of flavours, sights and products from our land, that truly express our unique identity.
While the global economy stutters, the team at Huffer are making an effort at reviving retail therapy for the jaded US shopper by shaking up the West Coast of the USA; citizens take heart - Huffer has landed!
From humble beginnings in 1997, founders Steve Dunstan and Dan Buckley have been building up a global streetwear brand that reflects their art-inspired fashion sense. “We wanted to create a culture and a business that’s fun to be in, and we have, - we got this business that is super fun to be at – we crank work hard but its just so much fun – its not much like work at all” said Buckley. They’ve succeeded in creating an inspirational environment and a gang of people around the world who believe in Huffer and love the thought of going to work every day in the Huffer world.
Stores in Japan, and Australia already feature Huffer styles, but the guys knew cranking the lucrative US market would really make them a global force. So far it’s been a two-year process, with Dunstan basing himself in the US to sell in the range. “We’ve got a good gang in the US as well,” said Buckley. “They really believe in what we’re doing and have taken ownership of the brand – it’s not just ‘work’ for them either, our mate wiLL – he’s just a good guy, hes in L.A and its just a pleasure to work on projects with him.”
Teaming up with Willard Ford and his 722 Figueroa showroom has helped Huffer understand the vast US market, and how their unique design style can make an impact. “People who like fashion, and modern stylized brand-based thinking can be opinionated – they’ll either love Huffer or love something else ,” said Buckley. “hopefully we offer up some hot idea’s, identity and fresh products.”
Expanding into the US hasn’t been an easy road. “It’s a bit like surfing,” said Buckley, “you start off, have a few wobbles, fall off the board, find your feet and get the hang of it. right now we have caught a couple of waves, wiped out once or twice (luckily we are pretty good at holding our breath) and we are hoping to get straight up barrelled sometime soon, pop out, and then just smash the lip.” It’s not something that can be done from New Zealand, hence Dunstan’s drive for sales on the ground in the US. “You’ve got to have confidence and back yourself,” he said. “You can get in the door, so once you’re in, you need to show you can do it.” Selling in a little under USD$100,000 worth of Huffer isn’t bad for the first shipment, which is hitting US stores as you read this.
Huffer are also joining the e-commerce world, with the launch of the online Huffer store on the 14th of November. “It’s just like opening a new store,” said Buckley, who is in love with the internet. It’s not the first time they’ve dabbled online, but they’ve learned valuable lessons from previous attempts. “We’re growing the business and giving customers options,” said Buckley. “We’re also conscious about working with our retail partners to get the best outcome, we are very conscious of the fact that great business is a growing business, and not a changing one. we intend to have our web presence continue to be the compliment to our wholesale business that it always has been, we are working on all of our existing business partnerships, so as they grow and prosper.”
The team are already selling in their second range to US buyers and are confident their unique Huffer style will win the hearts of discerning shoppers. “Raw sophistication is a good explanation for what we do,” said Buckley.
Just what the world needs.
The Bro’s at Huffer have given us 10 Huffer T-shirts to give away. All you have to do to be in the draw to win one of these sweet tees is to give Huffer some love on their Made From New Zealand profile Winners will be announced next week.
New Zealand’s small business start-ups will increasingly rely on the internet to grow. That’s the prediction from the co-owner of new multi-channel media publication Start-Up.
Founder Patrick MacFie, who founded the company StartUp Media, says while Start-Up began with the purpose of informing New Zealand’s ever-growing community of web based start-up businesses; the need to educate the wider small business community about the value of the web has provided an opportunity broader the focus of the business.
“Around 50 percent of small businesses use the web to promote their business companies but only a small percent of those have the ability to perform transactions from their website. So for many their website simply exists as an online ‘brochure’. This is something that needs to be addressed if our small businesses, especially exporters, are to achieve international recognition,” says Patrick.
Patrick says that moving more of your business online is simply about understanding the possibilities of thethe web offers.
