Best business under $10m

Canary Enterprises has successfully taken New Zealand butter out of the commodity basket and up the value chain, supplying high quality products to clients across Australia, the Pacific, Asia and the Middle East.

“We were set up in 2001 to manufacture value add butter products specifically designed to offer functional benefits to our customers,” says Director Derek Bartosh.

Core butter products include medallions and rosettes, pastry butter sheets, ingots and bricks, flavoured butter and clarified butter. The company also produces a range of portion controlled non-butter products for use as ingredients by companies such as chicken processors.

Two years ago the company moved into a new, purpose-built factory giving it much greater production capacity. It has invested significantly in leading-edge machinery; most of the plant it uses to produce its products has unique IP developed in-house.

Canary exports to 13 markets directly, and through third parties into a further six, with several new markets being added annually. Clients range from airline caters and 5-star hotels to bakeries, retailers and traders.

Mr Bartosh says the company enjoys excellent customer retention and consistent sales growth.

“One of the keys to our international success is a commitment to spend time in market with each customer and distributor.

“This provides us with visibility, demonstrates commitment to the market, and allows us to learn what the market is seeking. We visited one customer for four successive years before they had the confidence that we were serious about their market and finally awarded us a contract.”

Another strength is Canary’s ability and willingness to tailor products to the customer’s specific requirements.

“We are also constantly working with customers to develop new products and refine existing products. This included developing a range of butter/margarine blend products at the time when dairy prices were very high and out of the reach of some markets.”

This company is also a finalist in the Best use of design in international business category.
 
www.canarybutter.co.nz

Ongoing innovation and a supply chain that enables fast and flexible reaction to consumer demand are resulting in rapidly growing international sales for Invercargill firm Essential Resources.

Co-owners Nicola Smith and Geraldine Sloane started the business in 2001, and describe themselves as an innovative educational publisher of supplementary teaching materials. They live, eat, breathe, sleep and dream about making teachers’ lives easier.

The pair started exporting to Australia in 2003, expanding into the United Kingdom two years ago. Today exports account for about 60 percent of sales, says Managing Director Nicola Smith.

The company sells a large product range of 300-plus primary, secondary and pre-school resources, in both printed and ebook formats. On-demand printing enables effective stock management. By operating a fully integrated operation, from print through to despatch, the company is able to maintain tight control throughout the value chain.

Ms Smith says international sales are made via direct marketing to teachers. This means Essential Resources can build close relationships with its customers, enabling it to quickly understand and respond to their needs.

 “Our customers all want interesting and relevant support resources to help them focus on the job of teaching and education. This underpins our business. We produce 60-plus new releases each year, ensuring our range of publications remain abreast of educational trends and are always relevant to teachers.”

Staff regularly attend international trade shows to promote products and the Essential Resources brand. The shows provide opportunities to tap into new trends in teaching and curriculum delivery, to network with potential authors and educational advisors, and to identify new export markets.

“As well as developing our existing export business, we see significant opportunities to expand into markets where English is an additional language, including Hong Kong and Singapore, India, South America and Europe.”

This company is also a finalist in the Most innovative approach to international business category.

www.essentialresources.co.nz

Since its beginnings in 2006 when it sold its first pot of honey, Manuka Health has enjoyed explosive growth, today selling over 70 nutraceutical, supplement and medical device products to more than 40 markets.

Chief Executive Kerry Paul says the company is recording sales growth of about 50 percent annually, achieved through the rapid deployment of an international distribution network.
 
He says Manuka Health focuses on providing consumers with natural solutions to maintain their health, or to restore their health.

“Each of our products contains a lead compound which has been shown by scientists to be effective in a clinical situation – methylglyoxal in manuka honey is effective for bacterial infections, and caffeic acid phenethyl ester in propolis is effective for blocking the growth of some tumors. Our strategy is to demonstrate unequivocally that our products deliver health benefits to our customers.”

He says marketing material highlights New Zealand’s unique position among developed countries – a ‘clean, green’ image based on natural organic bee-harvested products. More than 90 percent of products are exported, sold through its distribution network primarily into pharmacies and health stores.

“We operate in the functional food and dietary supplement categories, and are now opening new sales channels in the medical market as we launch products designed to restore customers to normal health.”

Mr Paul says Manuka Health employs almost 30 permanent staff in marketing, processing, warehousing and in a bee-keeping operation in which it has invested. Staff are local employed, mainly in the rural towns of Te Awamutu and Masterton.

“In our first three years of business we have successfully achieved our aim of building a profitable business generating positive cashfow. This is the platform from which we will launch our new generation of nutraceutical and medical device products capable of helping people overcome adverse health conditions.”

www.manukahealth.co.nz

With more than 180 banks already contracted to its technology, M-Com is a global leader in mobile banking and mobile payment solutions and is set to have tens of millions of consumers around the world using its software.

“Our growth metrics are looking very encouraging, Our revenues and staff numbers doubled last year and both metrics are set to double again this year.” says M-Com’s Chief Executive Officer Adam Clark.

“We have a majority market share in Australasia, and are on track to achieve the same in the United States – where our partner has a 40 percent share of the 14,000-odd financial institutions.”

“On the strength of that leadership position, we have made excellent progress in a number of key territories within the emerging markets where banks are demanding the same robust, scalable solutions. We now have live deployments on all five continents,” says Clark.

