10 Cool Companies that rock!

One Chihuahua at a time

ZiwiPeak’s pet food is good enough for humans to eat — and pampered pets are lapping it up.
By Caitlin Sykes

Pet food is probably one of those things you don’t think too much about. But while normally neglected by the rest of us, thinking of pet food has proved smart business for Peter and Kimberly Mitchell.

The Mt Maunganui-based husband and wife are founders of pet food company ZiwiPeak. The company’s dried and canned products are designed to emulate the diet a wolf or big cat would eat in the wild. But at US$105 for a 5kg bag of the company’s dog food, for example, it’s the swelling global ranks of super-pampered pooches and pusses the company is cashing in on.

Managing director Peter Mitchell is a meat industry veteran, and ZiwiPeak is the culmination of his experience and passion for the product — particularly venison.

The Southlander started his career herding deer out of the bush and onto farms in the late 70s. When the country’s second deer-slaughter facility was built in Tauranga, he shifted north and worked in the plant to supplement his deer farming income. “That put me in great stead to understand the product and the opportunities of the industry,” he says.

When he later set up an exporting company, selling meat into the North American and European markets, he became aware of the other 50% of the carcass not available for edible cuts. Thinking about adding value to those leftover bits led to selling ingredients to pet food manufacturers. But supplying raw ingredients made the business susceptible to commodity cycles.

It was then Mitchell saw a niche for an all-meat pet food with no carbohydrate fillers, which was shelf-stable and had all-natural, New Zealand ingredients — fish, mussels, lamb and venison.

With their commodity business still providing cashflow, the Mitchells bought some land in 2001 and set up a small pilot factory (since expanded and now employing 20 staff). They spent the next two years developing their product and IP, used experts to develop the brand and launched in the US market two years ago. “It’s the most advanced market in its sophistication, and the new trends and innovation come out of the US,” says Mitchell.

And the trend is towards spending big money on pets. Lars Wulff, co-CEO of Mud Bay, a chain of 14 health-focused pet stores around Washington state, says projected annual growth in the US natural pet product market over the next four years is around 14%. Products like ZiwiPeak, says Wulff, are increasing in popularity as affluent, educated and health-conscious pet owners realise the same type of carb-loaded diet that’s good for them is not necessarily good for their pets.

ZiwiPeak’s biggest market is North America, where it sells in about 1,200 retail outlets and has its own distribution network. The product is also sold in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Korea, Germany, Austria and Switzerland and will soon be available in Italy and the UK.

Last year the Mitchells sought further investment to help boost ZiwiPeak’s growth plans, and private equity venture Masthead took a 20% stake. Mitchell describes ZiwiPeak as “an eight-digit company, a long way out from being a nine-digit company” but aims for a $100 million annual turnover within five years.

“We joke about conquering the world one Chihuahua at a time,” he says.



The machinery medicos

Digital Insight is the industrial equivalent of a doctor diagnosing a patient, but instead of people it works out what’s wrong with machinery. By Heather Ramsay

A long metal driveway cuts through green pastures where dairy cows graze on lush grass. Cloud-capped Mt Taranaki looms large behind a low-slung corrugated iron shed in a peaceful, bucolic scene that’s repeated a hundred-fold throughout Taranaki. However, this particular shed isn’t for animals, hay, or even farm implements.

Far from it. The unimposing building is the new home of Digital Insight, a company working at the leading edge of remote digital video inspection. This cost-effective, time-saving diagnostic technology is increasingly used for routine inspections and troubleshooting across a wide range of industries, including oil and gas, dairy, electrical and steam generation, pharmaceuticals and food.

“Think of a doctor doing keyhole surgery,” says founder and CEO Ash Peters. “Our equipment is the industrial version of that.”

Basically, an operator uses a remote control panel resembling a gaming console to manoeuvre small cameras into difficult cavities (think of a skinny videoscope snaking through intestine-like pipes or a miniature Mars Rover-type vehicle carrying a pan-and-tilt camera into the dark belly of a massive boiler).The cameras feed top quality digital images to a monitor instantly, providing material to be collated into a detailed report.

Digital Insight was formed in 1999, prior to which Peters owned a company specialising in engineering for the food and dairy industry. He saw first-hand the money and time wasted by physically dismantling machinery and putting it back together, and decided there must be a smarter way.

“I was also keen to get out of hands-on work and do something more academic, and something that would be more valuable to clients. The base technology for remote inspection existed, but no one had put it together properly for the applications we envisaged.”

That was no barrier for the original three-person Digital Insight team. Using the Kiwi can-do attitude, cameras were redesigned and modified, guiding systems were designed and built, and appropriate software was developed. Most was, and still is, done inhouse, reflecting the company philosophy of delivering a complete service to the client.

This vision was established before any equipment was even purchased. A thorough business model was drawn up, covering all aspects of how the company would operate.