“The web can help lower costs in areas such as organisational efficiencies and customer support. With the global credit crunch affecting the bottom line of many businesses there is an incentive is there to seek smarter, cheaper solutions, which the web can provide. For example, the overheads involved in running your business through the web are minimal when compared with a physical store,” he says.
The challenge for many start-ups is creating a sustainable business.
“Overseas investors always remark on New Zealand’s fantastic small business innovation; however the challenge is to turn this innovation into high quality businesses that can mix it in the international market,” says Patrick.
The success of this business model is typified by companies such as Ponoko.com. Ponoko allows people to design their own products online, then produces and ships their individual creations out to them or sells them on the Ponoko website.
Another example is Small Worlds, which produces virtual worlds (similar to Second Life) which people can customise and share with their friends. They are currently in talks with Disney Corporation.
The challenge for many start-ups is creating a business that is sustainable beyond the initial start-up period.
“Overseas investors always remark on New Zealand’s fantastic small business innovation; however the challenge is to turn this innovation into high quality businesses that can mix it in the international market,” says Patrick.
Start-UP has quickly become the first world in New Zealand's online business sector
Start-Up is currently producing a TV reality documentary to screen on TV1. It follows an online business from its conception with ato its goal of goal to launching it in Silicon Valley in America. The purpose of the show, from Start-Up’s perspective, is to illustrate how purpose is to assist the company in becomingbecomes globally competitive, through connecting them with influential New Zealand business people, and at the same time show highlighting how other businesses how they toocan also can achieve success online.
Patrick offers five tips for those starting a new business venture online:
1. Identify a legitimate vacuum in the market. There is no point looking to go head to head with the likes of TradeMe unless your idea is truly revolutionary.
2. Aim to make your product grow organically through building a strong customer following. This is about achieving viral or word of mouth endorsement. People are likely to discuss something that meets a previously un-met need.
3. Validate. Validate everything about your business, especially the end product or service. Get your prospective customers involved from the development phase so that your first generation of actual customers receive a product that they can rave about.
4. Can you sell it? New Zealand has great ideas but lack in the ability to sell them. Many people and products are vying for attention online, so you need a strong sales strategy to make your product stand out.
5. Don’t be afraid to embrace social media. Your staff and customers will most likely already be engaging with blogs, RSS feeds and products reviews and ratings. Trying to ignore social media, as not relevant for your business\ is the biggest online marketing mistake you can make.
Start-UP produces a bi-monthly magazine and online resource for small businesses. They are also producing a reality documentary series, Start-Up TV which will air on TVNZ later this year. You can visit them at www.start-up.co.nz
In 2004, artist Rona Ngahuia Osborne, designer Dan Mace, and Lindsay Mace, business manager extraordinaire, joined forces and launched Native Agent’. Since then their business has grown steadily and has something of a cult following.
Native Agent’s flagship store is situated in the creative suburb of Kingsland.
Best known for their own brand of exquisitely crafted cushions, quilts and clothing, the store also showcases some of the best design, art, fashion, music and culture New Zealand has to offer.
Central to Native Agent’s aesthetic is the creative handiwork of designer and artist Rona Ngahuia Osborne. Inspired by the meeting of Maori and Pakeha cultures in New Zealand’s colonial past, she creates woollen blankets, cushions, linen and clothing that have won a place in many hearts, and homes.
In 19th century New Zealand, Native Agents were representatives of the crown. They were fluent in the Maori language and therefore able to advocate for and assist Maori with land transactions and other matters of law. Osborne’s partner Dan is a descendant of a Native Agent, and this title seemed an appropriate name for their new venture, an agency where the best ‘native’ New Zealand design could be showcased to the world.
Osborne’s work is rich in symbolism, weaving together stories that reflect her family’s history, stories of the blending of bloodlines and the coming together of many people.
Woollen blankets were common items of trade between European settlers and Maori, so it is fitting that they form the foundation for many of Osborne’s works. She adorns them with layers of shape, colour and iconography representative of New Zealand’s cultural history and symbols of the natural world.
