BIOZONE International Ltd wins Education Exporter of the Year Award

November 15, 2007

BIOZONE International Ltd, a highly successfully niche publisher of exciting and effective biology resources that was established 20 years ago after a teacher decided to unleash his entrepreneurial side, has won the 2007 Education Exporter of the Year Award.

The Award was presented to BIOZONE International at the New Zealand Export Awards in Auckland on 15 November. Education was one of seven sector awards, with the top prize, the DHL Supreme Exporter of the Year, won by IBEX Group of Companies.

The Export Awards judges said BIOZONE International is an export business that has been established and has grown through the hard work and perseverance of the company’s leadership.

“The nature of the business reflects the industry and the skills of the people involved. These are professional educators and teachers, and the whole organisation is constantly evolving and learning.”

NZTE Chief Executive Tim Gibson congratulated the seven 2007 Export Award winners, describing their achievements as inspirational.

“These companies represent a vibrant mix of successful export businesses; companies that have identified a gap in the marketplace and cultivated their point of difference to produce and distribute quality goods effectively in international markets, using a variety of business models.

“We need to see more New Zealand businesses following their lead and operating internationally in order to increase our global business footprint.

“My congratulations to all the finalists in this year’s Awards and my thanks for your willingness to stand up and stand out among your peers in Export Year. You are inspired and inspiring.”

BIOZONE Managing Director Richard Allan started his career as a secondary school biology teacher but frustration with the quality of resources available for his students prompted him to develop some of his own. Other teachers starting requesting copies and he decided to move into publishing fulltime, setting up BIOZONE initially from his Hamilton home.

By the mid-1990s the small firm had won an 80 percent share of the New Zealand high school market and Mr Allan started exporting.

Australia was BIOZONE’s first export market, and today is among the top three publishers of biology resources in that country.

BIOZONE'S suite of products includes workbooks covering senior biology courses, modular workbooks on selected topics, and CD Roms. Students across the world from South Africa to Canada, Australia to Germany are using its resources, with significant deals for India and Russia in the pipeline.

“The export expansion has been done on a shoestring budget,” said Mr Allan, “by cleverly exploiting teachers’ networks.”

Among the most exciting developments in the past few years has been entry into North America, where a lot of groundwork is now starting to pay dividends.

Mr Allan is also excited about China. Earlier this year the firm signed a cooperation agreement with the People’s Education Press, China’s largest education publisher, which will see an initial run of 100,000 BIOZONE workbooks adapted for the market and translated into Chinese.

BIOZONE has about ten staff in its Hamilton, Australian and UK offices. In New Zealand, content developers include writers (qualified science teachers) and graphics specialists, who produce the material using state of the art publishing equipment.

The books have a very strong visual emphasis, with lots of graphics and annotated diagrams, and Mr Allan said today’s students overstimulated by X-boxes, DVDs and other technology are almost tricked into reading them.

Notes for Editors:

This is one of a series of eight media releases with detail of all seven category winners and the DHL Supreme Award winner.

More information on all of the finalists including images is available at www.exportawards.co.nz

Contact: Richard Allan, Managing Director, BIOZONE, phone 07 8568104, email Richard@biozone.co.nz, www.biozone.co.nz

Distributed by Jennifer Andrewes, Corporate Communications Manager, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, phone +64 4 931 6144, mobile +64 27 228 0261, or email jennifer.andrewes@nzte.govt.nz