“We wanted to reduce the cost of doing business with us,” says Peters. “And I don’t just mean the figure on the final invoice. It includes the entire time and effort it takes a client to interact with us. After their initial phone call we take charge of everything from air travel, to customs, equipment, freight, vehicles and accommodation.”

The business model was so solid Digital Insight had a number of clients on the doorstep before it had opened for business. These days 40% of the work is overseas, the staff has grown to nine, and turnover hovers around $2 million. An impressive client list includes General Electric, Shell Todd, Conoco Phillips, Woodside Petroleum, NZ Steel and Fonterra, to name a few.

Shutdowns can cause such industries to bleed millions of dollars per day so when Digital Insight operators arrive there’s often a feeling of relief that help is at hand. However Peters points out it’s not just about saving money; some situations are dangerous and lives can be at stake, too.

People are the cornerstone of the company, according to Peters, and respect for both clients and staff is paramount. Sounds just like what the doctor would order.


Just the blackcurrants

You have to spend time and money building relationships to do business with Japan. By Christine Nikiel

A happy customer is like a boomerang: they keep returning. So while Just The Berries managing director Barry Old may have gulped at having to entertain an 80-strong delegation from Japan for a week in January, he knew it would be a good investment in customer relations.

When the world’s second-largest economy is 90% of your market, it pays to keep relations sweet. For the past three years the small company, which exports blackcurrant extract, has happily hosted groups of staff from one of its bigger Japanese customers, offering tours of its Palmerston North processing factory and Christchurch berry farms, plus a round or two of golf.

“The first year we had only a handful, and last year there were 24, so I’m a bit worried about how many will come next year,” laughs Old. However, all those three-course dinners and buffet lunches are paying off.

Just The Berries forecasts a turnover of $4 million for the 2008 financial year (ending September), up from $3 million last year and $1 million for the previous two years.

The Japanese market is tough in general, and the functional food/nutraceuticals markets even tougher, says Alan Dobson, a veteran of horticultural product marketing in Japan. Customers are quite demanding, and expect their suppliers to build relationships if they want to do serious business.

Several important Japanese doors were opened by Just The Berries general manager and founder Dr Eddie Shiojima, a Japanese expert in nutritional science. The company also teamed up with Japan-based New Zealand horticultural marketing firm Hort Mark, forming in 2004 a three-man Tokyo-based subsidiary, New Zealand Blackcurrant Group, of which Dobson is now president.
The original company, Just The Berries Corporation, was set up in 2000 by the visiting Shiojima, Christchurch blackcurrant grower David Eder and Christchurch businessman Laurence Heath. All three are still directors, while Eder is the company’s main berry supplier.

Just The Berries itself is a joint venture with New Zealand Pharmaceuticals, for which Old has worked since 1983. NZP, owns 75% of the smaller company and its financial muscle has helped Just The Berries, afford the R&D necessary to edge ahead. The blackcurrant extract the company packages into powders, capsules and drinks is sold to the nutraceutical arms of Japanese food ingredients and pharmaceutical companies like food ingredients giant Meiji.

In Japan, purple is becoming the new black in health circles. Blackcurrants contain anthocyanins and antioxidants that are believed to have a range of health benefits.

Shiojima carries out most product development in the company’s US subsidiary, and Old says the company has spent about $2 million on product development over the past three years.

New Zealand-grown blackcurrants are regarded as the world’s best but Old is unconcerned about local competition; other local blackcurrant exporters mostly turn their fruit into concentrates for drinks and jams. Also, the company has devised and refined an extraction method that presses as much goodness from the skin as possible.

In the future, says Old, Just The Berries will target the North American and Korean markets, and experiment with other berry fruit. But for now, its focus is Japan and just the blackcurrants.


Building online

Creating a stronger online presence will help world-leading steel frame company FrameCad Solutions retain its edge. By Fiona Rotherham

Speaking at a Beachheads luncheon, FrameCad Solutions chairman and owner Mark Taylor said “a big part of our future strategy is web strategy. We can reduce the cost of lead generation by 60% by using the web.” But when later interviewed, Taylor was reluctant to detail his web-based plans for competitive reasons. He would add only the company is looking to increase both its global awareness on the internet and its level of customer service.

FrameCad Solutions (formerly Metal Forming Technologies, and renamed so the brand matches the product) is a global leader in light gauge steel frame building solutions.

Taylor already had a company, BonPac, supplying steel worldwide. Ten years ago he set up another based on steel frame commercial and residential development. Steel frame construction can mean a timesaving of 30% on conventional building methods — and time equals money. A recent 929sqm extension of a Dubai hotel was designed, built, fitted out and opened within a record 19 days using FrameCad’s methods.
Some 96% of revenue is derived offshore and Taylor expects exports to double in the next year. It’s primarily focused on emerging markets in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, India and Africa. That global reach has grown the company by an average 50% a year and around 60% this financial year.