Many of the defining themes in the work that Osborne creates as Native Agent make historical references to land struggles that led to conflict and war, the trading of muskets and blankets for land, and the extinction of native flora and fauna. These struggles are as relevant today as they were at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
The work created as Native Agent has a profound resonance that speaks of Aotearoa’s combined histories, wild places and people. These stories add to our sense of identity and capture something of the unique place we call home.
LoanMeOrOwnMe is a unique business offering which is part of a growing trend in other countries known as ‘Fractional Ownership’. LoanMe or OwnMe has been developed as a model & brand to grow and expand it’s offerings in New Zealand and other markets, the fashion and leather category represent the largest product sector in the luxury goods market. Of the fashion industry, handbags represent $70 million per year in the U.S market alone and is the fastest growing product in the industry. The global concept of fractional ownership (leasing or renting luxury goods or services) is a growth market with an average of $22,000 USD spent by Gen. X & Baby Boom segments.
We source all of our stock outside NZ to ensure we offer unique, desirable products that are otherwise not available in NZ, our point of difference is that the bags are pretty much all for sale - so if someone falls in love with a bag and the price is acceptable they can buy it! And of course the sale values are market values and are automatically re-calculated every time a bag returns from Loan.
Made From New Zealand chatted with Corin Dann bright and early this morning on TVOne’s NZI Business show about building a global business community thats connected and gets noticed internationally. We see Made From New Zealand as as a key piece of infrastructure for growing a sustainable global New Zealand business community. Check out the video on the TVNZ site or Below. Thanks Corin.
Paihia Taxis & Tours Limited is,as far as we know, the only company of its kind that runs its vehicles on 100% Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO), known locally as “Geoff’s Gourmet Gas” and is not to be confused with biodiesel We operate what is known as “The Paihia “it’s not a HYBRID, it’s a FRYBRID” shuttle, “Geoff’s Gourmet Gas” is simply Waste Vegetable Oil which is collected on a regular basis from local chip shops and restaurants, cleaned and filtered down to 5 microns in Paihia Taxis & Tours Limited’s own (waste vegetable) oil refinery then used as fuel in 2 Toyota shuttle/tour vans.
Paihia Taxis & Tours Limited, are committed to “doing their bit” to try to keep their part of New Zealand clean and green and to attract more environmentally concerned tourists to New Zealand’s Winterless North. Paihia Taxis & Tours Limited is literally a “mom and pop” business with Geoff and Naomi doing everything that needs to be done.
The 2 Toyota vans, used in the business, have now been converted to run on 100% WVO. The conversion kit was invented by 2 enterprising young individuals in Whangarei who were supplied with free oil while testing the kit in one of their own vehicles. The arrangement was that if the kit worked, and it did, then Paihia Taxis & Tours Limited would be their first customer, and they were. The first conversion, on a 1999 Toyota Hiace, was done in December 2007 and the vehicle has done well over 15000 km on 100%WVO since that time. The van averages 8.5 km per litre which has meant a saving of some 1760 litres of diesel and, assuming $1.20 per litre, a saving of over $2,100.00 in fuel costs. The second van, a 2003 Toyota, has now been converted and the company is now, in effect, energy self sufficient as far as its vehicles are concerned. Geoff collects the dirty oil, cleans it and puts it in the 1000 litre storage tank until it is required. The company has an increasing demand for its surplus oil, which is sold to regular customers in Whangarei for $0.70 per litre plus GST, and which causes periodic “peak oil” problems of its own!
Paihia Taxis & Tours Limited see their switch to 100% WVO as one of two major changes that have been made during the past year. The second one is in the area of “trees.” The company is experimenting with growing 2 types of trees. One is known as “the miracle tree” because of its many beneficial properties, not least of which are the oil content of its seeds, which is food grade and can be used as biofuel after being used for cooking, and (the seed) can also be used as a water purifier. The University of Leicester has set up a complete water purifying system in the African country of Mali, using the seeds from “the miracle tree.” The second is known as “the diesel tree” because its oil can be used as an alternative to diesel and the seed cake makes very good fertiliser. The “diesel tree” is also a “Nitrogen fixing” tree which is beneficial to the environment.