Established in 2000, M-Com spent its first few years developing its intellectual property, and then started commercially selling that IP.

“We are unique in that we offer software product, not software development services. This means all intellectual property collated from customer deployments is owned by us and reused to extend our product advantage. It also lowers the business risk for banks looking to use our software.”

Mr Clark says M-Com can lay claim to many other world first innovations, among them real-time credit card payments by mobile phone, and being first to offer an ASP platform that supports thousands of banks from one single software instance, and that ‘on-boards’ a new bank within 30 minutes.

“Our enterprise grade mobile banking and payment platform, BankAnywhere, is internationally recognised as having the broadest reach, largest solution-set and most comprehensive set of deployment options available to successfully take mobile banking and payment services to market.”

This company is also a finalist in the Most innovative approach to international business category.

www.mcom.co.nz

Mobile Mentor has helped almost 200,000 customers worldwide get to grips with their mobile phones in the past six years, achieving export sales worth millions of dollars.

The Auckland company works in partnership with mobile operators or directly with individuals or companies, providing personalised mentoring and mobile support services to help them effectively and efficiently use their mobile phones so they avoid the frustrations and get the productivity benefits immediately.

“The mobile industry has grown into a trillion dollar business over a relatively short period of time and business customers increasingly rely on their mobile device for their immediate communication needs and less on their desk phone and PC,” explains Chief Executive Denis O’Shea.

“However, optimising the user experience has not always been a priority and today millions of high end mobile users are literally fumbling with their mobile devices as they struggle to keep up with the rate of change in technology.

“We address this gap by focusing on the last three feet of the mobile industry – one to one with the customer. Individuals can receive personal mentoring and support in their own home or office, or over the phone, delivered by a certified ‘mentor’.”

Mobile Mentor is selling its services in Australia, China and Brazil, establishing partnership agreements with some of the leading mobile operators in those markets. Since 2004 the company has mentored almost 200,000 busy business people, says Mr O’Shea.

“Our personalised mentoring is deigned to understanding and meet their specific needs. Feedback is strictly monitored to ensure we are constantly developing our services to meet customer requirements.

“As a result of our comprehensive systems and processes, we have been able to increase the volumes of customers mentored month on month, while still maintaining an extremely high customer satisfaction rating.”

This company is also a finalist in the Best use of design in international business category.

www.mobile-mentor.com

An earth to glass commitment to quality has helped the family-owned and operated Mount Riley Wines Ltd grow international sales by around 30 percent annually since 2004.

The Marlborough company, which started out producing their wines in a cooperative facility using contract labour, now owns 300 acres of vineyard, has built its own winery and directly employs more than 30 staff at harvest. It sells around 120,000 cases of Sauvignon Blanc annually, produced from its own grapes and grapes sourced from local contract growers.

International sales have grown rapidly since Mount Riley Wines started exporting in 1996, says Managing Director John Buchanan, even during the global economic downturn.

He says 70 percent of production is now exported to 23 markets, each with differing needs.

“In the United States, for example, we supply a California based supermarket chain which has a distinct laid back surfer culture, while in Asia we sell to top end hotel chains, including the Hilton in China. Our strategy varies to meet the needs of each individual market. We work very closely with our distributors and believe that gives us an edge over our competitors.”

In order to compete among much larger wineries, Mr Buchanan says Mount Riley Wines targets customers who have a relatively high disposable income, are willing to pay for quality wine, have an interest in wine, and desire close connections with the place and people behind the wine brands they choose.

“We meet that desire in the way we market and sell our product. We include quotes from our staff and business partners in our brochure. Our tasting notes tell stories from our people about our wines, for example that you can taste Mount Riley 30,000 feet up on British Airways business class and at Scott Base in Antarctica. We also run in-store tastings and keep our cellar door open all year round in order to build that direct connection with our customers.”

www.mountriley.co.nz

Yacht Lifeline is carving out a lucrative niche in the global superyacht industry, supplying high quality, bespoke, remote emergency medical services for luxury vessels as they cruise the world.

“We aim to provide customers with the best possible clinical outcome in the event of a medical emergency,” explains Chief Executive Ross Goldsack.

The company’s service ranges from medical kits, medication and inventory management to 24/7 access to doctors and nurses by phone, advanced medical training for captains and first officers, remote diagnosis, and infirmary design for the largest superyachts.

International sales have more than trebled since the company opened a United Kingdom business in 2007 to cater for the European market, and more recently the Middle East. The company also has representatives in Spain, and will shortly have someone on the ground in the south of France. 

To grow its share of the market, Yacht Lifeline is focusing on new yacht builds, establishing relationships with skippers, designers and project managers at the build stage.

“Our core target audience is skippers who put a premium on the health and safety of their owners, guests and crew,” says Mr Goldsack. “They are often sailing in remote places and can get into situations where lives are at risk, so they need to be prepared for any medical emergency event.”

He says Yacht Lifeline’s competitive advantage is built around superior service, and, most importantly, approaching the delivery of all its services from an ‘in the field perspective’.

“The founders of the business are ex-Special Services paramedics, highly skilled in delivering emergency medical services in some of the most remote and dangerous places on the planet. They know what the most likely medical events will be and have designed kits and associated services to meet those needs.”

Recently the company launched ‘Flight Life’, offering a similar service to the commercial and private aviation sectors.

www.yachtlifeline.com