The ability to form and punch holes in steel has been around for decades. What FrameCad does differently is offer a custom-built total package — design, manufacture, materials supply and training.

Here’s how it works: FrameCad starts with the architect’s design, taking into account local environmental conditions and building regulations. This information is fed into its clever design, detailing and engineering software and then transferred to the manufacturing plants churning out the steel frames. These are assembled into panels and trusses and transported to the construction site where the builders fit the pieces together — a bit like playing with a Meccano set.

FrameCad manufactures the steel rollformers at plants in Christchurch, Korea, Taiwan and the US. The rollformers are sold for between US$250,000 and US$1 million to customers who set up their own plants to make the steel panels close to their construction sites.

The company runs training academies to teach customers how to run the plants efficiently to get a faster return on their investment (estimated at one year) and how to build properly with steel framing. It even offers a turnkey operation, setting up and running the plants for a specified time.

Part of the strategy for remaining world leader is to spend a whopping 12% of revenue on research and development at its Mt Wellington test facility. “It gives us a competitive advantage,” Taylor says.
FrameCad has 30 New Zealand-based staff and scours the world to hire the best; Nadir Elhaji, a native Lebanese hired from the US to head the company’s new Middle East office is an acknowledged leader in cold-formed steel techniques. His presence adds weight to the company’s sales pitch. “It’s a hard thing when the phone calls start at 6pm. An office in the local time zone will be easier for us and customers,” Taylor says. The company is also opening an office in Australia.

And Taylor’s secrets to success? “Price yourself at a premium, have a clear strategy to market and stick to it.”


Getting interactive

Lumen Digital’s interactive technology is heading from museums and the like to the shop
floor. By Penny Harding

Entry to the high-tech world of Lumen Digital in Wellington’s Dixon Street couldn’t be more low-tech. An arthritic elevator, with gates that have to be hauled shut, grinds up to Lumen’s third-floor offices. But here, light years away, animators, gamers and concept developers are having fun with 3D gaming technology and computer visioning.

Lumen Digital’s business is to bring interactive technology into public spaces, such as museums, galleries and other places where there are stories to tell.

“A lot of what we do I would term interactive theatre,” says creative director Jared Forbes.

The elevator adds its own theatrical touch to the business, as does the high-tech electronic drum kit in the corner of the open-plan office. The kit is evidence of Forbes’s other passion and a reminder of the time he spent playing drums six to eight hours a day, steadfastly refusing to design websites.

“This is possibly the only drum kit you should have in an office, as you can turn the volume down or put headphones on. I have played in several bands.”

Forbes co-founded Lumen Digital three years ago with Chris Hay. Forbes’s background is in interactive media and animation for museums. Hay’s specialty is web development and strategy. Together they worked on a project to provide tourists at Rotorua-based cultural tourism attraction Te Puia with an interactive experience they wouldn’t forget once they got back on the bus. Hay has moved on, and Forbes now handles creative and technical direction at Lumen. He won’t reveal any turnover figures, not even year-on-year growth.

Te Puia was Lumen’s first project and it developed an “active touch surface” for two galleries. In the Think Maori gallery, carved figures come to life and tell their stories. In the Te Whare Tapere gallery, interactive displays explore the marae, the landscape and the music of Rotorua’s Te Arawa people. Tourists can touch surfaces to manipulate steam from a geyser, create wind effects or play one of the musical instruments in a display case. If they’re in the mood, they can ‘jam’ with other visitors.

Lumen produced all the digital media, including the concept, content, animation, video shooting, editing, photography and sound design. “It was designed to snap people out of their tourist point of view — to fill them with a sense of wonder to see the artefacts and surroundings through Maori eyes.”
In September last year, the Te Puia project won an e-culture award at the World Summit Awards. Forbes says the award category is designed to promote traditional cultural beliefs and systems using new technology.

Lumen’s approach might be playful, Forbes says, but it also aims for authenticity. Lumen has seven staff, including Forbes, and he says they’re all gamers at heart.

“We try not to use technology to ‘Disneyfy’ things. We try to use a sincere approach. Pocahontas is ‘Disneyfication’ of culture. It glosses over the true gritty nature of history. We try to keep the rawness of the culture.”

Last year, at the World Tourism Congress and Travel Fair in Tokyo, Lumen created an interactive tabletop for Tourism Australia that showed off Australia’s 16 world heritage sites. “Taking any piece of technology to Japan is a daunting prospect,” Forbes says. He needn’t have worried. People lined up to wave their hands over the table to ‘paint’ aboriginal designs or trigger didgeridoo sounds.

Lumen has also created a walk-on map for Tourism Australia. As visitors step on the map, they trigger visual effects showing natural, indigenous and outback Australian experiences. Their steps create ripples on the sea and leave tracks in the desert sands.

But changes are ahead. Forbes says Lumen is taking its interactive products into the retail industry. He’s chary of saying too much, only that that this includes working on a range of options for the music industry.