Both trees are susceptible to frost, but can survive “light” frosts, which is why it is hoped that they will grow successfully in Northland, New Zealand’s “Winterless North.” There are vast tracts of land in Northland which, if the trees survive Winter, could be planted with both species. The benefits from the trees would be enormous. There would be carbon credits for a start followed by the harvesting of the leaves and fruit (seeds),all of which are edible, from “the miracle tree” and the seeds from “the diesel tree.” The beauty of both species is that they can be harvested every year without being cut down, unlike the case with Pine trees, and the land owner doesn’t have to wait 30 years for a return. The other benefits would be a reduction in the importation of cooking oil and diesel fuel thereby helping to reduce New Zealand’s astronomical overseas debt.
Paihia Taxis & Tours Limited hope that, as a result of their total switch from fossil fuel (diesel) to 100% Waste Vegetable Oil and their ability to custom design programmes/tours, they will become the Northland transport provider of choice for corporate travel incentive companies and conference groups.
Our latest endeavour is investigating alcohol as a fuel. Geoff attenede an Eco conference in Taupo recently where he heard and met David Blume, author of “Alcohol Can Be A Gas.’ David came to Kaikohe and spoke to a packed hall of some 140, holding them spell bound with his examples of how alcohol cannot only fuel vehicles locally and sustainably, but also benefit the environment by reducing green house gases and the use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers and helping to eliminate the use of GM seeds. A visit to “www.permaculture.com” will be very enlightening. We are becoming an importer/distributor of the book “Alcohol Can Be a Gas”
Scott Unsworth started selling his Performance Speedsuits out of his Toyota Corolla back in 1992. Word got around about the performance, flexibility and buoyancy of the wetsuits and pretty soon there was demand from triathletes all around the world. In 1995 he launched the Orca brand, which can now be found in over 30 countries around the world. While Orca is still regarded as one of the top triathlon wetsuit brands, we also make triathlon apparel, cycle and swimming gear, and general run/fitness apparel. We sponsor world champion triathletes, cyclists, free divers, kayakers and a guy who swam the length of the Amazon.
What makes us “Made from New Zealand”.
The Orca business was started in New Zealand and it’s CEO Scott Unsworth still owns and runs the company. We have an office in Auckland that looks after global marketing and sponsor New Zealands and athletes.
The Company’s principle is to operate with utmost integrity at all times, whilst ethically adhering to a win-win philosophy.
Central to the mission, is the reinforcement of New Zealand’s distinguished position in motoring, by marketing an outstanding supercar capable of delivering the drive of dreams for its owners, and profitable returns for the Company’s investors.
In the first year, an initial global sales target of 10 cars has been set. The directors believe, given the HULME supercars unique design and performance capabilities, a global sales target of 30 cars per year is achievable, though options are in place to cover both lower and higher volumes.
This New Zealand story is based on the podium glory of Kiwi motor racing greats Denny Hulme, Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon, which is today continuing with the success of Scott Dixon and the New Zealand A1 Grand Prix team.
New Zealand has a reputation for excellence and achievement disproportionate to its size, as witnessed not only in motor racing but also in a wide field of endeavours. A New Zealander led the team that first split the atom, scaled to the top of Mount Everest, directed the Oscar winning “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, plus the latest internationally acclaimed film, “The World’s Fastest Indian”, that embodies New Zealanders “can-do” attitude. A New Zealand team twice won the America’s Cup, and we have top golfer Michael Campbell as U.S. Open Champion following in the footsteps of Sir Bob Charles.
New Zealand is a boutique participant in world markets, ideally positioned to provide the quality and exclusivity that are desired in the select world of supercars.
