Our member A-Ward Attachments Ltd recently won the Westpac ‘Best of the Best in Innovation’, which recognises the New Zealand’s Overall Innovator of the year and Milmeq Ltd the Supreme Business Excellence award.
A-Ward Attachments Ltd
A-Ward CEO and also HERA Executive member Simon Ward says “This award is special because our business fundamentally thrives on the thrill of innovation for continuous improvement of operations and is testament to A-Wards team of loyal, committed and hardworking employees.”
When asked what set A-Ward apart from the others vying for the award, Simon Ward responds “We never stop to admire the view or wait and see what the competition are doing. Every part of our business screams innovation, from the office layout, to snap compulsory five minute meetings to open discussions around a new idea.”
Having just celebrated their 15th anniversary, A-Ward provides solutions for the scrap processing, demolition and bulk material handling industries. Exporting to 49 different countries and established firmly in the United Kingdom, their focus has been keeping up with the rapid demand being generated in the South American market by the booming Brazilian and Chilean economies.
“Some of our largest export sales have been to Brazil, Chile, Canada, United States, France, Kazakhstan, Russia, Japan and Thailand,” explains Simon.
“We have recently employed an International Sales Manager to deal with increasing international demand. We are currently in the throes of recruitment for another senior role as an operations executive as our production grows,” explains Deborah.
Milmeq Ltd
HERA member Milmeq who was named winner of Supreme Business Excellence award and the Excellence in Exporting award at the Westpac Business Awards Best of the Best 2014 last month.
Receiving the supreme award is recognition of the company’s innovation and quality engineering systems for primary food handling, materials handling and chilling and freezing operations globally.
Mike Lightfoot, CEO of Milmeq Ltd, had this to say, “Successful exporting means being adaptable, being exceptionally innovative and looking after relationships.”
“If there is any advice I can offer to companies looking at growing their business through exporting, it would be to monitor the pressure this can take on your team. We try to manage opportunities with the resources we have. You have to grow as you can afford to: It can’t be at any expense.”
